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This Date in History (Aug. 17)

1915 – A mob in Cobb County, Ga., lynched Jewish businessman Leo Frank, whose death sentence for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan had been commuted to life imprisonment.

1969 – Hurricane Camille slammed into the Gulf Coast, killing 248 people.

1979 – Two Soviet Aeroflot jetliners collide in mid-air over Ukraine, killing 156

1987 – Rudolf Hess, the last member of Adolf Hitler’s inner circle, died at Spandau prison in West Berlin at age 93, having apparently committed suicide by strangling himself with an electrical cord. He had been the only inmate at Spandau for 21 years.

1998 – Russia devalued the ruble.

2000 – The Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles nominated Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman for vice president.

2005 – Israeli security forces began the forcible removal of Jews from four settlements in the Gaza Strip.