Following are some of the major events to have occurred on August 17
1812: Napoleon Bonaparte's army defeats the Russians at the Battle of Smolensk during the Russian retreat to Moscow.
1833: The first steam ship to cross the Atlantic entirely on its own power, the Canadian ship Royal William, begins her journey from Nova Scotia to The Isle of Wight.
1863: Union gunboats attack Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, for the first time.
1942: Marine Raiders attack Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands from two submarines.
1943: Allied forces complete the conquest of Sicily.
1944: The mayor of Paris, Pierre Charles Tattinger, meets with the German commander Dietrich von Choltitz to protest the explosives being deployed throughout the city.
1945: Upon hearing confirmation that Japan has surrendered, Sukarno proclaims Indonesia's independence.
1960: American Francis Gary Powers pleads guilty at his Moscow trial for spying over the Soviet Union in a U-2 plane.
1978: Three Americans complete the first crossing of the Atlantic in a balloon.
1987: 93-year-old Rudolf Hess, former Nazi leader and deputy of Adolf Hitler, is found hanged to death in Spandau Prison.
1988: Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq is killed in an airplane crash suspected of being an assassination.
1998: President Bill Clinton admits to the American public that he had affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
1999: A 7.4-magnitude earthquake near Izmit, Turkey kills over 17,000 and injures nearly 45,000.
2005: Israel begins the first forced evacuation of Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank, as part of a unilateral disengagement plan.
2012: Moscow's top court upholds ban of gay pride events in Russia's capital city for 100 years.
