Today in History in 1915 A category 4 hurricane hits Galveston, Texas; and in 1959 Quake Lake in Yellowstone National Park is formed by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake centered near Hebgen Lake, Montana.

Our on this day in history archives contain over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

August 17 is the 229th day of the year (230th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 136 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

310 – Pope Eusebius is banished by Emperor Maxentius to Sicily, where he dies.

682 – Pope Leo II is elected.

986 – A Byzantine army is destroyed at the pass of Trajan by Bulgarians.

1386 – Karl Topia, ruler of the Princedom of Albania, creates an alliance with the Republic of Venice.

1424 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of Verneuil - English victory over the French.

1498 – Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, becomes the first cardinal to-date to resign from his post.

1560 – Protestantism becomes the official religion of Scotland.

1585 – Eighty Years' War: Siege of Antwerp - Antwerp is captured by Spanish forces under Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, who orders Protestants to leave the city.

1668 – A magnitude 8.0 earthquake kills around 8,000 people in northern Anatolia, Ottoman Empire.

1740 – Pope Benedict XIV is elected.

1771 – Edinburgh botanist James Robertson makes the first recorded successful climb of Ben Nevis, the highest point in both Scotland and the whole of the present-day United Kingdom.

1786 – Frederick II of Prussia dies, having been a very influential leader in Prussia. His son, Frederick William II of Prussia, succeeds him.

1807 – Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat leaves New York City for Albany on the Hudson River.

1862 – American Indian Wars: The Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota.

1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Gainesville - Confederate forces defeat Union forces near Gainesville, Florida.

1896 – Bridget Driscoll becomes the first-recorded person to be killed in an automobile accident when she is run over in the grounds of London's Crystal Palace by a Benz car.

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

1914 – The first pilots are trained for the Royal Australian Air Force.

1915 – A category 4 hurricane hits Galveston, Texas.

1918 – Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moises Uritsky is assassinated.

1942 – World War II: The first US bombing raid in Europe takes place.

1943 – World War II: The US Seventh Army under George S. Patton and the British 8th Army under field marshal Bernard Montgomery enter Messina, Sicily, completing the allied conquest of Sicily.

1945 – Indonesia declares independence from the Netherlands. The Netherlands only recognize Indonesian independence in 1949.

1947 – The Radcliffe Line is set to mark the border between India and Pakistan.

1959 – Quake Lake in Yellowstone National Park is formed by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake centered near Hebgen Lake, Montana.

1960 – Gabon becomes independent from France.

1962 – East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter.

1969 – Hurricane Camille kills 243 people in the Southern United States.

1970 – The Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 is sent to the planet Venus.

1977 – Soviet nuclear icebreaker Arktika becomes the first vessel to cross the North Pole overwater.

1978 – US balloonists, Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman and Max Anderson, become the first people to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a hot-air balloon.

1982 – The first CDs are released to the public in Germany.

1987 – At age 18, Steffi Graf becomes women's singles Number One in tennis. She goes on to hold this position for 377 weeks.

1987 – Adolf Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, dies aged 93, as the last prisoner at Spandau Prison.

1988 – Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq is killed in a plane crash near Bahawalpur, Punjab.

1996 – Claudie André-Deshays becomes the first Frenchwoman in space.

1998 – US President Bill Clinton admits an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

1999 – A magnitude 7.4 earthquake hits İzmit in northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 people, and injuring around 44,000.

From 2001

2002 – The water levels of the River Elbe reach their highest-recorded level. The city of Dresden is among the places flooded.

2004 – New state symbols are adopted by Serbia.

2005 – The first forced evacuation of settlers as part of the Israeli unilateral disengagement plan begins.

2005 – Over 500 bombs are set off by terrorists at around 300 locations in 63 out of 64 districts in Bangladesh.

2008 – Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win 8 individual gold medals at a single Olympic Games.

2009 – An accident occurs at the Sayano-Shushenskaya dam in Khakassia, Russia, killing 75 people and shutting down the hydroelectric power station.

2015 – A bomb explodes at the Ratchaprasong Intersection near the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, killing 23 people and injuring over 100.

2017 – 2017 Barcelona attack: A vehicle is driven at people on the street Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, killing 13 people.

2019 – A bomb attack on a wedding party in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills at least 63 people and wounds 180.