CNN Interactive - Almanac - August 17, 1998

U.S. President Bill Clinton is scheduled to testify in the Monica Lewinsky matter, answering questions from Independent Counsel Ken Starr's grand jury from the White House via closed-circuit television.

On Tuesday, August 18, possible arraignment is scheduled for Russell Weston Jr., charged in the fatal July 24 shootings at the U.S. Capitol.
On Wednesday, August 19, U.S. President Bill Clinton celebrates his 52nd birthday.
On Thursday, August 20, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright departs for Santa Fe, New Mexico, to meet with the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations.
On Friday, August 21, Cuban President Fidel Castro is to visit the Dominican Republic -- his first visit since coming to power in 1959.
On Saturday, August 22, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine visits Iran for top-level meetings.

NEWSLINK:		NOTABLE:
U.S. President Bill Clinton enters the most important day of his presidency Monday. Visit the virtual White House by clicking here.		Indonesia celebrates Independence Day. Belgium observes Bank holiday. Canada marks Discovery Day. Colombia observes Assumption Day. Actor Robert DeNiro ("Cape Fear") is 55. Singer Belinda Carlisle is 40. Actor Robert Joy ("Desperately Seeking Susan") is 47. Actress Maureen O'Hara ("Miracle on 34th Street") is 78. Actor Sean Penn ("Fast Times at Ridgemont High") is 38.

In 1424, the English defeated the Scots and French at the Battle of Verneuil during the Hundred Years' War.
In 1585, Spanish forces, led by Duke of Parma, took Antwerp after a 14-month siege in the Dutch War of Liberation.
In 1743, the Peace of Abo was signed, ending the Russo-Swedish War of 1741-43.
In 1850, Denmark ceded all forts and property rights on the Gold Coast of Africa to Britain.
In 1896, George Carmack discovered gold in a tributary of the Klondike River, Canada, precipitating the famous gold rush.
In 1945, Indonesia claimed independence from the Netherlands with the setting up the Provisional Indonesian Republican Government.
In 1960, Gabon achieved independence from France.
In 1962, Peter Fechter, 18, was shot by East German guards as he attempted to flee across the Berlin Wall. Left to bleed to death, his case was the most notorious in the history of the Wall. In July 1996, two former guards were charged with his manslaughter.
In 1969, Dr. Philip Blaiberg died in South Africa, 19 months and 15 days after receiving a heart transplant, a survival record at the time.
In 1976, a severe earthquake shook the Philippine island of Mindanao, leaving about 8,000 people dead.
In 1978, three American balloonists, Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman, completed the first crossing of the North Atlantic in their balloon, Double Eagle II.
In 1987, Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess was found dead in his cell in Spandau Prison, after hanging himself with an electric cord.
In 1988, Pakistan President Zia ul-Haq and the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel were killed when Zia's plane exploded after takeoff.
In 1990, the former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere bowed out of mainstream politics when he quit as chairman of the ruling CCM party.
In 1994, riots spread through Lesotho after King Letsie III dissolved the country's first democratically-elected government for 20 years.
In 1995, the first reports emerged that Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to climb Mt. Everest without oxygen, had been killed by an avalanche on K-2 four days earlier.
In 1996, Ruth Perry was chosen by a meeting of West African heads of state to chair Liberia's ruling council, thus becoming Africa's first woman head of state.