On this day in history - Today, August, 17

Today in History

• 2008 Michael Phelps Earns his 8th Gold Medal in the 2008 Olympics

  The American champion swimmer won the medal in the 4×100-meter medley relay race in the 2008 Beijing

• 1978 Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman become the first people to complete the world's First Transatlantic Balloon Flight

  The feat was accomplished in a balloon called the Double Eagle II. It took Abruzzo, Anderson, and Ne

• 1970 Venera 7 launched by the Soviet Union

  Launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Venera 7 became the first spacecraft to land on anot

• 1960 Gabon gains independence from the French

  France had occupied Gabon since the latter part of the 1800's. In 1910, the Equatorial country was a