Born on August 17
August 17 birthdays & history
If you were born on August 17, you share a birthday with Robert De Niro, Herta Müller and Mae West. August 17 babies are Leo, with peridot as their birthstone and the gladiolus as their birth flower. August 17 is the 230th day of the year in leap years (229th in other years).
Famous people born on August 17
- 1943Robert De Niro, American actor, entrepreneur, director, and producer
- 1953Herta Müller, Romanian-German poet and author, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1893Mae West, American stage and film actress
- 1932V. S. Naipaul, Trinidadian-English novelist and essayist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1977Thierry Henry, French footballer
- 1926Jiang Zemin, Chinese engineer and politician, former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (paramount leader) and President of China
- 1960Sean Penn, American actor, director, and political activist
- 1911Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian chess player and engineer
- 1944Larry Ellison, American businessman, co-founded the Oracle Corporation
- 1936Margaret Heafield Hamilton, American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner
What happened on August 17
- 1807Robert 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.
- 1827Dutch King William I and Pope Leo XII sign concord.
- 1866The Grand Duchy of Baden announces its withdrawal from the German Confederation and signs a treaty of peace and alliance with Prussia.
- 1876The premiere of Götterdämmerung by Richard Wagner closed the first Bayreuth Festival.
- 1883The first public performance of the Dominican Republic's national anthem, Himno Nacional.
- 1907Pike Place Market, one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the U.S. and a popular tourist attraction, opened in Seattle, Washington.
- 1945Animal Farm, George Orwell's satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism, was first published.
- 1945Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaim the independence of Indonesia, igniting the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch Empire.
- 1947The Radcliffe Line, the border between the Dominions of India and Pakistan, is revealed.
- 1953First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous takes place, in Southern California.
- 1959American musician Miles Davis released Kind of Blue, which became one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed jazz recordings of all time.
- 2008Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, setting the record for the most gold medals won by an athlete at a single games.
Also observed on August 17
- Engineer's Day (Colombia)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence proclamation of Indonesia from Japan in 1945.
Questions, answered
What star sign is August 17?
People born on August 17 are Leo. Their birthstone is peridot and their birth flower is the gladiolus.
Which famous people were born on August 17?
Robert De Niro (1943), Herta Müller (1953), Mae West (1893), V. S. Naipaul (1932), Thierry Henry (1977), Jiang Zemin (1926) were all born on August 17.
What happened on August 17 in history?
Among other things: in 1953, First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous takes place, in Southern California; in 1959, American musician Miles Davis released Kind of Blue, which became one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed jazz recordings of all time; in 2008, Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, setting the record for the most gold medals won by an athlete at a single games.
Can I get a newspaper front page from August 17?
Yes. The Birthday Gazette makes a personalised vintage-style front page for any August 17 birth year, with their name in the headline, events, famous birthdays and typical US prices. The preview is free and the print files cost $9.
Events, birthdays and observances are adapted from Wikipedia contributors, “August 17”, English Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0 (shortened and filtered). Ranking uses Wikidata (CC0). Sources.