On August 17, 1958, the first attempt in history to send a rocket to the Moon failed, when an unmanned American rocket exploded in midair.
OTHER EVENTS:
1502.- Christopher Columbus takes possession of the territory of Honduras in the name of the Kings of Spain.
1780.- The Protomedicato of Buenos Aires is inaugurated, under the Government of Viceroy Juan José Vártiz, a memorable date in the annals of Argentine medicine.
1807.- The American Robert Fulton launches his steam-powered ship from the port of New York.
1850.- José de San Martín, considered the Father of the Nation and liberator of Argentina, dies in the French town of Boulogne sur Mer.
1865.- The allied forces of Argentines, Brazilians and Uruguayans defeat the Paraguayans in the battle of Yataity.
1888.- Antonio Flores Jijón assumes the Presidency of Ecuador.
1935.- The Masonic lodges in Germany are dissolved and their assets confiscated.
1943.- The island of Sicily is totally liberated by British and American troops.
[1945-SukarnoproclaimstheindependenceofIndonesiaandbecomesitsfirstpresident
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1946.- The Brazilian Constitution is approved.
1956.- The Constitutional Court of the FRG decrees the dissolution of the Communist Party.
1958.- Failure of the first attempt in history to send a rocket to the Moon. An American unmanned rocket explodes in the air.
1962.- For the first time, two Soviet astronauts go around the Earth.
1976.- An earthquake and a gigantic wave cause 3,000 deaths in the Philippines.
1978.- American aeronauts Ben Abruzzo, Max Anderson and Larry Newman cross the Atlantic aboard the Double Eagle II balloon.
1982.- Philips launches the first Compact Disk (CD).
1987.- La 100 begins its broadcasts in Argentina, considered the number 1 Spanish-speaking radio.
1988.- The President of Pakistan Zia Ul Haq dies in an attack on his plane.
1995.- China explodes in Lop Nor (Xijiang region) its 43rd nuclear bomb since 1964, ten times more powerful than that of Hiroshima.
1998.- The president of the United States, Bill Clinton, admits before a jury that he had “an inappropriate relationship” with Monica Lewinsky.
1999.- A magnitude 7.4 earthquake shakes western Turkey and causes more than 17,000 deaths.
2006.- The Lebanese government begins the deployment of 15,000 soldiers to the south of the Litani river, in compliance with UN resolution 1701.
2006.- The Tungurahua volcano, in Ecuador, registers the strongest eruption in 120 years, which causes the death of at least four people, devastates extensive areas of crops and forces the evacuation of thousands of people.
2008.- Iran launches for the first time a self-made space satellite, which bears the name “Omid”.
2008.- American swimmer Michael Phelps surpasses Mark Spitz’s world record in Beijing by winning eight gold medals in an Olympic Games.
2014.- The former commander in chief of the Chilean army, Ricardo Izurieta, successor to the dictator Augusto Pinochet in the institution, dies.
2015.-The government of South Sudan and the rebels sign a new peace agreement in Addis Ababa after intense negotiations.
2016.- North Korea announces that it has resumed plutonium production.
2017.- Attacks in Spain with 16 deaths (14 in Las Ramblas in Barcelona), the bloodiest after 11M.
2018.- The restoration and enhancement of the personal library of the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges conclude in Buenos Aires.
2019.- A suicide bomber detonates his explosive charge in a room where a wedding banquet was held in Kabul (Afghanistan) and kills 80 people.
2022.- Israel and Türkiye reestablish diplomatic ties after ten years of tension.
2022.- The Colombian cyclist Nairo Quintana is disqualified from the Tour de France for testing positive for Tramadol.
BIRTHS:
1893.- Mae West, American actress.
1920.- Maureen O’Hara, Irish actress.
1926.- Jiang Zemin, former president of China.
1930.- Ted Hughes, English writer.
1932.- Vidia S. Naipaul, British writer and Nobel Prize winner in 2001.
1943.- Robert de Niro, American actor.
1944.- Larry Ellison, American computer scientist, founder of Oracle.
1952.- Nelson Piquet, former Brazilian Formula-1 driver.
1952.- Guillermo Vilas, Argentine tennis player.
1954.- Andrés Pastrana Arango, Colombian politician.
1956.- Alvaro Pino, Spanish cyclist.
1960.- Sean Penn, American actor.
1968.- Helen McCrory, British actress.
DEATHS:
1786.- Frederick II “The Great”, King of Prussia.
1850.- José San Martín, Argentine soldier, hero of American independence.
1955.- Fernand Léger, French painter.
1987.- Rudolf Hess, German soldier, Hitler’s lieutenant.
2010.- Francesco Cossiga, former President of the Italian Republic.
2016.- Arthur Hiller, Canadian filmmaker. EFE
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