What happened on 17 August?

11 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1945 Indonesian National Revolution Sukarno and Hatta proclaim independence; four-year struggle with the Dutch follows.
2. 1945 Animal Farm Orwell's allegorical novella of Stalinism, written during the Second World War.
3. 1959 Miles Davis's Kind of Blue Modal jazz album from 1959; best-selling jazz record of all time.
4. 1844 Born: Menelik II of Ethiopia Emperor who modernised Ethiopia and led the victory at Adwa.
5. 1947 Radcliffe Line published A hastily drawn border partitions British India into India and Pakistan.
6. 1153 Death of Eustace clears the way As young Henry of Anjou campaigns through an England sick of war, King Stephen's heir Eustace — the one man with everything to lose from peace — dies suddenly, days after plunderin
7. 1999 1999 Turkish Izmit earthquake Devastating earthquake in northwest Turkey.
8. 1585 Fall of Antwerp Parma retakes the great port for Spain; half its population — merchants, weavers, Bruegel's heirs — goes north, and blockaded Antwerp's loss is Amsterdam's fortune.
9. 1648 Cromwell crushes the Scots at Preston The Second English Civil War — royalist risings plus the Scottish Engager army — dies in three days of running battle in the Lancashire lanes. For the New Model Army the verdict is
10. 1998 1998 Russian financial crisis Russia devalues the rouble and defaults on its domestic debt; savings are wiped out and Yeltsin's reform era ends in humiliation.
11. 1820 Trial of Queen Caroline The new king tries to divorce his estranged wife through a Pains and Penalties Bill heard like a trial in the Lords; the public riots for Caroline, the bill is dropped, and next ye