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Made for the 250thOn this day › August 17
What happened on August 17 in American history
August 17 is the 229th day of the year (the 230th in leap years). Patriot Compass has published 7 stories from August 17 spanning 1585 to 1998. Among them: in 1585, English colonists step ashore at Roanoke Island under Ralph Lane; and in 1863, Fort Sumter takes another day of shelling; the fort answers with rubble, not guns.
1585Member story · 1776 Club
English colonists step ashore at Roanoke Island under Ralph Lane
The wrecked flagship already cost them most of their food before they even reached the beach.
1863
Fort Sumter takes another day of shelling; the fort answers with rubble, not guns
Five days into a sustained bombardment, Dahlgren's ships and Gillmore's batteries pound a fort already reduced to broken masonry.
1864Member story · 1776 Club
Confederates strike from behind; a Union column is wrecked in Gainesville's square
Colonel Harris loses 188 men captured and a howitzer before he can even form a line.
1942Member story · 1776 Club
Carlson's Raiders storm Makin Island; the surf nearly strands them there
Eighteen rubber boats try to run the reef at nightfall; eleven fail, and seventy-two men are left to build a raft.
1943
376 bombers split into two forces; 60 do not come home
The plan sent Curtis LeMay's group in first to draw the fighters, leaving Robert Williams to fight his way out alone.
1943Member story · 1776 Club
Patton's men reach Messina hours ahead of Montgomery; Sicily falls
A five-week race up the island ends with the Seventh Army first through the gates.
1998
Clinton tells grand jury of "improper" ties to Lewinsky, then tells the country he misled them
Seven months after denying it on camera, the president reverses himself twice in one day.
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