About August 17
August 17, 2025 is the 229th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 136 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Sunday.
You can browse the full year calendar in case you need it.
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Leo is the sun sign of a person born on this day. Peridot is the modern birthstone for this month. Diamond is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 184 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
What Happened On August 17
- 1807 –Robert Fulton’s North River Steamboat leaves New York City for Albany, New York on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.
- 1863 –American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter.
- 1864 –American Civil War: Battle of Gainesville – Confederate forces defeat Union troops near Gainesville, Florida.
- 1908 –Fantasmagorie, the first animated cartoon, created by Émile Cohl, is shown in Paris.
- 1915 –A Category 4 hurricane hits Galveston, Texas with winds at 135 mph.
- 1915 –Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Marietta, Georgia, United States.
- 1943 –World War II: First Québec Conference of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King begins.
- 1943 –World War II: The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission.
- 1943 –World War II: The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. Patton arrives in Messina, Italy, followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.
- 1947 –The Radcliffe Line, the border between Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan is revealed.
- 1953 –Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California.
- 1959 –Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, the much acclaimed and highly influential best selling jazz recording of all time, is released.
- 1959 –Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Yellowstone earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana.
- 1969 –Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage.
- 1980 –Azaria Chamberlain disappears, probably taken by a dingo, leading to what was then the most publicised trial in Australian history.
- 1982 –The first Compact Discs (CDs) are released to the public in Germany.
- 1988 –Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.
- 1999 –A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes İzmit, Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.
- 2004 –The National Assembly of Serbia unanimously adopts new state symbols for Serbia: Boze Pravde becomes the new anthem and the coat of arms is adopted for the whole country.
- 2009 –An accident at the Sayano–Shushenskaya Dam in Khakassia, Russia, kills 75 and shuts down the hydroelectric power station, leading to widespread power failure in the local area.
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