Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

August 17

1998
Pres. Clinton: The President admits that he had had an "inappropriate" relationship with Monica Lewinsky. He denied having committed perjury because oral sex was not a sexual relation.

1988
Rogaine becomes the first hair growth drug approved for marketing by the FDA.

1981
A 65,000,000-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton is discovered in South Dakota.

1978
First transatlantic balloon crossing: Three Americans arrive in France after having departed from Maine six days earlier.

1969
Hurricane Camile: striking Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana killing 300 and leaving 70,000 homeless.

1962
The Beatles: Ringo Starr joins the Beatles, replacing Pete Best on drums.

1938
Henry Armstrong wins the world lightweight boxing championship. He was currently the world featherweight and welterweight champion.

1807
Robert Fulton makes his first trip from New York to Albany in his steamboat Clermont.

1590
Lost colony of Roanoke: Sir John White returns to the colony to find all of the colonists missing. The only clue to their fate was the word "CROATOAN" carved on a tree, the meaning of which or the fate of the settlers has never been determined.

1969
Donnie Wahlberg (Donald E. Wahlberg, Jr.), American pop musician, member of New Kids on the Block.

1960
Sean Penn, American actor, Madonna's ex-husband. Film: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982).

1959     d. 1993
David Koresh (Vernon Howell), American leader of the Branch Davidians during their 51-day stand off with federal agents (1993) which resulted in a mass suicide of him and his followers.

1958
Belinda Carlisle, American singer, with the Go-Go's. Music: We Got the Beat (1981) and Vacation (1982).

1943
Robert De Niro, American Oscar-winning actor. Film: The Godfather Part II (1974, Oscar, Vito Corleone), Taxi Driver (1976), and The Deer Hunter (1978).

1929     d. 1977
Francis Gary Powers, American CIA agent, U-2 pilot. In 1960 he was shot down over Russia, convicted of spying, and then exchanged in 1962 for Russian spy Rudolf Abel.

1920
Maureen O'Hara (Maureen FitzSimons), Irish actress. Film: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939, Esmeralda).

1913
William Mark Felt, Sr., American agent and Associate Director of the FBI.  He was the informant known as Deep Throat in the Watergate scandal.

1892     d. 1980
Mae West, American actress, "Come up and see me sometime."

1871     d. 1929
Jesse Lynch Williams, American playwright. His Why Marry? (1917) was the first play to win a Pulitzer Prize for drama.

1786     d. 1836
Davy Crockett, American frontiersman, died at the Alamo.

1990     b. 1918
Pearl Bailey, Tony Award-winning actress, singer, noted for her role in the all-black version of Hello Dolly!

1987     b. 1894
Rudolf Hess, German politician, Hitler's private secretary. In 1941, he embarked on a solo peace mission to Scotland - without Hitler's permission. He was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.

1983     b. 1896
Ira Gershwin, American Pulitzer-winning lyricist, collaborated with his brother George for Funny Face (1927), Strike Up The Band (1929), Of the I Sing (1931, Pulitzer).

1979     b. 1912
Vivian Vance (Vivian Roberta Jones), American Emmy-winning actress. TV: I Love Lucy (Ethel Mertz).

1920     b. 1891
Ray Chapman, American baseball player. He was the first major-league baseball player mortally wounded during a game; he was hit in the head by a pitch.

1915     b. circa 1886
Leo M. Frank, he was lynched by an anti-Semitic mob in Georgia for the murder of a 14-year-old girl. His conviction, based largely on the testimony of Jim Conley, was overturned in 1986 after evidence surfaced implicating Conley.

310     b. ????
Saint Eusebius, Greek-born religious leader, 31st Pope (c309-310).

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