In Washington, President Bill Clinton faces federal grand jury questioning in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. That’s where he finally admits his past relationship with the former White House intern. Afterward, Clinton tells the American people:

“Indeed I did have a relationship with Ms. Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong. It constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible. ”

1896.

“There’re strange things done in the midnight sun, by the men who moil for gold.”

Prospectors find gold in Canada’s Yukon Territory, a discovery that touches off the Klondike Gold Rush in the following year. 1807. Robert Fluton’s steamboat begins its successful round-trip up the Hudson River from NYC to Albany, NY. The voyage of the northern river steamboat, popularly known as the Clermont, revolutionizes American transportation in the 19th century. 1987. Rudolf Hess, the last member of Adolf Hitler’s inner circle in Nazi Germany dies of an apparent suicide at age 93. Hess was the sole inmate at Spandau Prison in what was then West Berlin, serving a life sentence for war crimes.

And 1943. “You’re talking to me? You’re talking to me? You’re talking to me? I’m the only one here.”

Actor Robert de Niro is born in NYC. Among his films, Taxi Driver, The Godfather Part II, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Analyze This. Today in History, August 17th. Sophia Manos, the Associated Press.