Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 August 17b

William de Cantilupe was killed by multiple stab wounds in Scotton, Lincolnshire, in March 1375. The de Cantilupes were a wealthy English family and had a history of service to the crown. They were major landholders in the Midlands, with estates in Greasley, Ilkeston, and Withcall. William de Cantilupe's ancestors included royal councillors and, distantly, Saint Thomas de Cantilupe. Among the suspects in the murder were his wife Maud and the sheriff Thomas Kydale. Maud may have had an affair with Kydale during her husband's frequent absences on service during the war in France. Fifteen members of the household were also accused. De Cantilupe's murder was the first to come within the purview of the Treason Act 1351, a statute which declared the murder of a man by his wife or servants to be petty treason. Maud was tried and acquitted. She then married Kydale. Two members of the household staff were convicted and executed. Others who were indicted did not appear for trial and were outlawed. One of the outlaws, de Cantilupe's steward, John Tailour of Barneby, was pardoned by Richard II. (Full article...)

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• Hakainde Hichilema (pictured) is elected President of Zambia.
• The Afghan government collapses as the capital city of Kabul falls to the Taliban offensive.
• A 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti kills more than 1,400 people.
• The Inter­govern­mental Panel on Climate Change releases the first part of its Sixth Assessment Report on the state of knowledge of climate change and its effects.

August 17: Day of Tasu'a (Shia Islam, 2021); Independence Day in Indonesia (1945)

• 1424 – Hundred Years' War: Allied English and Burgundian forces gained a strategically important victory at the bloody Battle of Verneuil in Normandy, France.
• 1676 – Scanian War: Swedish forces defeated Danish troops at the Battle of Halmstad, the last battle in Halland between the two countries.
• 1907 – Pike Place Market (pictured), one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the U.S. and a popular tourist attraction, opened in Seattle, Washington.
• 2009 – A hydroelectric turbine at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam in Russia catastrophically failed, flooding the turbine hall, killing 75 people and causing widespread power outages.