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Today in History: August 17, Clinton admits to Lewinsky affair

inquirer.com · 3h · first reportShare

Today is Monday, Aug. 17, the 229th day of 2026. There are 136 days left in the year. Today in history: On Aug. 17, 1998, President Bill Clinton gave grand jury testimony via closed-circuit television from the White House concerning his relationship with Monica Lewinsky; he then delivered a TV address in which he admitted his relationship with Lewinsky was “wrong” but denied previously committing perjury (Clinton was subsequently impeached by the House of Representatives, but acquitted in the Senate). Also on this date: In 1807, Robert Fulton’s North River Steamboat made its first voyage, heading up the Hudson River on a successful round trip between New York City and Albany. In 1863, federal batteries and ships began bombarding Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor during the Civil War, but the Confederates managed to hold on despite several days of shelling. In 1915, a mob in Cobb County, Georgia, lynched Jewish businessman Leo Frank, whose death sentence for the murder of 13-year-old Mar