Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/August 17
August 17: Independence Day in Indonesia (1945), Gabon (1969)
- 1807 - Robert Fulton's first American steamboat left New York City for Albany, New York on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.
- 1962 - East German border guards killed 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempted to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin.
- 1969 - Category 5 Hurricane Camille hit the Mississippi coast killing 248 people and causing US$1.5 billion in damage (1969 dollars).
- 1988 - Pakistani President Muhammad Zia ul-Haq was killed in a plane crash.
- 1998 - Monica Lewinsky scandal: U.S. President Bill Clinton admitted in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.