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This day in history

This day in history: 17 March

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Born on this day · Died on this day211 · 109

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Key facts

359 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 17 March.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2016: Rojava conflict: At a conference in Rmelan, the Movement for a Democratic Society declares the establishment of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.

Holidays and observances

Birthday of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Bangladesh)

Children's Day (Bangladesh)

Christian feast day: Alexius of Rome (Eastern Church)

Christian feast day: Gertrude of Nivelles

Christian feast day: John Sarkander

Christian feast day: Joseph of Arimathea (Western Church)

Christian feast day: March 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Patrick of Ireland

Evacuation Day (Suffolk County, Massachusetts)

Saint Patrick's Day, a public holiday in Ireland, Montserrat and the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, widely celebrated in the English-speaking world and to a lesser degree in other parts of the world.

Events

2016Rojava conflict: At a conference in Rmelan, the Movement for a Democratic Society declares the establishment of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.

2004Unrest in Kosovo: More than 22 are killed and 200 wounded. Thirty-five Serbian Orthodox shrines in Kosovo and two mosques in Serbia are destroyed.

2003Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council, Robin Cook, resigns from the British Cabinet in disagreement with government plans for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

2000Five hundred and thirty members of the Ugandan cult Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God die in a fire, considered to be a mass murder or suicide orchestrated by leaders of the cult. Elsewhere another 248 members are

1992A referendum to end apartheid in South Africa is passed 68.7% to 31.2%.

1992Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires: Car bomb attack kills 29 and injures 242.

1988A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into a mountainside near the Venezuelan border killing 143.

1988Eritrean War of Independence: The Nadew Command, an Ethiopian army corps in Eritrea, is attacked on three sides by military units of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front in the opening action of the Battle of Afabet.

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

1979Aeroflot Flight 1691 crashes on approach to Vnukovo International Airport, killing 58.

1979The Penmanshiel Tunnel collapses during engineering works, killing two workers.

1973The Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph Burst of Joy is taken, depicting a former prisoner of war being reunited with his family, which came to symbolize the end of United States involvement in the Vietnam War.

1969Golda Meir becomes the first female Prime Minister of Israel.

1968As a result of nerve gas testing by the U.S. Army Chemical Corps in Skull Valley, Utah, over 6,000 sheep are found dead.

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

1963Mount Agung erupts on Bali killing more than 1,100 people.

1962A Clockwork Orange, a British dystopian novel by Anthony Burgess, is published.

1960Northwest Airlines Flight 710 explodes and crashes near Cannelton, Indiana, killing 63.

1960U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the National Security Council directive on the anti-Cuban covert action program that will ultimately lead to the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

1958The United States launches the first solar-powered satellite, which is also the first satellite to achieve a long-term orbit.

1957A plane crash in Cebu, Philippines kills Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others.

1950Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley announce the creation of element 98, which they name "californium".

1948Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO.

1945World War II: The Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany, collapses, ten days after its capture.

1942Holocaust: The first Jews from the Lvov Ghetto are gassed at the Belzec death camp in what is today eastern Poland.

1921The Second Polish Republic adopts the March Constitution.

1891SS Utopia collides with HMS Anson in the Bay of Gibraltar and sinks, killing 562 of the 880 passengers on board.

1862The first railway line of Finland between cities of Helsinki and Hämeenlinna, called Päärata, is officially opened.

1861The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed.

1860The First Taranaki War begins in Taranaki, New Zealand, a major phase of the New Zealand Wars.

1842The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo is formally organized with Emma Smith as president.

1824The Anglo-Dutch Treaty is signed in London, dividing the Malay archipelago. As a result, the Malay Peninsula is dominated by the British, while Sumatra and Java and surrounding areas are dominated by the Dutch.

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

1776American Revolutionary War: The British Army evacuates Boston, ending the Siege of Boston, after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery in positions overlooking the city.

1400Turko-Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus.

1337Edward the Black Prince is made Duke of Cornwall, the first duchy in England.

455Petronius Maximus becomes, with support of the Roman Senate, emperor of the Western Roman Empire; he forces Licinia Eudoxia, the widow of his predecessor, Valentinian III, to marry him.

180Commodus becomes sole emperor of the Roman Empire at the age of eighteen, following the death of his father, Marcus Aurelius.

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

Born on this day

2001Pietro Pellegri, Italian footballer

1998Brandon Aiyuk, American football player

1997Daniel Sprong, Dutch ice hockey player

1997Katie Ledecky, American swimmer

1995Claressa Shields, American boxer and mixed martial artist

1994DeForest Buckner, American football player

1994Ivan Provedel, Italian footballer

1994Marcel Sabitzer, Austrian footballer

1994Terry Rozier, American basketball player

1993Matteo Bianchetti, Italian footballer

1993Rhys Hoskins, American baseball player

1993Yao Yuanjun, Chinese Border police officer (died 2011)

1992John Boyega, British actor and producer

1992Patrick Cantlay, American golfer

1992Yeltsin Tejeda, Costa Rican footballer

1991Cordarrelle Patterson, American football player

1991Sergey Kalinin, Russian ice hockey player

1991Thomas Robinson, American-Lebanese basketball player

1990Hozier, Irish musician

1990Jean Segura, Dominican baseball player

1990Saina Nehwal, Indian badminton player

1989Harry Melling, English actor

1989Juan Lagares, Dominican baseball player

1989Mikael Backlund, Swedish ice hockey player

1989Shinji Kagawa, Japanese footballer

1988Brent Meuleman, Belgian politician

1988Fraser Forster, English footballer

1988Grimes, Canadian musician, singer-songwriter, producer, and visual artist

1988Rasmus Elm, Swedish footballer

1988Ryan White, Canadian ice hockey player

1987Bobby Ryan, American ice hockey player

1987Carlos Lampe, Bolivian footballer

1987Emmanuel Sanders, American football player

1987Federico Fazio, Argentine footballer

1987Rob Kardashian, American television personality

1987Ryan Parent, Canadian ice hockey player

1986Chris Davis, American baseball player

1986Edin Džeko, Bosnian footballer

1986Jeremy Pargo, American basketball player

1986Miles Kane, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Died on this day

2025John Hemingway, Irish fighter pilot, last surviving Battle of Britain pilot (born 1919)

2025Lee Shau-kee, Hong Kong real estate billionaire (born 1928)

2023Lance Reddick, American actor (born 1962)

2021John Magufuli, the fifth President of Tanzania (born 1959)

2018Mike MacDonald, Canadian comedian (born 1954)

2018Phan Văn Khải, the fifth Prime Minister of Vietnam (born 1933)

2016Meir Dagan, Israeli general (born 1945)

2016Zoltán Kamondi, Hungarian director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1960)

2015Frank Perris, Canadian motorcycle racer (born 1931)

2014Joseph Kerman, American musicologist and critic (born 1924)

2014Marek Galiński, Polish cyclist (born 1974)

2014Rachel Lambert Mellon, American gardener, philanthropist, art collector and political patron (born 1910)

2013A.B.C. Whipple, American journalist and historian (born 1918)

2013Lawrence Fuchs, American scholar and academic (born 1927)

2013William B. Caldwell III, American general (born 1925)

2012Margaret Whitlam, Australian swimmer and author (born 1919)

2012Shenouda III, pope of Alexandria (born 1923)

2011Ferlin Husky, American country music singer (born 1925)

2011Michael Gough, English actor (born 1916)

2010Alex Chilton, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1950)

2010Sid Fleischman, American author and screenwriter (born 1920)

2009Clodovil Hernandes, Brazilian television host and politician (born 1937)

2008Roland Arnall, French-American businessman and diplomat, 63rd United States Ambassador to the Netherlands (born 1939)

2007John Backus, American mathematician and computer scientist, designed Fortran (born 1924)

2006İstemihan Taviloğlu, Turkish composer and educator (born 1945)

2006Oleg Cassini, French-American fashion designer (born 1913)

2006Ray Meyer, American basketball player and coach (born 1913)

2005Andre Norton, American author (born 1912)

2005George F. Kennan, American historian and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union (born 1904)

2005Royce Frith, Canadian lawyer, politician, and diplomat, Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (born 1923)

Quote of the day

“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”

Seneca

Questions people ask

Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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