On this day, August 17: Earthquake in Turkey claims thousands of lives

In 1915, a hurricane hit Galveston, Texas, killing 275 people.

In 1946, George Orwell published Animal Farm.

In 1969, the Woodstock music festival ended after three days on a 600-acre farm in Bethel, NY

In 1978, Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman were the first to cross the Atlantic in a balloon, landing near Paris with their helium-filled Double Eagle II.

In 1987, Rudolf Hess, Hitler's former deputy, was found strangled in Spandau Prison in Berlin. He was 93 years old.

In 1996, the Reform Party nominated Texas businessman Ross Perot as its presidential candidate. He lost the 1996 general election with 18.9 percent of the popular vote and zero electoral votes. President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, won with 43 percent of the popular vote and 370 electoral votes. Republican George HW Bush lost his re-election bid with 37.4 percent of the popular vote and 168 electoral votes.

File photo by Chip Somodevilla/UPI

In 1998, US President Bill Clinton said in a speech to the American people that his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky was “inappropriate”.

In 1999, an earthquake in a densely populated region of northwestern Turkey killed at least 17,000 people and injured about 40,000.

In 2017, a man drove a van into a group of pedestrians in Barcelona, ​​Spain, killing 14 people and injuring another 130. While fleeing, the driver killed a 15th person in a carjacking. In a similar attack hours later, a group of terrorists drove into more civilians, killing a 16th person. In total, eight attackers were killed.

In 2019, at least 63 people were killed in an explosion at a wedding hall in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the incident.

Archive photo by Jawad Jalali/EPA-EFE