August 17
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Events on This Day
1807 - Fulton’s Folly, the Clermont (although it wasn’t named at the time), made its first journey. Robert Fulton’s steamboat traveled between Albany, New York and New York City, a 150-mile journey. The trip took 32 hours.1859 - A hot air balloon became a mail carrier, as John Wise left Lafayette, IN with over 100 letters for people in New York City. Once again, the mail was late, as Mr. Wise only got 27 miles out of town before being forced to land.
1877 - Blacksmith, F.P. Cahill became the first man to be mortally wounded by Billy the Kid -- notch number 1 for the Kid.
1894 - Pitcher John Wadsworth of Louisville gave up 28 base hits, all singles, in a single game. John set a National League and major-league record.
1903 - Joseph Pulitzer made a $2,000,000 donation to Columbia University. This provided the funding for the Journalism School at Columbia. The building opened the next year, and in 1917 the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded.
1915 - Charles F. Kettering of Detroit, MI patented the electric, automobile self-starter. And it’s a good thing he did -- or we’d still be cranking our cars by hand.
1918 - The famous race horse, Man o’ War, was sold at auction for $5,000. Samuel Riddle became the thoroughbred’s new owner.
1938 - Henry Jackson Armstrong defeated Lou Ambers at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Armstrong won the lightweight boxing championship and became the first fighter to hold three titles at one time: The feather, welter, and lightweight crowns.
1939 - Theatregoers first saw the magical The Wizard of Oz in a gala premiere on this night. The first movie to use the combination of black and white and color film, starred Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale; Bert Lahr as both the Cowardly Lion and Zeke; Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow and Hunk; and Jack Haley as both the Tin Woodsman and Hickory. Originally, Buddy Ebsen was in the role of the Tin Man; but he became ill and had to leave the production before its completion. The movie was based on L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which he wrote in 1900 and adapted into a musical play. Directed by Victor Fleming, the Hollywood version took an Oscar for best movie score (Harold Arlen and E.Y. ‘Yip’ Harburg), and for best song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
1942 - Garry Moore hosted a new radio program on NBC. The Show Without a Name was an effort to crack the morning show dominance of Arthur Godfrey (CBS) and Don McNeil’s Breakfast Club (ABC). A prize of $500 was offered to name the show and in March 1943 someone came up with the title, Everything Goes.
1943 - Writer Norman Corwin’s first success debuted on CBS radio. It was Passport for Adams, starring Robert Young who played a small town newspaper editor. Corwin would have many other radio successes. He wrote and produced such radio classics as This is War, An American in England and We Hold These Truths.
1945 - Korea was divided at the 38th parallel. The U.S. occupied the area south of that line. The Soviet Union occupied the area north of that line.
1950 - Indonesia gained its independence from the Netherlands.
1955 - Hurricane Diane, following hurricane Connie, flooded the Connecticut River valley, killing 190 and causing $1.8 billion in damage.
1959 - A 7.1 earthquake struck Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.
1961 - Construction on the Berlin Wall began. The wall, a sturdier version of the barbed wire fence erected on more rural portions of the East German frontier, was supposedly intended to keep Westerners out. In reality, it served to keep East Germans in.
1963 - Dick Hall, a relief pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, retired his 28th batter in a row. Halls’s string of success began on July 24th and covered five games.
1968 - People Got to Be Free, the hit single by The Rascals, rocketed into the top slot on the Billboard record chart, and stayed there for five weeks.
1969 - Hurricane Camille hit the Gulf Coast killing 256 people with 68 persons missing. The storm hit Louisiana, Alabama, Virginia and West Virginia, but showed a particular vengeance for Mississippi.
1976 - A severe earthquake shook the Philippine island of Mindanao. A large tsunami generated by the earthquake resulted in the deaths of more than 10,000 people in coastal communities in the Sulu Islands, North and South Zamboanga, North and South Lanao, North Cotabato, Maguindanao, and Sultan Kudarat.
1977 - The day after Elvis Presley’s death, U.S. President Jimmy Carter issued the following, “Elvis Presley’s death deprives our country of a part of itself. He was unique and irreplaceable. More than twenty years ago, he burst upon the scene with an impact that was unprecedented and will probably never be equaled. His music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture. His following was immense and he was a symbol to people the world over, of the vitality, rebelliousness and good humor of his country.”
1978 - A transatlantic trip by air was not uncommon in 1978, unless you made the trip by hot-air balloon. Three American men had left Presque Isle, Maine six days earlier. After traveling 137 hours, 18 minutes and approximately 3,200 miles, Max Anderson, Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman landed at Miserey, France on this day. The balloon that carried the three for this, the first completed transatlantic flight by balloon, was named the Double Eagle II.
1984 - On this, the first night of his Breaking Hearts Tour, Elton John announced that he was retiring from touring.
1987 - Steffi Graf replaced Martina Navratilova as the number one tennis player in the Women’s International Tennis Association. The 18-year-old had won eight tournaments in 1987, including the French Open.
1987 - Rudolf Hess, the last member of Adolf Hitler's inner circle, died at Spandau Prison in West Berlin at age 93, having apparently committed suicide by strangling himself with an electrical cord.
1990 - Singer Pearl Bailey died in Philadelphia of heart disease. She was 72 years old. Bailey’s only chart hit was Takes Two to Tango, which made the Billboard top-10 in 1952. Her stage, screen and club performances made her one of the most widely-known entertainers of the post-World War II era.
1992 - Actor-director Woody Allen admitted to being romantically involved with Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of Allen’s longtime companion, actress Mia Farrow.
1993 - Allegations of child abuse prompted Los Angeles police to investigate entertainer Michael Jackson. This, after the 13-year-old son of a Beverly Hills dentist told his therapist that Jackson had sexually abused him. Jackson claimed the allegations followed a failed attempt by the dentist to extract 20 million dollars from the singer. No criminal charges were filed against Jackson, but a civil suit was. It was settled out of court in January 1994. Michael Jackson, meanwhile, cancelled or postponed several dates on his Dangerous world tour, citing illness or exhaustion.
1995 - Reports from Islamabad said that Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to climb Mt. Everest without oxygen, had been killed by an avalanche on K-2
four days earlier.1995 - Microsoft bought the rights to use the Rolling Stones’ Start Me Up to advertise the Windows 95 operating system.
1996 - A military C-130 cargo plane carrying gear for President Clinton crashed and exploded shortly after takeoff from Jackson Hole Airport in Wyoming. Eight crew members and a Secret Service employee were killed.
1997 - Davis Love III won the 79th PGA Championship at Mamaroneck, NY. It was his first major title and he finished five strokes ahead of Justin Leonard with a 72-hole total of 11-under 269 (which included 3 rounds of 66).
1997 - The old CN (Canadian National) train station in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, home town of country singing legend Hank Snow, was dedicated as the Hank Snow Country Music Centre. The Centre features personal memorabilia of Nova Scotia’s "native son", including his 1947 Cadillac and pieces from other Canadian country music stars (including Carroll Baker, Wilf Carter, Ronnie Prophet, George Hamilton IV, Lucille Starr). Snow died December 20, 1999 at the age of 85.
1998 - The U.S. Federal Reserve Board approved the merger of NationsBank and BankAmerica.
1999 - More than 17,000 people were killed when a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Turkey, close to the town of Izmit. Tens of thousands of people were injured or killed. No one knows exactly how many.
2000 - Al Gore accepted the U.S. Democratic nomination for president, pledging a “better, fairer, more prosperous America,” in the climactic speech of the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. Shortly before Gore spoke, his running mate, Joseph Lieberman, was nominated by acclamation.
2001 - Movies making debuts in the U.S.: American Outlaws, starring Colin Farrell, Scott Caan, Ali Larter, Gabriel Macht, Gregory Smith, Harris Yulin, Will Mccormack, Kathy Bates and Timothy Dalton; Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, with Nicolas Cage, Penelope Cruz, John Hurt, Christian Bale, David Morrissey, Irene Papas, Piero Maggio and Gerasimos Skiadaresis; and Rat Race, with Whoopi Goldberg, John Cleese, Cuba Gooding Jr, Rowan Atkinson, Jon Lovitz, Kathy Najimy, Seth Green, Breckin Meyer, Amy Smart, Wayne Knight, Paul Rodriguez, Vince Vieluf, Lanei Chapman, Dean Cain and Dave Thomas.
2002 - The billion-dollar Navy destroyer USS McCampbell, completed in July at the Bath Iron Works in Maine, was commissioned in San Francisco, CA.
2003 - Iceland launched its first whale hunt in more than a decade -- in the name of scientific research. The U.S., Great Britain and others opposed to whaling labeled the hunt as unnecessary.
2005 - Supercross opened in U.S. theatres. The motorcycle saga stars Steve Howey, Mike Vogel, Daryl Hannah, Robert Patrick, Aaron Carter, Cameron Richardson, Ryan Locke and Carolyn Garcia.
2005 - The first pullout of settlers from the Gaza Strip began -- as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan.
2006 - A U.S. federal judge ruled that President George W. Bush (II) overstepped his authority when authorizing the National Security Agency to conduct secret wiretapping. Judge Anna Diggs Taylor found that the eavesdropping without warrants violated the First and Fourth Amendment protections of free speech and privacy.
2007 - New films in U.S. theatres: The Invasion, starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam and Malin Akerman; The Last Legion, with Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley, Aishwarya Rai, Thomas Sangster, Rupert Friend, Peter Mullan, Rory James, Lee Ingleby, Owen Tealea and Ferdinand Kingsley; and Superbad, with Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Bill Hader.
2007 - Hurricane Dean tore through the eastern Caribbean islands of St. Lucia and Martinique, ripping roofs from buildings, downing trees and knocking out power. 100 mph winds ruined the entire banana harvest on St. Lucia and Martinique.
2008 - The final race was run at Bay Meadows, San Mateo, CA, after nearly 74 years of thoroughbred horse racing.
2008 - In the Beijing Olympics: Michael Phelps won his 8th gold medal as teammate Jason Lezak brought it home for a world record in the 400-meter medley relay.
2009 - Human Rights Watch reported Iraqi militiamen were torturing and killing gay men with impunity in a systematic campaign that had spread from Baghdad to other cities.
2010 - Canadian officials announced the restarting of a nuclear reactor responsible for production of about a third of the world’s medical isotopes. Atomic Energy of Canada said that after low-power testing on the Chalk River reactor in Ontario proved successful, the 53-year-old facility returned to full power for the first time since a heavy water leak forced it offline in May 2009.
2011 - The United Nations appealed for $1.2 billion to help famine victims in Somalia and its neighbors in the Horn of Africa; Muslim nations pledged to contribute $350 million.
2012 - New movies showing in the U.S.: The Expendables 2, starring Liam Hemsworth, Bruce Willis, Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jet Li, Chuck Norris and Charisma Carpenter; the animated adventure, ParaNorman, featuring the voices of Anna Kendrick, Leslie Mann, John Goodman, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Casey Affleck, Jodelle Ferland, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jeremy Shada, Bernard Hill, Jeff Garlin and Tempestt Bledsoe; Sparkle, with Carmen Ejogo, Mike Epps, Derek Luke, Whitney Houston, Curtis Armstrong, Cee-Lo and Omari Hardwick; Cosmopolis, with Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Sarah Gadon, Mathieu Amalric, Jay Baruchel, Kevin Durand, K’Naan and Emily Hampshire; and Why Stop Now, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Melissa Leo, Tracy Morgan, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Sarah Ramos, Emma Rayne Lyle, Stephanie March and Tanya Wright.
2012 - A Russian judge found three members of the provocative punk band Pussy Riot guilty of hooliganism and sentenced them to two years in jail. The three had been arrested in March 2012 after their guerrilla performance in Moscow’s main cathedral in which they called for the Virgin Mary to protect Russia against Vladimir Putin, who had been elected to a new term as Russia’s president a few days later.
2013 - A German tourist died in Venice after the gondola he was riding in was crushed by a waterbus that was backing up. The widow of the crash victim laid the blame on the waterbus pilot. “It was an absurd situation – we continued to shout from the gondola, but the vaporetto hit us and then pulled out without being aware of what had happened. I cannot understand how they can undertake such manoeuvres without a sailor in the stern, a camera or mirrors that allow them to see what is happening to their rear.”
2014 - A judge upheld a sentence of a month in prison and 50 lashes for a female store owner. What deed did she do, you ask? She was convicted of insulting members of the morality police during an argument. It seems the morality patrol had entered her cafe to check for breaches of morality or other laws, and some of her employees had then run away because they were breaking immigration rules. The woman was found guilty of “cursing the morality police” and calling them “liars.”
2015 - From the What Century Is This Again? Dept: Brothers Nanhe and Gul Hasan beheaded their teenage sister, and carried her head through their village northern India -- because they disapproved of her romantic relationship with a cousin.
2016 - The ferry/cruise ship Caribbean Fantasy caught fire off Puerto Rico’s north coast, forcing the evacuation of more than 500 passengers and crew. Fire fighters were not able to extinguish the fire for three days.
2017 - Usain Bolt won his third consecutive gold medal in the 200 meter sprint, which had never been done before. It wasn’t the world record he said he was trying to set, but it was an eighth gold medal in his final individual event. The Jamaican sprint king blitzed the Rio Olympics field with a lightning start a seamless turn and a powerful finish to come home in 19.78 seconds, beating out Andre De Grasse (20.02) of Canada and surprise bronze medalist Christophe Lemaitre (20.12) of France. More Olympic news of the day here...
2017 - A U.S. appeals court in New York ruled in favor of Uber Technologies in a lawsuit over whether passengers give up their right to sue the company when they register for its transportation service. But can you sue an Uber driver if you’re injured in an accident? Probably. See this article from John Foy.
2018 - New movies in U.S. theatres included: Alpha, with Kodi Smit-McPhee, Natassia Malthe and Leonor Varela; Mile 22, starring Mark Wahlberg, Lauren Cohan and Ronda Rousey; Benched, with Garret Dillahunt, John C. McGinley and Roy Oraschin; Billionaire Boys Club, starring Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey and Taron Egerton; Blaze, with Charles Adams, Edgar Arreola and Charles Barber; Breaking and Exiting, starring Milo Gibson, Jordan Hinson, and Adam Huber; Down a Dark Hall, starring AnnaSophia Robb, Uma Thurman and Isabelle Fuhrman; Juliet, Naked, with Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke and Chris O’Dowd; The Little Mermaid, starring Gina Gershon, William Moseley and Jared Sandler; Memoir of War, starring Mélanie Thierry, Benoît Magimel and Benjamin Biolay; We the Animals, with Raúl Castillo, Josiah Gabriel and Terry Holland; and The Wife, starring Christian Slater, Max Irons and Glenn Close.
2018 - The sales and marketing director of Backpage.com pleaded guilty to conspiring to facilitate prostitution, acknowledging that he participated in a scheme to give free ads to prostitutes in a bid to draw them away from competitors and win over their future business. Dan Hyer was the second Backpage.com employee to plead guilty in cases in which the site (seized by the U.S. government) was accused of ignoring warnings to stop running prostitution ads.
2018 - A leaked internal memo from a Google employee confirmed that more than a thousand Google employees had signed a letter protesting the company’s secretive plan to build a search engine, nicknamed Dragonfly, that would comply with Chinese censorship. (In July 2019, Google announced that work on Dragonfly had been terminated.)
2019 - Oregon police arrested a dozen people and seized metal poles, bear spray and other weapons as hundreds of far-right protesters clashed with anti-fascist counter-demonstrators in downtown Portland.
2019 - Two Texas state troopers killed Schaston Hodge following a short pursuit in South Dallas for failing to use a turn signal. An autopsy later revealed that Hodge had 16 gunshot wounds. Both troopers involved in the shooting were white. Hodge was black. Body-worn camera footage released by the Texas DPS in January 2020 showed Hodge aiming a pistol at the troopers before being killed. In November 2019, a grand jury declined to indict either trooper.
2020 - The Democratic National Convention opened with a virtual program that featured speeches from Senator Bernie Sanders and two former Republican governors. Michelle Obama delivered a passionate condemnation of POTUS Trump during the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, declaring him “in over his head” and warning that the mounting U.S. crises would only get worse if he was reelected instead of former VP Joe Biden.
2020 - A federal judge blocked POTUS Trump’s rolling back of health care protections for transgender people. The judge froze the rollback of Obama-era anti-discrimination protections, citing a recent landmark Supreme Court decision awarding workplace discrimination protections to LGBTQ employees. U.S. District Court Judge Frederic Block halted the new policy one day before it was slated to take effect and admonished Trump for pursuing the change after the Supreme Court ruling.
2020 - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill became the first big university to move in-person classes online after COVID-19 outbreaks. Just one week into the semester, 177 students had tested positive, and hundreds of others were in quarantine because of possible exposure.
2021 - Pacific Gas & Electric began shutting off power to as many as 51,000 customers in 18 northern California counties. It was an effort to prevent wildfires after the historically bad fire season of 2020.
2021 - The ongoing drought across the U.S. West was taking a heavy toll on California’s almond industry. More growers were expected to abandon their orchards as water became scarce -- and expensive. California produced roughly 80% of the world’s almonds.
2022 - The United Kingdom’s inflation rate rose to a new 40-year high of 10.1 percent, with food costs the largest contributor. The Bank of England expected inflation to top out at 13.3% in October.
2022 - A federal judge in Cleveland ordered CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart to pay two Ohio counties $650 million in damages for the pharmacy chains’ roles in the opioid crisis. Eventually (2023), the pharmaceutical chains agreed to pay some $3.1 billion in restitution and damages to many states, and were banned from dispensing opioids to consumers.
2023 - The first WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit began in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. It was held alongside the G20 health ministerial meeting, and was meant to “mobilize political commitment and evidence-based action on traditional medicine, which is a first port of call for millions of people worldwide to address their health and well-being needs.” Pay attention to this stuff -- there might be a test later!
2023 - U.S. 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose above 7% (7.09%) for the first time in 21 years -- April, 2002 -- when it was 7.13%.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day August 17
1786 - Davy Crockett
frontiersman, soldier, defender of the Alamo; killed Mar 6, 1836 at the Alamo1879 - Samuel Goldwyn (Schmuel Gelbfisz)
movie pioneer: the ‘G’ of MGM; Academy Award-winning producer: The Best Years of Our Lives [1946]; All Quiet on the Western Front; died Jan 31, 19741888 - Monty (Edgar Montillion) Woolley
actor: As Young as You Feel, Since You Went Away, The Man Who Came to Dinner; died May 6, 19631893 - Mae (Mary Jane) West
playwright, actress: Sextette, Go West, Young Man, I’m No Angel, Every Day’s a Holiday, Diamond Lil, Sex; actress: She Done Him Wrong, My Little Chicadee, Myra Breckinridge; autobiography: Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It; died Nov 22, 19801906 - Hazel Bishop
chemist who founded the Hazel Bishop company and perfected the first long lasting lipstick; died Dec 5, 19981909 - Larry Clinton
bandleader: Deep Purple, My Reverie, On a Slow Boat to China; composer: The Dipsy Doodle, Satan Takes a Holiday, Tap Dancer’s Nightmare, Dusk in Upper Sandusky; died May 2, 19851919 - Georgia Gibbs (Fredda Lipson or Gibson)
‘Her Nibs’ singer: Tweedle Dee, Dance With Me Henry [Wallflower], Kiss of Fire, Seven Lonely Days; died Dec 9, 20061920 - Maureen O’Hara (FitzSimons)
actress: Miracle on 34th Street, How Green was My Valley, The Quiet Man, The Hunchback of Notre Dame; died Oct 24, 20151923 - Larry Rivers (Yitzroch Grossberg)
artist: 9 Kinds of French Money, The Bike Girl, Downtown Lion, Head of an English Girl, Lenin?, Sky Music at Carnegie Hall, Wounded Civil War Soldier; died Aug 14, 20021929 - Francis Gary Powers
pilot: U-2 flight over Soviet Union; CIA agent; killed in helicopter crash Aug 1, 19771932 - John (Red) Kerr
basketball: Syracuse Nationals, Philadelphia Warriors, Baltimore Bullets; coach: Chicago Bulls: NBA Coach of the Year [1966]; Phoenix Suns; died Feb 26, 20091932 - Duke Pearson
composer, band leader, musician: piano: How Insensitive; died Aug 4, 19801933 - Glenn Corbett Rothenburg
actor: Shadow Force, The Stranger, All the Young Men, Shenandoah, The Violent Years, Route 66, The Road West, It’s a Man’s World, Dallas; died Jan 16, 19931933 - Jim (James Houston) Davenport
baseball: SF Giants [World Series: 1962/all-star: 1962]; died Feb 18, 20161939 - Chico (Ron) Maki
hockey: NHL: Chicago Blackhawks; died Aug 24, 20151941 - Boog (John Wesley) Powell
baseball: Baltimore Orioles [World Series: 1966, 1969, 1970, 1971/all-star: 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971/Baseball Writer’s Award: 1970], Cleveland Indians, LA Dodgers1943 - Robert De Niro
actor: Academy Award-winning actor: Raging Bull [1980], The Godfather II [1974]; Brazil, The Deer Hunter, The Untouchables, Taxi Driver, Awakenings, Cape Fear, Frankenstein, Back Draft, Search for Tomorrow, Stardust; director: Bronx Tale1944 - Larry Ellison
U.S. billionaire, co-founder, CEO of Oracle Corporation1947 - Gary Talley
musician: guitar: groups: Big Star, The Box Tops: The Letter, Neon Rainbow, Cry like a Baby, Choo-Choo Train, I Met Her in Church, Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March, Soul Deep1948 - Bill (William Raymond) Parsons
baseball: pitcher: Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland Athletics1949 - Sib Hashian
musician: drums: group: Boston: More Than a Feeling, Long Time, Peace of Mind, Don’t Look Back, A Man I’ll Never Be, Amanda, We’re Ready, Can’tcha Say [You Believe in Love]1951 - Robert Joy
actor: CSI: NY, Harriet the Spy, Waterworld, Longtime Companion, Big Shots, Desperately Seeking Susan, Atlantic City, Amityville 3: The Demon, The Lawrenceville Stories1952 - Nelson Piquet
Brazilian auto racer1952 - Guillermo Vilas
Tennis Hall of Famer: champ: Australian Open [1978-1979], French Open [1977], U.S. Open 1977]1953 - Kevin Rowland
musician: guitar, singer: group: Dexy’s Midnight Runners: Geno, There There My Dear, Plan B, Celtic Soul Brothers, Come On Eileen, Jackie Wilson Said [I’m in Heaven When You Smile], This One Last Mad Waltz, Until I Believe in My Soul, Because of You1955 - Colin Moulding
songwriter, singer, musician: bass: group: XTC: Making Plans for Nigel, Sgt. Rock [Is Going to Help Me], Senses Working Overtime1957 - Robin Cousins
figure skater: 1980 Olympics [Lake Placid] gold medalist1958 - Belinda Carlisle
musician: guitar, singer: group: The Go-Go’s: We Got the Beat, Head Over Heels, Turn to You, Heaven on Earth1960 - Sean Penn
Academy Award-winning actor: Mystic River [2003]; Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Casualties of War, Shanghai Surprise, We’re No Angels, Carlito’s Way, Colors, Dead Man Walking1961 - Larry B. Scott
actor: Revenge of the Nerds, Getting Played, 100 Kilos, The Cheapest Movie Ever Made, Butter, Fear of a Black Hat1962 - Gilby Clarke
musician: guitar: groups: Guns N’ Roses, Slash’s Snakepit, Kat Men, Heart, Nancy Sinatra, Kathy Valentine (of the Go-Go’s), MC5, Rock Star Supernova1963 - Jon Gruden
football coach: Oakland Raiders [1998-2001]; Tampa Bay Buccaneers [2002-2008]: 2003 Super Bowl XXXVII champs; ESPN TV color analyst1964 - Colin James
musician: guitar, singer: Five Long Years, Voodoo Thing, Dream of Satin, Chicks and Cars and The Third World War, Why’d You Lie1965 - Steve Gorman
musician: drums: The Black Crowes: No Use Lying, Cosmic Friend, Miracle to Me, Losing My Mind, Thorn in My Pride, Remedy, She Talks to Angels, Hard to Handle, Jealous Again1966 - Jill Cunniff
musician: bass, singer: group: Luscious Jackson: LPs: Natural Ingredients, Fever In Fever Out, Electric Honey1967 - David Conrad
actor: Ghost Whisperer, Crazy, Wedding Crashers, L.A. Confidential, The Time Tunnel, A Season for Miracles, Return to Paradise, Under Heat1967 - Raquel Devine
actress [1997-2012]: X-rated films: Ripe Cherry Cheerleaders, Topless Bicycle Riders, Laura Crotch, Tomb Raider, Cougars of Boobsville, Barely Legal Kittens vs. Cougars1967 - Nelson Emerson
hockey [right wing]: St. Louis Blues, Winnipeg Jets, Hartford Whalers, Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago Blackhawks, Ottawa Senators, Atlanta Thrashers, LA Kings1968 - Ed McCaffrey
football [wide receiver]: Stanford Univ; NFL: NY Giants, SF 49ers [Super Bowl XXIX champs], Denver Broncos [Super Bowl XXXII, XXXIII champs]1968 - Helen McCrory
actress: Harry Potter film series, The Queen, The Special Relationship, Hugo, Skyfall, Peaky Blinders TV series; died Apr 16, 20211969 - Christian Laettner
basketball [forward, center]: Duke Univ; NBA: Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, Dallas Mavericks, Washington Wizards, Miami Heat1969 - Donnie Wahlberg
singer: group: New Kids on the Block; brother of Marky Mark; actor: Blue Bloods, Saw film series, The Sixth Sense, Dreamcatcher, Boomtown, Righteous Kill, Band of Brothers1970 - Jim Courier
tennis champ: Australian Open [1992, 1993], French Open [1991, 1992]1970 - Rupert Degas
actor: Over Here, The Short Walk, Passport to Murder, Dead Romantic, Reunion, Holby City, A Touch of Frost, Lovejoy1970 - Tammy Townsend
actress: Hollywood Horror, Semper Fi, Playing Mona Lisa, The Pest, The Brady Bunch Movie, Good Vibrations, Rock Me, Baby, K.C. Undercover1971 - Jorge Posada
baseball [catcher]: New York Yankees [1995–2011]: World Series champs: 1998–2000, 20091972 - Jeff Abbott
baseball: Chicago White Sox, Florida Marlins1972 - Ernie Conwell
football [tight end]: Univ of Washington; NFL: SL Rams, NO Saints1974 - John Emmons
hockey [center]: Ottawa Senators, Tampa Bay Lightning, Boston Bruins1974 - Jeff Liefer
baseball [first, third bases, right field]: Long Beach State Univ; Chicago White Sox, Montreal Expos, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Indians1975 - Giuliana Rancic
celebrity news personality; TV host: Guliana and Bill, E! News, Golden Globes, Academy Awards, Celebrity Rap Superstar, Miss USA 2011, co-founder of woman’s health, beauty, and fashion site FabFitFun1976 - Matt Anderson
baseball [pitcher]: Rice Univ; Detroit Tigers, Colorado Rockies1981 - Jayna Oso
actress [2001-2011]: X-rated films: Slutwoman's Revenge, Playgirl: Burning Lust, The Ties That Bind, There Goes the Neighborhood, Sex in Dangerous Places1982 - Mark Salling
actor: Glee, Rocky Road; singer: Pipe Dreams; died Jan 30, 20181983 - Dustin Pedroia
baseball [second base]: Boston Red Sox [2006-2019]: 2007, 2013 World Series champs1990 - Rachel Hurd-Wood
actress: Peter Pan [2003], Tomorrow, When the War Began, Dorian Gray, The Mapmaker, Highway to Dhampus, Home Fires, Second Origin1991 - Austin Butler
actor: Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure, Zoey 101, Switched at Birth, The Carrie Diaries, The Bling Ring, My Uncle Rafael1995 - Gracie Gold
figure skater, coach: 2012 Rostelecom silver medalist, 2014 U.S. National champ, 2013, 2015 U.S. national silver medalist, 2014 Sochi Olympics bronze medalist [in team event; placed fourth in ladies’ singles]
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day August 17
1947Peg o’ My Heart (facts) - The Harmonicats
I Wonder, I Wonder, I Wonder (facts) - Eddy Howard
1956
1965
1974
1983
1992
2001
2010
2019
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
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