TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS THURSDAY, AUG. 17, the 229th day of 2017. There are 136 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1807, Robert Fulton’s North River Steamboat began heading up the Hudson River on its successful round trip between New York 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 pounding.

In 1943, the Allied conquest of Sicily during World War II was completed as U.S. and British forces entered Messina.

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

In 1969, Hurricane Camille slammed into the Mississippi coast as a Category 5 storm that was blamed for 256 U.S. deaths, three in Cuba.

In 1978, the first successful transAtlantic balloon flight ended as Maxie Anderson, Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman landed their Double Eagle II outside Paris. In 1982, the first commercially produced compact discs, a recording of ABBA’s “The Visitors,” were pressed at a Philips factory near Hanover, West Germany.

In 1987, Rudolf Hess, the last member of Adolf Hitler’s inner circle, died at Spandau Prison at age 93, an apparent suicide. The musical drama “Dirty Dancing,” starring Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze, premiered in New York.

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

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Former Chinese president Jiang Zemin is 91. Former MLB All-Star Boog Powell is 76. Actor Robert DeNiro is 74. Actorscreenwriter-producer Julian Fellowes is 68. Actor Robert Joy is 66. International Tennis Hall-of-Famer Guillermo Vilas is 65.