August 17 is:
National Thriftshop Day
National Vanilla Custard Day
In 1585 – A first group of colonists sent by Sir Walter Ralegh under the charge of Sir Richard Grenville landed in the New World to create Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of present-day North Carolina.
Grenville decided to leave Ralph Lane and 107 men to establish the colony at the north end of Roanoke Island, promising to return in April 1586 with more men and fresh supplies. Lane built a small fort on the island and ordered the exploration of the surrounding areas.
As April 1586 passed, there was no sign of Grenville’s relief fleet. Meanwhile in June, bad blood resulting from their destruction of the village spurred an attack on the fort, which the colonists were able to repel. Soon after the attack, when Sir Francis Drake paused on his way home from a successful raid in the Caribbean and offered to take the colonists, including the metallurgist Joachim Gans, back to England, they accepted. On this return voyage, the Roanoke colonists introduced tobacco, maize, and potatoes to England.
Robert Fulton‘s North River Steamboat left New York, New York, for Albany, New York, August 17, 1807, on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.
Pike Place Market, a popular tourist destination and registered historic district in Seattle, Washington, opened on August 17, 1907.
1978 – Double Eagle II became first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it landed in Miserey, France near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.
1986 A bronze statue of a pig was dedicated at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. See Parent Map.com for facts about Rachel, the pig.
August 17, 1998 – Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admitted in taped testimony that he had an “improper physical relationship” with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the same day he admitted before the nation that he “misled people” about the relationship.