People born on August 17

Robert De Niro

American actor (born 1943)

Herta Müller

German-Romanian novelist, poet and essayist

Pierre de Fermat

French mathematician and lawyer

V. S. Naipaul

Trinidadian-British writer (1932–2018)

Mae West

American actress, singer, screenwriter, and writer (1893–1980)

Thierry Henry

French association football player and manager

Jiang Zemin

General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002

Sean Penn

American actor and filmmaker (born 1960)

John Dryden

17th-century English poet and playwright

Mikhail Botvinnik

Soviet chess player

John III Sobieski

King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1629–1696)

Karl I of Austria

Last monarch of Austria-Hungary (r. 1916–1918)

Larry Ellison

American internet entrepreneur and businessman

Marcus Garvey

Jamaica-born British political activist, Pan-Africanist, orator, and entrepreneur (1887-1940)

Elizabeth Báthory

Hungarian countess