Just Plain Fun
This Day in History – August 17, 2011
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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. 1846 US takes Los Angeles 1915 Mob lynches Jewish businessman Leo Frank in Cobb County, Ga after death sentence for murder of 13-year-old girl commuted to life 1918 Samuel Riddle buys Man o’War for $5,000 1933 Lou Gehrig breaks record by playing in his 1,308th straight game 1940 FDR & Canadian PM William M King agree to joint defense commission 1943 World War II: First Québec Conference of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King begins. 1950 Hill 303 massacre: American POWs were massacred by North Korean Army. 1953 Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California. 1955 Hurricane Diane, following hurricane Connie floods Connecticut River killing 190 & doing $1.8 billion damage 1958 World’s 1st Moon probe, US’s Thor-Able, explodes at T +77 sec 1959 7.1 quake strikes Yellowstone National Park 1959 Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, the much acclaimed and highly influential best selling jazz recording of all time, is released. 1961 Kennedy administration establishes Alliance for Progress 1962 Beatles replaces Pete Best with Ringo Starr 1962 E German border guards shot & kill Peter Fechter, 18, attempting to cross Berlin Wall into western sector 1969 Hurricane Camille claims more than 250 1970 Venera Program: Venera 7 launched. It will later become the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet (Venus). 1973 Lee Trevino’s 1st hole-in-one 1978 1st manned balloon crossing of Atlantic Ocean (Eagle II) 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 NYC 1st case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (9 year old Bronx boy) 1998 Monica Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an “improper physical relationship” with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the same day he admits before the nation that he “misled people” about the relationship. 2005 Over 500 bombs are set off by terrorists at 300 locations in 63 out of the 64 districts of Bangladesh]]]]> ]]>
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