What Happened On This Day – August 17
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2008 Michael Phelps Earns his 8th Gold Medal in the 2008 Olympics
The American champion swimmer won the medal in the 4×100-meter medley relay race in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. With this medal, he broke the record for the most gold medals won by a person in a single Olympic games, a record previously held by American swimmer Mark Spitz.
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1978 by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman become the first people to complete the world's First Transatlantic Balloon Flight
The feat was accomplished in a balloon called the Double Eagle II. It took Abruzzo, Anderson, and Newman 6 days to fly from Preque Isle, Maine to a barley field near Paris.
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1970 Venera 7 launched by the Soviet Union
Launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Venera 7 became the first spacecraft to land on another planet, Venus, and send data back to Earth. It entered Venus’ atmosphere in December 1970.
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1960 Gabon gains independence from the French
France had occupied Gabon since the latter part of the 1800's. In 1910, the Equatorial country was added to French Equatorial Africa, a federation of France's Central African colonies. From 1934 to 1958, French Equatorial Africa was considered by France as an unified colony.
Births On This Day,
August 17
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1960 Sean Penn
American actor, director
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1949 Norm Coleman
American politician
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1943 Robert De Niro
American actor
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1911 Mikhail Botvinnik
Russian chess player
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1786 Davy Crockett
American soldier, politician
Deaths On This Day,
August 17
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1988 Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Pakistani politician, 6th President of Pakistan
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1935 Charlotte Perkins Gilman
American sociologist, novelist
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1880 Ole Bull
Norwegian violinist, composer
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1850 José de San Martín
Argentinian general, politician, 1st President of Peru
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1786 Frederick the Great
Prussian king