What happened on August 17 ?

1427 - First band of gypsies visits Paris, according to an account of the citizen of Paris

1807 - Robert Fulton's first American steamboat leaves New York City for Albany, New York on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.

1850 - Argentine War of Independence hero, General José de San Martín, dies in Boulogne-sur-Mer (France), at the age of 77.

1862 - Indian Wars: Lakota (Sioux) uprising begins in Minnesota as desperate Lakota attack white settlements along the Minnesota River. They will be overwhelmed by the U.S. military six weeks later.

1863 - American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter. Bombardment will not end until December 31, 1863.

1864 - American Civil War: Confederate forces defeated Union troops at the Battle of Gainesville.

1877 - Arizona blacksmith F.P. Cahill is fatally wounded by Billy the Kid. Cahill will die the next day, becoming the first person killed by the Kid.

1883 - Dominican Republic the first public performance of the Dominican National Anthem, Quisqueyanos valientes

1914 - World War I: The German army of General Hermann von Francois defeats the Russian force commanded by Pavel Rennenkampf at the Battle of Stalluponen.

1915 - Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Marietta, Georgia.

1918 - Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated.

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 arrive 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.

1945 - Indonesia proclaims itself independent from the Netherlands.

1953 - Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California.

1960 - Gabon gains independence from France.

1962 - East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin. He thus became the first victim of the wall.

1963 - A ferry linking remote islands off the coast of Okinawa sinks, killing 112.

1969 - Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage.

1970 - Venera program: Venera 7 is launched. It will later becomes the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet, Venus.

1978 - Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.

1979 - Two Soviet Aeroflot jetliners collide in mid-air over Ukraine, killing 156

1980 - Azaria Chamberlain disappears, likely taken by a dingo, leading to what was then the most publicised trial in Australian history.

1988 - Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and US Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.

1991 - Wade Frankum starts his killing spree in Strathfield, Australia, an event that was later dubbed the Strathfield Massacre.

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 his relationship.

1999 - A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes Izmit, Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.

2004 - MD5 collision found by Chinese researchers.

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.

2005 - The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts.