What happened on your birthday?

What’s Your Vietnam War Draft Lottery Number?

The Vietnam War draft lottery ran from 1969 to 1972. If you were born on August 17, would your number have been called?

  • Vietnam War 1969 Lottery
    CalledDrafted
    154
  • Vietnam War 1970 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    343
  • Vietnam War 1971 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    295
  • Vietnam War 1972 Lottery
    CalledDrafted
    8

Read on to learn more about the Vietnam war draft lottery.





more events on August 17

  • 2012

    Moscow’s top court upholds ban of gay pride events in Russia’s capital city for 100 years.

  • 2005

    Israel begins the first forced evacuation of Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank, as part of a unilateral disengagement plan.

  • 1999

    A 7.4-magnitude earthquake near Izmit, Turkey kills over 17,000 and injures nearly 45,000.

  • 1998

    President Bill Clinton admits to the American public that he had affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

  • 1988

    Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq is killed in an airplane crash suspected of being an assassination.

  • 1987

    93-year-old Rudolf Hess, former Nazi leader and deputy of Adolf Hitler, is found hanged to death in Spandau Prison.

  • 1978

    Three Americans complete the first crossing of the Atlantic in a balloon.

  • 1965

    Robert Manry, copy editor of Cleveland Plain Dealer who sailed solo in a sailboat from Falmouth, Massachusetts, to Falmouth, Cornwall, England.

  • 1960

    Sean Penn, actor, screenwriter, director, political and social activist (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Mystic River).

  • American Francis Gary Powers pleads guilty at his Moscow trial for spying over the Soviet Union in a U-2 plane.

  • 1953

    Judith Regan, controversial book publisher, editor, talk show host.

  • 1945

    Upon hearing confirmation that Japan has surrendered, Sukarno proclaims Indonesia’s independence.

  • 1944

    Lawrence Joseph Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corporation.

  • The mayor of Paris, Pierre Charles Tattinger, meets with the German commander Dietrich von Choltitz to protest the explosives being deployed throughout the city.

  • 1943

    Robert DeNiro, American actor, won Oscars for his roles in The Godfather Part II and Raging Bull.

  • Allied forces complete the conquest of Sicily.

  • 1942

    Marine Raiders attack Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands from two submarines.

  • 1932

    John (Red) Kerr, basketball coach.

  • 1923

    Larry Rovers, painter and sculptor.

  • 1892

    Mae West, American actress in burlesque, vaudeville, Broadway and movies.

  • 1890

    Harry Hopkins, who organized the Works Projects Administration under President Franklin Roosevelt.

  • 1887

    Marcus Garvey, Jamaican-born black nationalist who advocated the departure of African-Americans back to Africa.

  • 1882

    Samuel Goldwyn, American movie mogul who helped start MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer).

  • 1863

    Union gunboats attack Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, for the first time.

  • 1833

    The first steam ship to cross the Atlantic entirely on its own power, the Canadian ship Royal William, begins her journey from Nova Scotia to The Isle of Wight.

  • 1812

    Napoleon Bonaparte‘s army defeats the Russians at the Battle of Smolensk during the Russian retreat to Moscow.

  • 1786

    Davy Crockett, American frontiersman and politician who died in the defense of the Alamo.

  • 1743

    By the Treaty of Abo, Sweden cedes southeast Finland to Russia, ending Sweden’s failed war with Russia.