DAY IN HISTORY

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Today is the 229th day of 2019 and the 58th day of summer. TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1585, European colonists disembarked at Roanoke Island in North Carolina.

In 1863, Union forces began shelling Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

In 1959, a magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck near Hebgen Lake in Montana, causing a landslide that later formed Earthquake Lake.

In 1998, President Bill Clinton testified before a grand jury and later apologized on national television for having a “wrong” relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Davy Crockett (17861836), frontiersman/ soldier; Marcus Garvey (1887-1940), Black Nationalist leader; Samuel Goldwyn (1882-1974), film producer; Mae West (1893-1980), actress; W. Mark Felt (1913-2008), FBI agent; Maureen O’hara (1920-2015), actress; Robert De Niro (1943- ), actor; Sean Penn (1960- ), actor/director; Jon Gruden (1963- ),

football coach/analyst; Donnie Wahlberg (1969), singer/actor.

TODAY’S FACT: At the time when he was providing key information on the Watergate scandal to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, W. Mark Felt was the associate director of the FBI, the bureau’s secondhighest ranking official.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 2008 in Beijing, swimmer Michael Phelps won a gold medal in the 400-meter medley relay, becoming the first athlete to win eight gold medals in a single Olympic Games. TODAY’S QUOTE: “I’ve always operated under the notion that audiences don’t always know when they’re being lied to, but that they always know when they’re being told the truth.” — Sean Penn

TODAY’S NUMBER: 17,508 — islands counted within the territory of Indonesia, which declared its independence from the Netherlands on this day in 1945.

TODAY’S MOON: Between full moon (Aug. 15) and last quarter moon (Aug. 23).