Today in History, August 17: 310 – Pope Eusebius is banished by the Emperor Maxentius to Sicily, where he dies, perhaps from a hunger strike. 1424 – Hundred Years War: Battle of Verneuil – An English force under John, Duke of Bedford defeats a larger French army under the Duke of Alençon, John Stewart, and Earl Archibald of Douglas. 1560 – The Roman Catholic Church is overthrown and Protestantism is established as the national religion in Scotland. 1585 – Eighty Years War: Siege of Antwerp – Antwerp is captured by Spanish forces under Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, who orders Protestants to leave the city and as a result over half of the 100,000 inhabitants flee to the northern provinces. 1585 – A first group of colonists sent by Sir Walter Ralegh under the charge of Ralph Lane lands in the New World to create Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of present-day North Carolina. 1807 – Robert Fultons North River Steamboat leaves New York, New York, for Albany, New York, on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world. 1862 – American Civil War: Major General J.E.B. Stuart is assigned command of all the cavalry of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. 1863 – American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter. 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Gainesville – Confederate forces defeat Union troops near Gainesville, Florida. 1908 – Fantasmagorie, the first animated cartoon, created by Émile Cohl, is shown in Paris, France. 1914 – World War I: Battle of Stallupönen – The German army of General Hermann von François defeats the Russian force commanded by Paul von Rennenkampf near modern-day Nesterov, Russia. 1942 – World War II: U.S. Marines raid the Japanese-held Pacific island of Makin (Butaritari). 1943 – World War II: The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission. 1943 – World War II: The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. Patton arrives in Messina, Italy, followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily. 1950 – Hill 303 massacre: American POWs are shot to death by the North Korean Army. 1958 – Pioneer 0, Americas first attempt at lunar orbit, is launched using the first Thor-Able rocket and fails. Notable as one of the first attempted launches beyond Earth orbit by any country. 1962 – East German border guards kill Peter Fechter, 18, as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin becoming one of the first victims of the wall. 1970 – Venera program: Venera 7 launched. It will later become the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet (Venus). 1982 – The first Compact Discs (CDs) are released to the public in Germany. 1998 – Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an improper physical relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the same day he admits before the nation that he misled people about the relationship. 2005 – The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of Israels unilateral disengagement plan, starts.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 23:19:17 +0000