Wednesday, August 17, 2005
On Aug. 17, 1896, a prospecting party discovered gold in Alaska, a finding that touched off the Klondike gold rush.
On this date in:
1943 The Allied conquest of Sicily was completed as U.S. and British forces entered Messina.
1945 Indonesian nationalists declared independence from the Netherlands.
1948 Former State Department official Alger Hiss faced his chief accuser, Whittaker Chambers, during a closed-door meeting of the House Un-American Activities Committee in New York. Hiss repeated his denial that he'd ever been a Communist agent.
1962 East German border guards shot and mortally wounded 18-year-old Peter Fechter, who had attempted to cross over the Berlin Wall into the western sector.
1969 Hurricane Camille slammed into the Gulf Coast, killing 248 people.
1969 The Woodstock Music and Art Fair concluded near Bethel, N.Y.
1987 Rudolf Hess, the last member of Adolf Hitler's inner circle, died at a Berlin hospital near Spandau Prison at age 93, having apparently committed suicide by strangling himself with an electrical cord.
1992 Actor-director Woody Allen admitted being romantically involved with Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his longtime companion, actress Mia Farrow.
1998 President Bill Clinton underwent grand jury questioning in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
1998 Russia devalued the ruble.
2000 The Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles nominated Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman for vice president.
2002 Pope John Paul II arrived in Krakow, Poland, for the ninth and final visit to his native country during his papacy.