^{The Roanoke Colony, later known as the “Lost Colony” is founded in what later becomes North Carolina (1585)}

Today in History

• Protestantism becomes the national religion of Scotland, overthrowing the Roman Catholic Church (1560)
• Colonists land on Roanoke Island to form the Roanoke Colony, which later disappears and becomes known as the “Lost Colony” (1585)
• The first commercial steamboat service is established (1807)
• The first animated cartoon, Émile Cohl’s Fantasmagorie, premiers in Paris (1908)
• World War II: General George Patton’s 7th Army arrives in Messina just ahead of British forces led by Field Marshal Montgomery, completing the Allied conquest of Sicily (1943)
• George Orwell’s Animal Farm is published (1945)
• Venera 7, the first spacecraft to transmit data from the surface of another planet, is launched (1970)
• US President Bill Clinton admits to an “improper relationship” with intern Monica Lewinsky (1998)
• Swimmer Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win eight gold medals at the same Olympic Games (008)

Birthdays

• Davy Crockett, frontiersman and politician (1786)
• Gene Stratton-Porter, author (1863)
• Marcus Garvey, Jamaican activist (1887)
• Monty Wooley, actor (1888)
• Mae West, actress (1893)
• Leslie Groves, US engineer and general, led the Manhattan Project (1896)
• Mark Felt, FBI deputy director and Watergate’s “Deep Throat” (1913)
• Maureen O’Hara, actress (1920)
• Francis Gary Powers, U-2 pilot (1929)
• Harve Bennett, filmmaker (1930)
• Ted Hughes, poet (1930)
• V. S. Naipaul, author (1932)
• Robert De Niro, actor (1943)
• Larry Ellison, businessman, co-founded Oracle Corporation (1944)
• Belinda Carlisle, singer-songwriter, member of the Go-Gos (1958)
• Sean Penn, actor and filmmaker (1960)
• Donnie Wahlberg, singer-songwriter and actor (1969)

Deaths

• Frederick the Great, Prussian monarch (1786)
• Conrad Aiken, writer (1973)
• Vivian Vance, actress (1979)
• Ira Gershwin, songwriter (1983)
• Rudolf Hess, deputy führer (1987)
• Pearl Bailey, singer and actress (1990)
• Yvonne Craig, actress who played Batgirl (2015)
• Arthur Hiller, filmmaker (2016)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Birthday of Marcus Garvey (Rastafari)
• Engineer’s Day (Colombia)
• Flag Day (Bolivia)
• Independence Day (Indonesia, Gabon)
• Prekmurje Union Day (Slovenia)
• San Martin Day (Argentina)

August 17 is the 229th day of the year (230th in leap years). There are 136 days remaining until the end of the year.