TODAY IN HISTORY - AUGUST 17TH

1807 – Robert Fulton's 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.

1863 – American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter.

1907 – Pike Place Market, a popular tourist destination and registered historic district in Seattle, opened.

1908 – Fantasmagorie, the first animated cartoon, created by Émile Cohl, is shown in Paris, France.

1915 – A Category 4 hurricane hits Galveston, Texas with winds at 135 miles per hour (217 km/h).

1943 – World War II: The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission.

1943 – Robert De Niro, American actor, entrepreneur, director, and producer is born.

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.

1953 – Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California.

1959 – Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana.

1959 – Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, the much acclaimed and highly influential best selling jazz recording of all time, is released.

1962 – Peter Fechter is shot and bleeds to death while trying to cross the new Berlin Wall.

1969 – Donnie Wahlberg, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (New Kids on the Block) is born.

1978 – Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey, France near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.

1979 – John C. Allen, American roller coaster designer (b. 1907) dies.

1987 – Rudolf Hess, German soldier and politician (b. 1894) dies.

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.

2008 – American swimmer Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win eight gold medals in one Olympic Games.