Ephemeris, 17 August

It happened one 17 August

1862 : Dakota uprising On August 17, 1862, Dakota Indians (Sioux) revolted against the white settlers along the Minnesota River.The Dakota Indians were mistreated by the whites, their cultures and their hunting lands were destroyed. 500 settlers and 150 Dakota warriors were killed during the six-week uprising before the intervention of the U.S. military.
1943 : Patton won the race to Messina August 17, 1943, General Patton's 7th Army entered the city of Messina in Sicily to free the city, hours before Marshal Montgomery's 8th British Army . Patton won the - unofficial -race to Messina, which completed the conquest of Sicily by the Allies.
1959 : Earthquake in Yellowstone Park On August 17, 1959, an earthquake of magnitude 7.3 to 7.5 on the Richter scale hit the southwestern Montana, in Yellowstone Park. The ensuing landslide blocked the Madison River and created a lake called Quake Lake. Today Quake Lake is 10 km long and 58m deep.
1999 : Earthquake in Turkey On August 17, 1999 at 3:00 am, an earthquake of magnitude 7.4 on the Richter scale hit the region of Izmit in northwestern Turkey. 17,000 people were killed and damages totaled 6.5 billion dollars.

National Day in Gabon August 17 is a national holiday in Gabon, which celebrates its independence gained against France on August 17th, 1960.
National Day in Indonesia August 17 is a national holiday in Indonesia which commemorates the proclamation of its independence from Netherlands on August 17, 1945. The independence was recognized in 1947.

George S. Patton
Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

Davy Crockett, American folk hero (1786)
Julia Marlowe, English-American actress (1865)
Samuel Goldwyn, American producer (1879)
Marcus Garvey, Jamaican journalist and activist (1887)
Mae West, American actress and screenwriter (1893)
Shelley Winters, American actress (1920)
Maureen O'Hara, Irish actress (1920)
Robert Sabatier, French writer (1923)
Jean Poiret, French actor, director and screenwriter (1926)
Jean-Jacques Sempé, French cartoonist (1932)
V. S. Naipaul, Indian writer, Nobel Prize in Literature (1932)
Robert De Niro, American actor (1943)
Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, French journalist and TV director (1948)
Guillermo Vilas, Argentine tennis player (1952)
Nelson Piquet, Brazilian racing driver (1952)
Robin Cousins, English figure skater (1957)
Stephan Eicher, Swiss singer (1960)
Sean Penn, American actor and director (1960)
S. Shankar, Indian director (1963)
Helen McCrory, English actress (1968)
Nicola Kraus, American novelist (1974)
Thierry Henry, French footballer (1977)
William Gallas, French footballer (1977)
Mehdi Baala, French athlete (1978)
Julien Escudé, French footballer (1979)
Manuele Blasi, Italian footballer (1980)
Daniel Güiza, Spanish footballer (1980)
Phil Jagielka, English footballer (1982)
Montana Fishburne, American porn actress (1991)
Austin Butler, American actor (1991)

Perucho Figueredo, Cuban poet, musician, and freedom fighter (1870)
Fernand Léger, French painter (1955)
Otto Stern, German physicist, Nobel Prize (1969)
Jean Barraqué, French composer (1973)
Vivian Vance, American actress (1979)
Ira Gershwin, American lyricist (1983)
John N. Bahcall, American astrophysicist (2005)
Bernard Rapp, french director and journalist (2006)

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