Today in History: August 17, Clinton admits to Lewinsky affair

Today is Monday, Aug. 17, the 229th day of 2026. There are 136 days left in the year.

Today in history:  On Aug. 17, 1998, President Bill Clinton gave grand jury testimony via closed-circuit television from the White House concerning his relationship with Monica Lewinsky; he then delivered a TV address in which he admitted his relationship with Lewinsky was “wrong” but denied previously committing perjury (Clinton was subsequently impeached by the House of Representatives, but acquitted in the Senate).

Also on this date:

In 1807, Robert Fulton’s North River Steamboat made its first voyage, heading up the Hudson River on a successful round trip between New York City and Albany.

In 1863, federal batteries and ships began bombarding Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor during the Civil War, but the Confederates managed to hold on despite several days of shelling.

In 1915, a mob in Cobb County, Georgia, lynched Jewish businessman Leo Frank, whose death sentence for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan had been commuted to life imprisonment. (Frank, who had maintained his innocence, was pardoned by the state of Georgia in 1986.)

In 1945, Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaimed independence for Indonesia, setting off the Indonesian National Revolution against Dutch rule.

In 1945, the George Orwell novel “Animal Farm,” an allegorical satire of Soviet Communism, was first published in London by Martin Secker & Warburg.

In 1959, trumpeter Miles Davis released “Kind of Blue,” regarded as one of the most influential jazz albums of all time.

In 1978, the first successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight ended as Maxie Anderson, Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman landed their Double Eagle II outside Paris.

In 1988, Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel (RAY’-fehl) were killed in a mysterious Pakistani C-130 plane crash shortly after taking off from Bahawalpur.

In 1999, more than 17,000 people were killed when a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck the Kocaeli Province of Turkey.

In 2019, an accident during repair work at Russia’s largest hydroelectric plant killed at least 10 workers and left dozens missing after an engine room was suddenly flooded. The accident occurred at the Sayano-Shushenskaya plant in southern Siberia.

In 2017, a van barreled down a busy walkway in central Barcelona, swerving as it mowed down pedestrians in the picturesque Spanish tourist destination. Thirteen people were killed and 100 were injured in what authorities called a terrorist attack.

Today’s Birthdays: Computer scientist Margaret Hamilton is 90. Actor Robert DeNiro is 83. Businessman Larry Ellison is 82. Film director Martha Coolidge is 80. Filmmaker/author Julian Fellowes is 77. Tennis Hall of Famer Guillermo Vilas is 74. Singer Belinda Carlisle is 68. Author Jonathan Franzen is 67. Actor Sean Penn is 66. Singer/actor Donnie Wahlberg is 57. College Basketball Hall of Famer and retired NBA All-Star Christian Laettner is 57. Rapper Posdnuos (PAHS’-deh-noos) (De La Soul) is 57. Tennis Hall of Famer Jim Courier is 56. Soccer great Thierry Henry is 49. Rock climber Alex Honnold is 41. Actor Austin Butler is 35. Singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers is 32. Actor Lexy Kolker is 17. Actor Kayden Tokarski is 17.