1996
Aug 17, The first French woman in space, Claudie Andre-Deshays, took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in a Soyuz-U rocket.

1998
Aug 17, India outlawed the use of quinacrine to sterilize women due to its suspected effects as a carcinogen.

2000
Aug 17, In Afghanistan the Taliban reversed its decision against women working in bakeries.

2001
Aug 17, The Brazilian Congress approved a legal civil code that made women equal to men.

2005
Aug 17, Hundreds of anti-war vigils were held nationwide, part of an effort spurred by Cindy Sheehan's protest near President Bush's Texas ranch in memory of her son Casey, who was killed in Iraq.

2006
Aug 17, In Indonesia a woman died of bird flu in a village where authorities were investigating a possible cluster of human cases of the H5N1 virus.