What happened on March 17 ?

Choose another date »

 
 

 

Events

45 BC - In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda.

624 - A key victory by Muhammad over his Meccan adversaries in the Battle of Badr.

1103 - Birth of noted Song Dynasty general Yue Fei.

1577 - The Cathay Company is formed to send Martin Frobisher back to the New World for more gold.

1673 - Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet begin their exploration of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi river.

1756 - St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in New York City for the first time (at the Crown and Thistle Tavern).

1776 - American Revolution: British forces evacuate Boston, Massachusetts after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery overlooking the city.

1805 - The Italian Republic, with Napoleon as president, becomes the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King.

1845 - The rubber band is invented

1861 - The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed.

1886 - Carrollton Massacre: 20 African Americans are killed in Mississippi.

1891 - The British steamship SS Utopia sinks off the coast of Gibraltar, killing 574.

1901 - A showing of 71 Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris, 11 years after his death, creates a sensation.

 
 

1910 - Luther Gulick and his wife Charlotte found Camp Fire Girls (now Camp Fire USA) (formally announced in 1912).

1917 - Delta Phi Epsilon was founded at New York University Law School.

1921 - The Second Republic of Poland adopts the March Constitution.

1931 - Nevada legalizes gambling.

1939 - Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945): The Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and the Japanese break out.

1941 - In Washington, DC, the National Gallery of Art is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1948 - Benelux, France, and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the NATO Agreement.

1950 - University of California, Berkeley researchers announce the creation of element 98, which they name "Californium".

1958 - The United States launches the Vanguard 1 satellite.

1959 - Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet and travels to India.

1966 - Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the Alvin submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb.

1969 - Golda Meir of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, becomes Prime Minister of Israel.

1970 - My Lai massacre: The United States Army charges 14 officers with suppressing information related to the incident.

 
 

1985 - Serial killer Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker", commits his first two murders in Los Angeles, California murder spree.

1988 - A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into the side of the mountains near the Venezuelan border killing 143.

1992 - A suicide car-bomb kills 29 and injures 242 at the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1996 - Club Kids Michael Alig and Robert Freeze Riggs murder Angel Melendez.

2002- WrestleMania X8 from Skydome in Toronto

2003 - British Cabinet Minister, Robin Cook, resigns over government plans for war with Iraq.

2004 - Massive Unrest in Kosovo. Over 22 killed, 200 wounded, 35 destroyed Serb Orthodox shrines in Kosovo and two mosques in Belgrade and Nis.

 

Events Births Deaths Holidays