On this day, Aug. 17

1848 The Allegheny Medical Society was organized as a branch of the State Medical Society.

1915 A mob in Cobb County, Ga., lynched Jewish businessman Leo Frank, 31, 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.)

1951 Steve Nelson, already on trial on sedition charges, was arrested by the FBI with five other district Communist leaders in the latest in a nationwide series of raids.

1964 Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa was sentenced in Chicago to five years in federal prison for defrauding his union’s pension fund. (Hoffa was released in 1971 after President Richard Nixon commuted his sentence for this conviction and jury tampering.)

1987 Rudolf Hess, the last member of Adolf Hitler’s inner circle, died at Spandau Prison at age 93, an apparent suicide.

2005 Gateway Center was flooded when a 36-inch water main broke in Downtown. Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology).

— Compiled by Rick Nowlin

Today’s birthdays: Former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, 95. Former MLB All-Star John “Boog” Powell, 80. Actor Robert De Niro, 78. Movie director Martha Coolidge, 75. Rock musician Gary Talley (The Box Tops), 74. Actor-screenwriter-producer Julian Fellowes, 72. Actor Robert Joy, 70. International Tennis Hall of Famer Guillermo Vilas, 69. Rock singer Kevin Rowland (Dexys Midnight Runners), 68. Rock musician Colin Moulding (XTC), 66.

Olympic gold medal figure skater Robin Cousins, 64. Singer Belinda Carlisle, 63. Author Jonathan Franzen, 62. Actor Sean Penn, 61. Jazz musician Everette Harp, 60. Rock musician Gilby Clarke, 59. Singer Maria McKee, 57. Actor and Pittsburgh native David Conrad, 54. Singer Donnie Wahlberg, 52. College Basketball Hall of Famer and retired NBA All-Star Christian Laettner, 52. Rapper Posdnuos, 52. International Tennis Hall of Famer Jim Courier, 51. Retired MLB All-Star Jorge Posada, 50. TV personality Giuliana Rancic, 47. Actor Bryton James, 35. Actor Brady Corbet, 33. Actor Austin Butler, 30. Actor Taissa Farmiga, 27. Olympic bronze medal figure skater Gracie Gold, 26.

Thought for today: “Where words leave off, music begins.”

— Heinrich Heine, German poet and critic

(1797-1856)