This Day in History for 17th March

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All Events Birthdays
Weddings Deaths

Historical Events

Events 1 - 100 of 185

45 BC - In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda.
180 - Marcus Aurelius dies. Commodus is now the only emperor of the Roman Empire.
432 - St Patrick, a bishop, is carried off to Ireland as a slave
455 - Roman senator Petronius Maximus becomes Emperor
1190 - Crusades complete massacre of Jews of York England
1337 - Edward, the Black Prince is made Duke of Cornwall, the first Duchy made in England.
1521 - Portugese explorer Ferdinand Magellan discovers the Philippines
1526 - French king Francois I freed from Spain
1537 - French troops invade Flanders
1580 - Prince Willem of Orange welcomed in Amsterdam
1658 - Pro-Charles II plot in England discovered
1672 - England declares war on Netherlands
1722 - Willem KH Friso appointed mayor of Drente
1753 - 1st official St Patrick's Day
1755 - Transylvania Land Co buys Kentucky for $50,000 from a Cherokee chief
1756 - St Patrick's Day 1st celebrated in NYC at Crown & Thistle Tavern
1757 - Prince Mas Saïd of Mataram surrenders to Mangkubumi in Java
1762 - 1st St Patrick's Day parade in NYC
1766 - Britain repeals the Stamp Act
Roman Military and Political Leader Julius Caesar 1776 - British forces evacuate Boston to Nova Scotia during Revolutionary War
1800 - English warship Queen Charlotte catches fire; 700 die
1804 - Friedrich Schiller's play "Wilhelm Tell" premieres
1824 - England & Netherlands sign a trade agreement
1833 - Phoenix Society forms (NY)
1836 - Texas abolishes slavery
1842 - Indians land in Ohio, a 12 square mile area in Upper Sandusky
1845 - Bristol man, Henry Jones, patents self-raising flour
1845 - Rubber band patented by Stephen Perry of London
1847 - "Macbeth" opera premieres in Florence
1854 - 1st park land purchased by a US city, Worcester, Mass
1860 - Japanese embassy arrives aboard Candinmarruh [sic]
1861 - Italy declares independence; Kingdom of Italy proclaimed
1863 - Battle of Kelly's Ford, VA (211 casualities)
1868 - Postage stamp canceling machine patent issued
1870 - Mass legislature authorizes incorporation of Wellesley Female Seminary
1871 - National Association of Professional Base-Ball players organized
1876 - 1st record high jump over 6' (Marshall Jones Brooks)
1876 - Gen Crook destroy Cheyennes & Oglala-Sioux indian camps
1877 - Bill Midwinter completes Test Crickets' 1st 5-wkt haul, 5-78 v Eng
1884 - John Joseph Montgomery makes 1st glider flight, Otay, Calif
1886 - Carrollton Massacre, (Mississippi) 20 African Americans killed
1891 - British Steamer "Utopia" sinks off Gibraltar killing 574
1894 - US & China sign treaty preventing Chinese laborers from entering US
1897 - Bob Fitzsimmons KOs James J Corbett in 14 for heavyweight boxing title
1898 - 1st practical submarine 1st submerges, NYC (for 1 hour 40 minutes)
1899 - Windsor luxury hotel in NYC catches fire, 92 die
1900 - Stanley Cup: Montreal Shamrocks sweep Halifax Crescents in 2
1901 - Free thinking-Democratic Union forms in Netherlands
1901 - A showing of seventy-one Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris, 11 years after his death, creates a sensation.
1902 - Stanley Cup: Montreal AAA beat Winnipeg Victorias, 2 games to 1
26th US President Theodore Roosevelt 1906 - Pres Theodore Roosevelt uses term "muckrake"
1906 - Stanley Cup: Montreal Wanderers beat Ottawa Silver 7, although both winning a game, Montreal outscores Ottawa 12-10
1906 - The Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity is founded at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
1908 - Quickest world heavyweight title fight (Burns KOs Roche in 88 seconds)
1908 - Tommy Burns KOs Jem Roche in 1 for heavyweight boxing title
1910 - DHC soccer team forms in Delft Neth
1912 - Camp Fire Girls organization announced by Mrs Luther Halsey Gulick
1913 - The Uruguayan Air Force is founded.
1917 - 1st exclusively women's bowling tournament begins in St Louis
1917 - Tsar Nicolas II of Russia abdicates the throne [NS]
1917 - Delta Phi Epsilon is founded at New York University Law School.
1918 - US Ladies Figure Skating championship won by Rosemary Beresford
1918 - US Mens Figure Skating championship won by Nathaniel Niles
1919 - Dutch steel workers strike for 8 hr day & minimum wages
1921 - Dr Marie Stopes opens Britain's 1st birth control clinic (London)
Marxist Revolutionary Vladimir Lenin 1921 - Lenin proclaims New Economic Politics
1921 - Sailors revolt in Kronstadt (thousands die)
1921 - The Second Republic of Poland adopts the March Constitution.
1924 - Eugene O'Neill's "Welded," premieres in NYC
1924 - Netherlands & USSR begin talks over USSR recognition
1924 - Sweden & USSR exchange diplomats
1926 - Dutch Calvinists oust Rev J G Geelkerken over Genesis 3
1926 - Richard Rodgers & L Hart's musical "Girl Friend," premieres in NYC
1926 - Spain & Brazil prevent Germany joining League of Nations
1927 - US government doesn't sign league of Nations disarmament treaty
1929 - General Motors acquires German auto manufacturer Adam Opel
1929 - Spanish dictator Primo de Rivera closes university of Madrid
1931 - Stalin throws Krupskaya Lenin out of Central Committee
1932 - German police raid Hitler's nazi-headquarter
1934 - Dollfuss, Mussolini & Gombos sign Donau Pact (protocols of Rome)
Soviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin 1935 - KSO-AM in Des Moines Iowa call sign is given to KWCR
1939 - Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945): The Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and the Japanese breaks out.
1942 - Belzec Concentration Camp opens-30,000 Lublin Polish Jews transported
1942 - Gen Doug MacArthur arrives in Australia to become supreme commander
1943 - Aldemarin (Ned) & Fort Cedar Lake (US) torpedoed & sinks
1943 - F Hugh Herbert's "Kiss & Tell," premieres in NYC
1945 - Allied ships bomb North-Sumatra
1950 - Belgian government of Eyskens resigns
1950 - Element 98 (Californium) announced
1951 - Government of Drees takes power
1951 - Test Cricket debut of Brian Statham, England v NZ Christchurch
1953 - Bill Veeck says he will sell his 80% of St Louis Browns for $2,475M
1953 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1953 - WBAY TV channel 2 in Green Bay, WI (CBS) begins broadcasting
1953 - WWLP TV channel 22 in Springfield, MA (NBC) begins broadcasting
1955 - Maurice "Rocket" Richard suspended, sparks 7 hour riot in Montreal
1956 - 8th Emmy Awards: Ed Sullivan Show, Phil Silvers Show & Lucy Ball
1957 - Dutch ban on Sunday driving lifted
1957 - Ramon Magsaysay, president of Philipines dies in a plane crash
1958 - Navy launches Vanguard 1 into orbit (2nd US), measures Earth shape

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Famous Birthdays

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 243

1231 - Emperor Shijō of Japan (d. 1242)
1473 - James IV, King of Scots (1488-1513)
1578 - Francesco Albana, Ital painter (Mary's Ascension)
1628 - Daniel van Papenbroeck, [Papebrochius], Flemish historian
1664 - Georg Osterreich, composer
1675 - Petrus Laurentius Wockenfuss, composer
1676 - Thomas Boston, Scottish church leader (d. 1732)
1685 - Jean-Marc Nattier, French portrait painter
1725 - Lachlan McIntosh, Scottish-born American military and political leader (d. 1806)
1746 - Jan David Holland, composer
1777 - Roger Brooke Taney, Calvert Md, 5th Chief Justice (Dred Scott dec)
1780 - Thomas Chalmers, 1st moderator (Free Church of Scotland 1843-47)
1781 - Dominique J de Eerens, governor-general of Neth Indies
1781 - Ebenezer Elliott, British Poet. Know as the "Corn Law Rhymer'" (d. 1849)
1787 - George Simon Ohm, physicist (discovered Ohm's Law)
1789 - Edmund Kean, London England, tragic actor (Shylock)
1804 - James Bridger, scout/fur trader/mountain man par excellance
1820 - Patrick Edward Connor, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers)
1820 - Jean Ingelow, English poet (d. 1897)
1825 - Rodolphe Bresdin, French cartoonist/lithographer (Le Bon Samaritain)
1826 - Oskar Peschel, German journalist/geography (Volkerkunder)
1828 - Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, Major General (Confederate Army)
1832 - Moncure Daniel Conway, US, abolitionist (Life of Thomas Paine)
1832 - Walter Quintin Gresham, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers)
1834 - Gottlieb Daimler, Germany, engineer/inventor/designed 1st motorcycle
1839 - Josef Rheinberger, Vaduz Liechtenstein, opera composer (Munich Conser)
1846 - Kate Greenaway, England, artist/book illustrator (Under the Window)
1848 - Horace Wadham Nicholl, composer
1856 - Mikhail Vrubel, Russian painter (d. 1910)
1862 - Silvio Gesell, Belgian economist (d. 1930)
1866 - Pierce Butler, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (d. 1939)
1870 - Horace Donisthorpe, British entomologist (d. 1951)
1872 - Billy Quaife, cricketer (England batsman 1899-1902)
1873 - Chard Somerset, 1st woman Cabinet minister (1929-31)
1873 - Margaret Bondfield, Brit Labour leader/1st woman cabinet member
1874 - Kincsem, horse that never lost a race
1874 - Stephen Samuel Wise, US, pres of Zionist Org of America
1876 - Frederic Ayers, composer
1877 - Albert P Hahn, Dutch political cartoonist (People/Nutcracker)
1880 - Guillermo Uribe Holguin, composer
1880 - Sir Patrick Hastings, British barrister (d. 1952)
1880 - Lawrence Oates, English army officer and Antarctic explorer (d. 1912)
1881 - Kristian Elster, Norwegian author (Less bror Harris)
1881 - Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
1883 - Urmuz, Romanian writer (d. 1923)
1884 - Alcide Nunez, American jazz clarinetist (d. 1934)
1886 - Princess Patricia of Connaught, British princess (d. 1974)
1887 - Ben Sajet, Dutch physician/politician
1888 - Frank Buck, actor (Africa Screams, Tiger Queen, Tiger Fangs)
1888 - Paul Ramadier, French politician (d. 1961)
1890 - Harold Morris, composer
1892 - Sayed Darwish, composer
1892 - Benjamin Drake Van Wissen, Australian Engineer (d. 1984)
1894 - Paul Green, US, novelist/playwright (In Abraham's Bosom)
1895 - Shemp Howard, Bkln, comedian (3 Stooges, Bank Dick) [or 1891]
1897 - Jozef C. Mazur, American stained glass artist and painter (d. 1970)
1900 - Alfred Newman, New Haven, composer (Love is a Many Splendored Thing)
1901 - Eisaku Sato, premier of Japan (Nobel 1974)
1902 - Bobby Jones Jr, Atlanta Georgia, amateur golfer (Grand Slam 1930)
1906 - Brigitte Helm [Gisele Eve von Kuenheim], Berlin, actr (Gloria, Gold)
1906 - Michael O'Shea, Hartford Ct, actor (Denny-It's a Great Life)
1906 - Tamara Geva, dancer
1907 - Jan M J van Houtte, premier Belgium (1952-54)
1907 - Sonny Werblin, former owner of the New York Jets (d. 1991)
1908 - Boris N Poveloi, [Kampov], Russian journalist/writer [OS=Mar 4]
1908 - Radie Britain, composer
1908 - Brigitte Helm, German actress (d. 1996)
1909 - Patrick Reilly, British diplomat
1910 - Bayard Rustin, civil rights leader
1911 - Raffaele d' Alessandro, composer
1914 - Sammy Baugh, Texas, NFL hall of famer QB (Wash Redskins)
1915 - Hans Namuth, German/US photographer (Todos Santos, Guatemala)
1915 - William Roycroft, Austria, equestrian 3 day (Olympic-bronze-1976)
1915 - Henry Bumstead, American art director (d. 2006)
1916 - Ray Ellington, British singer (d. 1985)
1917 - Arthur Basil Cotle, medievalist
1917 - Brian Boydell, composer
1918 - D Arendo, [Arend Honhoff], Dutch pianist/composer (Eleonora)
1918 - Mercedes McCambridge, Joliet Ill, actress (All the King's Men)
1918 - Wilhelmus M J Russell, Dutch attorney/Member of 1st chamber (KVP/CDA)
1919 - Hank Sauer, baseball player (NL MVP 1952)
Musician Nat King Cole (1919) 1919 - Nat "King" Cole, Montgomery Ala, singer (Unforgettable, Mona Lisa)
1920 - John La Montaine, Oak Park Ill, composer (Pulitzer 1959)
1921 - Mick Harvey, cricketer (in Newcastle Brother of Neil Test umpire)
1922 - Megan Bull, British head mistress (Holloway Jail)
1922 - Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Founding Leader of Bangladesh (d. 1975)
1923 - Margaret Bondfield, 1st woman chairman (Trades Union Congress)
1924 - Stephen Dodgson, composer
1925 - G M Hughes, British zoologist
1925 - Jerome Lejeune, physiologist
1925 - Gabriele Ferzetti, Italian film and stage actor
1926 - Siegfried Lenz, German writer (Ein Kriegsende)
1927 - Kenneth S Goldstein, folklorist/enthomusicologist
1927 - Maurice Ingvar Karkoff, composer
1927 - Nancy Sheehan, writer
1927 - Patrick Allen, Malawi, actor (Roman Holiday, Dial "M" for Murder)
1927 - Sulkhan Ivanovich Nasidze, composer
1928 - Edino Krieger, composer
1928 - William John McKeag, Canadian politician (d. 2007)
1930 - James Benson Irwin, Pittsburgh Penn, Col USAF/astronaut (Apollo 15)

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Famous Weddings

Weddings 1 - 4 of 4

1905 - Eleanor Roosevelt (20) marries Franklin D. Roosevelt (23) later 32nd US President in New York, & given away by her uncle, 26th President Theodore Roosevelt
1944 - Actor Charlton Heston weds Lydia Clarke
1955 - Erotic writer Anaïs Nin marries actor Rupert Pole at Quartzsite, Arizona, while still married to her first husband
2006 - Publicist Lizzie Grubman (35) weds Chris Stern in New York

Famous Divorces

Divorces 1 - 1 of 1

2008 - Musician Paul McCartney (65) divorces former model and anti-landmines campaigner Heather Mills (40) on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour

Famous Deaths

Deaths 1 - 100 of 138

45 BC - Titus Labienus, Roman leader
180 - Antonius Marcus Aurelius, [Marcus Verus], Emperor of Rome, dies at 58
461 - St Patrick, patron St of Ireland, dies in Saul (according to legend)
659 - Gertrude of Nivelles, Belgian abbess, patron saint of travellers, dies at about 32
1040 - Harold Harefoot (Harold I), King of England (1035-40), dies
1058 - King Lulach I of Scotland
1199 - Jocelin, bishop of Glasgow
1272 - Emperor Go-Saga of Japan (b. 1220)
1425 - Ashikaga Yoshikazu, Japanese shogun (b. 1407)
1516 - Giuliano de' Medici, monarch of Florence, dies at 37
1565 - Alexander Alesius, [Aless/Alane], Scottish theologist/physician, dies at 64
1588 - Petrus Dathenus, Flemish minister/physician (Psalms of David), dies
1605 - Pieter Bast, [Bastius], Dutch engraver/cartographer, dies at about 34
1640 - Philip Massinger, dramatist, dies
1649 - Gerardus Johannis Vossius, [Gerrit Vos], Dutch regent, dies at 71
1649 - Gabriel Lallemant, French Jesuit missionary, one of the Canadian Martyrs (b. 1610)
1653 - Johan van Galen, admiral (battle of Livorno), dies in battle at 48
1680 - Francois Duc de La Rochefoucauld, writer, dies
1704 - Menno baron van Coehoorn, fort builder/Coevorden/howitzer, dies at 63
1713 - Juraj Jánošík, famous Slovak outlaw [b. 1688)
1715 - Gilbert Burnet, Scottish Bishop of Salisbury (b. 1643)
1741 - Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French poet (b. 1671)
1764 - George Parker, English astronomer, dies
1782 - Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-born mathematician (b. 1700)
1796 - Pieter Paulus, lawyer/Dutch CEO (National Convention), dies at 41
1801 - Juan de Sesse y Balaguer, composer, dies at 64
1803 - Candido Jose Ruano, composer, dies at 42
1806 - David Dale, industrialist & philanthropist, dies
1830 - Laurent, Marquis de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, French marshal (b. 1764)
1846 - Friedrich W Bessel, German astronomer (Bessel Functions), dies at 61
1849 - William II King of the Netherlands (1840-49), dies at 56
Physicist Christian Doppler (1853) 1853 - Christian Doppler, Austrian physicist, dies at 49
1855 - Ramon Carnicer y Batlle, composer, dies at 65
1857 - Adolph Trube, composer, dies at 42
1861 - Petter Conrad Boman, composer, dies at 56
1862 - Fromental Halevy, [Elie Levy], French opera composer, dies at 62
1863 - John Pelham, US Confederate artillery major, dies in battle at 24
1864 - Alexandre Calamo, Swiss painter/etcher/lithographer, dies at 53
1889 - Joseph A Alberdingk Thijm, [Pauwels Foreestier], poet, dies at 68
1891 - Napoleon JKP Bonaparte, French prince/member Natl Convention, dies at 68
1893 - Jules Ferry, French statesman (b. 1832)
1898 - Blanche Kelso Bruce, (Sen-Miss, 1875-1881), dies at 57, in Washington
1901 - Franz Melde, German physicist (Melde Test), dies at 69
1902 - George William Warren, composer, dies at 73
1906 - Carlos Calvo, Argentina diplomat (Calvo Clause), dies at 82
1910 - Joaquin Valverde, composer, dies at 64
1915 - Walter Crane, English painter/cartoonist/illustrator, dies at 69
1927 - James Scott Skinner, composer, dies at 83
1933 - Ferdinand Von Alten, actor (Champagne), dies at 48
1941 - Isaak E Babel, writer, dies at 46
1941 - Isaak Emmanuilovich Babel, Rus writer (Crvena Konjica), executed at 46
1941 - Joachim Schepke, German commandant (U-100), dies in battle
1941 - Marguerite Nichols, American actress (b. 1895)
1946 - Dai Li, Chinese spymaster (b. 1897)
1949 - Felix Bressart, actor (Escape, Ninotchka, Iceland), dies at 54
1949 - Aleksandra Ekster, Russian painter (b. 1882)
1953 - Conrado del Campo y Zabaleta, composer, dies at 73
1954 - Victor Rousseau, Belgian sculptor, dies at 88
1956 - Fred Allen, comedian (Fred Allen Radio Show), dies at 61
Physicist/Chemist Irene Joliot-Curie (1956) 1956 - Irene Joliot-Curie, French physicist, Nobel laureate, dies at 58
1959 - Raffaele d' Alessandro, composer, dies on 48th birthday
1961 - Susanna Salter, 1st US female mayor/temperance leader, dies at 101
1962 - Frank Orth, actor (Boston Blackie, The Brothers), dies at 82
1963 - William Henry Squire, composer, dies at 91
1965 - Almos Alonzo Stagg, football coach (U of Chic), dies in California at 102
1965 - Quentin Reynolds, newscaster (Its News to Me)/author (FBI), dies at 62
1966 - Walter Lang, composer, dies at 69
1967 - Frank Wisbar, director (Fireside Theater), dies at 67
1967 - Richard Reeves, actor (Murph-Date With an Angel), dies at 54
1970 - Fernand Crommelynck, Belgian playwright (Chaud et Frois), dies at 83
1971 - Ernst Bachmeister, writer, dies
1972 - Manny Martindale, cricketer (10 Tests for WI, 34 wickets), dies
1973 - Geertruida M W "Truus" Bakker, Dutch actress (2 Orphans), dies at 81
1974 - Carroll Nye, actress (Lawless Woman), dies at 72
1974 - Louis I Kahn, Estonia/US architect, dies at about 73
1976 - Luchino Visconti di Modrone, It director (Terra Diaeresis), dies at 69
1978 - George Dickinson, cricketer (8 wickets in 3 Tests for NZ), dies
1979 - Merv Inverarity, cricketer (father of John WA player 1925-40), dies
1980 - Rudolf G Escher, Dutch composer (Vrai Visage de la Paix), dies at 68
1981 - Paul Dean, American baseball player (b. 1913)
1982 - Hans ter Laag, Dutch sound technician, murdered in El Salvador
1982 - Jan Kuiper, Dutch news editor (IKON), murdered in El Salvador
1982 - Joop Willemsen, Dutch cameraman, murdered in El Salvador
1982 - Koos Koster, Dutch newscaster (IKON), murdered in El Salvador
1983 - Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1903)
1985 - Dattu Phadkar, cricketer (Indian all-rounder, 31 Tests 1947-58), dies
1986 - Hal Buckley, actor (John Quincy-OK Crackerby), dies at 49
1987 - Santo Trafficante, Jr., American gangster (b. 1914)
1988 - Reg Sinfield, cricketer (one Test for England v Australia 1938), dies
1988 - Nikolas Asimos, Greek counter-culture composer and singer (b. 1949)
1989 - Merritt Butrick, actor (Shy People, Wired to Kill), dies of AIDS at 29
1990 - Germaine Capucine, French actress and fashion model (Rendez-Vous de Juillet), dies at 59
1990 - Rick Grech, rocker (Blind Faith, Traffic), dies at 44
1992 - Charles Rea, British actor (Ipcress File), dies at 69
1992 - George Lovi, US columnist (Sky & Telescope's "Ramblings"), dies
1992 - Grace Stafford Lantz, cartoon voice (Woody Woodpecker), dies at 87
1992 - Jack Arnold, actor/dir (Sid Caeser Special, Emmy 1967), dies at 75
1993 - Helen Hayes, actress (Airport), dies of congestive heart failure at 92
1993 - Laadi Flici, Algerian MP, murdered
1993 - Skip Young, actor (Smokey & Hotwire Gang), dies at 62