http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
St. Patrick's Day
Saint Patrick was a Christian missionary, bishop and apostle of Ireland. He was born in the late 4th century. Patrick began his first mission to Ireland in 432.
On March 17, 461 A.D., St. Patrick died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland.
On March 17, 1762, in New York City, the first St. Patrick's Day parade took place. The parade was held by Irish soldiers serving in the British army.
Today March 17 is a day of international celebration.
http://www.on-this-day.com/publications/days/st-patricks-day.html
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Mar 17, 461: Saint Patrick dies
On this day in 461 A.D., Saint Patrick, Christian missionary, bishop and apostle of Ireland, dies at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland.
Much of what is known about Patrick's legendary life comes from the Confessio, a book he wrote during his last years. Born in Great Britain, probably in Scotland, to a well-to-do Christian family of Roman citizenship, Patrick was captured and enslaved at age 16 by Irish marauders. For the next six years, he worked as a herder in Ireland, turning to a deepening religious faith for comfort. Following the counsel of a voice he heard in a dream one night, he escaped and found passage on a ship to Britain, where he was eventually reunited with his family.
According to the Confessio, in Britain Patrick had another dream, in which an individual named Victoricus gave him a letter, entitled "The Voice of the Irish." As he read it, Patrick seemed to hear the voices of Irishmen pleading him to return to their country and walk among them once more. After studying for the priesthood, Patrick was ordained a bishop. He arrived in Ireland in 433 and began preaching the Gospel, converting many thousands of Irish and building churches around the country. After 40 years of living in poverty, teaching, traveling and working tirelessly, Patrick died on March 17, 461 in Saul, where he had built his first church.
Since that time, countless legends have grown up around Patrick. Made the patron saint of Ireland, he is said to have baptized hundreds of people on a single day, and to have used a three-leaf clover--the famous shamrock--to describe the Holy Trinity. In art, he is often portrayed trampling on snakes, in accordance with the belief that he drove those reptiles out of Ireland. For thousands of years, the Irish have observed the day of Saint Patrick's death as a religious holiday, attending church in the morning and celebrating with food and drink in the afternoon. The first St. Patrick's Day parade, though, took place not in Ireland, but the United States, when Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City in 1762. As the years went on, the parades became a show of unity and strength for persecuted Irish-American immigrants, and then a popular celebration of Irish-American heritage. The party went global in 1995, when the Irish government began a large-scale campaign to market St. Patrick's Day as a way of driving tourism and showcasing Ireland's many charms to the rest of the world. Today, March 17 is a day of international celebration, as millions of people around the globe put on their best green clothing to drink beer, watch parades and toast the luck of the Irish.
Mar 17, 1762: First St. Patrick's Day parade
In New York City, the first parade honoring the Catholic feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is held by Irish soldiers serving in the British army.
Saint Patrick, who was born in the late 4th century, was one of the most successful Christian missionaries in history. Born in Britain to a Christian family of Roman citizenship, he was taken prisoner at the age of 16 by a group of Irish raiders who attacked his family's estate. They transported him to Ireland, and he spent six years in captivity before escaping back to Britain. Believing he had been called by God to Christianize Ireland, he joined the Catholic Church and studied for 15 years before being consecrated as the church's second missionary to Ireland. Patrick began his mission to Ireland in 432, and by his death in 461, the island was almost entirely Christian.
Early Irish settlers to the American colonies, many of whom were indentured servants, brought the Irish tradition of celebrating St. Patrick's feast day to America. The first recorded St. Patrick's Day parade was held not in Ireland but in New York City in 1762, and with the dramatic increase of Irish immigrants to the United States in the mid-19th century, the March 17th celebration became widespread. Today, across the United States, millions of Americans of Irish ancestry celebrate their cultural identity and history by enjoying St. Patrick's Day parades and engaging in general revelry.
Mar 17, 1776: British evacuate Boston
On this day in 1776, British forces are forced to evacuate Boston following General George Washington's successful placement of fortifications and cannons on Dorchester Heights, which overlooks the city from the south.
During the evening of March 4, American Brigadier General John Thomas, under orders from Washington, secretly led a force of 800 soldiers and 1,200 workers to Dorchester Heights and began fortifying the area. To cover the sound of the construction, American cannons, besieging Boston from another location, began a noisy bombardment of the outskirts of the city. By the morning, more than a dozen cannons from Fort Ticonderoga had been brought within the Dorchester Heights fortifications. British General Sir William Howe hoped to use the British ships in Boston Harbor to destroy the American position, but a storm set in, giving the Americans ample time to complete the fortifications and set up their artillery. Realizing their position was now indefensible, 11,000 British troops and some 1,000 Loyalists departed Boston by ship on March 17, sailing to the safety of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The bloodless liberation of Boston by the Patriots brought an end to a hated eight-year British occupation of the city, known for such infamous events as the "Boston Massacre," in which five colonists were shot and killed by British soldiers. The British fleet had first entered Boston Harbor on October 2, 1768, carrying 1,000 soldiers. Having soldiers living among them in tents on Boston Common--a standing army in 18th-century parlance--infuriated Bostonians.
For the victory, General Washington, commander of the Continental Army, was presented with the first medal ever awarded by the Continental Congress.
Mar 17, 1990: Lithuania rejects Soviet demand to renounce its independence
The former Soviet Socialist Republic of Lithuania steadfastly rejects a demand from the Soviet Union that it renounce its declaration of independence. The situation in Lithuania quickly became a sore spot in U.S.-Soviet relations.
The Soviet Union had seized the Baltic state of Lithuania in 1939. Lithuanians complained long and loud about this absorption into the Soviet empire, but to no avail. Following World War II, Soviet forces did not withdraw and the United States made little effort to support Lithuanian independence. There matters stood until 1985 and the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev as leader of the Soviet Union. In 1989, as part of his policy of loosening political repression in the Soviet empire and improving relations with the West, Gorbachev repudiated the Brezhnev Doctrine of 1968, which stated that the Soviet Union was justified in using force to preserve already existing communist governments. Lithuanian nationalists took the repudiation of the Brezhnev Doctrine as a signal that a declaration of independence might be accepted.
On March 11, 1990, Lithuania declared that it was an independent nation, the first of the Soviet republics to do so. It had, however, overestimated Gorbachev's intentions. The Soviet leader was willing to let communist governments in its eastern European satellites fall to democratic movements, but this policy did not apply to the republics of the Soviet Union. The Soviet government responded harshly to the Lithuanian declaration of independence and issued an ultimatum: renounce independence or face the consequences. On March 17, the Lithuanians gave their answer, rejecting the Soviet demand and asking that "democratic nations" grant them diplomatic recognition.
The Soviets had not been bluffing. The Soviet government insisted that it still controlled Lithuania, Gorbachev issued economic sanctions against the rebellious nation, and Soviet troops occupied sections of the capital city of Vilnius. In January 1991, the Soviets launched a larger-scale military operation against Lithuania. Many in the United States were horrified, and the U.S. Congress acted quickly to end economic assistance to the Soviet Union. Gorbachev was incensed by this action, but his powers in the Soviet Union were quickly eroding. In December 1991, 11 of the 12 Soviet Socialist Republics proclaimed their independence and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. Just a few days after this action, Gorbachev resigned as president and what was left of the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
Mar 17, 1917: Shakeup in French government
In the midst of Allied plans for a major spring offensive on the Western Front, the French government suffers a series of crises in its leadership, including the forced resignation, on March 17, 1917, of Prime Minister Aristide Briand.
Horrified by the brutal events at Verdun and the Somme in 1916, the French Chamber of Deputies had already met in secret to condemn the leadership of France's senior military leader, Joseph Joffre, and engineer his dismissal. Prime Minister Briand oversaw Joffre's replacement by Robert Nivelle, who believed an aggressive offensive along the River Aisne in central France was the key to a much-needed breakthrough on the Western Front. Building upon the tactics he had earlier employed in successful counter-attacks at Verdun, Nivelle believed he would achieve this breakthrough within two days; then, as he claimed, the ground will be open to go where one wants, to the Belgian coast or to the capital, on the Meuse or on the Rhine.
The principal power over French military strategy, however, had moved with Joffre's departure to a ministerial war committee who answered not to the commander in chief, Nivelle, but to the minister of war, Louis Lyautey, a former colonial administrator in Morocco appointed by Briand in December 1916, around the same time as Joffre's dismissal. Lyautey loudly and publicly derided the Nivelle scheme, insisting (correctly as it turned out) that it would meet with failure. He was not the only member of Briand's cabinet who opposed the offensive, but the prime minister continued to support Nivelle, desperately needing a major French victory to restore confidence in his leadership. On March 14, Lyautey resigned. This embarrassing public disagreement with his ministers brought Briand down as well, forcing his resignation on March 17.
French President Raymond Poincare's next choice for prime minister, Alexandre Ribot, appointed Paul Painleve as his minister of war. Also hesitant to fully support Nivelle's plan, Painleve and the rest of the Ribot government were finally pressured to do so by the need to counteract the German resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare (announced in February 1917) and by Nivelle's threat that he would resign if the offensive did not proceed as planned. The so-called Nivelle Offensive, begun on April 16, 1917, was a disaster: the German positions along the Aisne, built up since the fall of 1914, proved to be too much for the Allies. Almost all the French tanks, introduced into battle for the first time, had been destroyed or had become bogged down by the end of the first day; within a week 96,000 soldiers had been wounded. The battle was called off on April 20, and Nivelle was replaced by the more cautious Philippe Petain five days later.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
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 - Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reaches 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 - First 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 - First St Patrick's Day parade in NYC
1766 - Britain repeals the Stamp Act
King Charles IIKing Charles II 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 Roosevelt26th 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 Nicholas 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 and Russian Leader Vladimir
LeninMarxist Revolutionary and Russian Leader 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)
Italian Dictator Benito MussoliniItalian Dictator Benito
Mussolini 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
WW2 General Douglas MacArthurWW2 General Douglas MacArthur
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
1959 - Australia & USSR restore diplomatic relations
1959 - Dalai Lama flees Tibet for India
1960 - Eisenhower forms anti-Castro-exile army under the CIA
1960 - WSLA (now WAKA) TV channel 8 in Selma, AL (CBS)
begins broadcasting
1961 - NY DA arrests professional gamblers who implicate
Seton Hall players
1961 - South Africa leaves British Commonwealth
1963 - Bob Cousy plays his last NBA game
1963 - Elizabeth Ann Seton of NY beatified (canonized in
1975)
1963 - Eruptions of Mount Agung Bali, kills 1,900 Balinese
1965 - Beatles announce their film is named "8 Arms to
Hold on to You" (Help)
1966 - South Africa government bans Defense & Aid Fund
1966 - US sub locates missing H-bomb in Mediterranean
1968 - 2-tiered gold price negotiated in Wash DC by US &
6 European nations
1968 - Kathie Whitworth wins LPGA St Petersburg Orange
Blossom Golf Open
1969 - Golda Meir becomes Israel's 4th PM
1969 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Orange Blossom Golf Open
1970 - Peter O'Malley becomes CEO of LA Dodgers
1970 - US casts their 1st UN Security Council veto (Support
England)
1972 - Ringo releases "Back off Bugaloo" in UK
Queen of the United Kingdom Elizabeth IIQueen of the United
Kingdom Elizabeth II 1973 - Queen Elizabeth II opens new London Bridge
1973 - St Patrick Day marchers carry 14 coffins
commemorating Bloody Sunday
1974 - Jane Blalock wins LPGA Bing Crosby Golf Classic
International
1975 - Valeri Muratov skates world record 1000m (1:16.92)
1976 - Malikov skates world record 1000m (1:15.76)
1976 - Rubin "Hurricane" Carter is retried
1976 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1977 - Australia wins cricket Centenary Test by 45 runs,
same result as 1877
1978 - Amoco Cadiz tanker spills 1.6 mil gallons of oil off
French coast
1978 - Ligeti's opera "Le Grand Macabre,"
premieres in Stockholm
1978 - Reds don green uniforms for St Patricks Day
1979 - Ice Dance Championship at Vienna won by N Linichuk
& G Karponosov USSR
1979 - Ice Pairs Championship at Vienna won by Tai Babilonia
& R Gardner USA
1979 - Men's Figure Skating Champ in Vienna won by Vladimir
Kovalev (USSR)
1979 - Worlds Ladies Figure Skating Champ in Vienna won by
Linda Fratianne
1979 - The Penmanshiel Tunnel collapses during engineering
works, killing two workers.
1981 - FC Lisse, Dutch soccer team forms
1982 - 4 Dutch TV crew members shot dead in El Salvador
1983 - 70th hat trick in Islander history-Mike Bossy
1983 - 9th People's Choice Awards
1985 - Jane Blalock wins LPGA Women's Kemper Golf Open
1985 - Matti Nykanen of Finland set a world ski jump record
of 623'
1986 - Haemers gang robs gold transport in Belgium of 35
million BF
1987 - IBM releases PC-DOS version 3.3
1987 - Sunil Gavaskar ends his Test career with an innings
of 96 v Pak
1988 - "Les Miserables," opens at Det Norske
Teatret, Oslo
1988 - Highest scoring NCAA basketball game; Loyola-Marymont
119, Wyoming 115
1988 - Iran says Iraq uses poison gas
1989 - "Chu Chem" opens at Ritz Theater NYC for 44
performances
1989 - Dorothy Cudahy is 1st female grand marshal of St
Patrick Day Parade
1990 - PBA National Championship Won by Jim Pencak
1991 - 9 of 15 Soviet reps officially approve new union
treaty
1991 - Irish Lesbians & Gays march in St Patrick Day
parade
1991 - John Robin Baitz' "Substance of Fire,"
premieres in NYC
1991 - NJ raises turnpike tolls 70%
1991 - Penny Hammel wins Desert Inn LPGA Golf International
1992 - "Death & the Maiden" opens at Brooks
Atkinson NYC for 159 perfs
1992 - 18th People's Choice Awards: Garth Brooks & Reba
McEntire
1992 - 28 killed in truck bombing of Israeli embassy in
Buenos Aires, Arg
1992 - De Klerk wins a white only referendum
1992 - Islamic Jihad truck bombs Israeli Embassy in Buenos
Aires killing 29
1992 - Russian manned space craft TM-14, launches into orbit
1993 - 86 killed by bomb attack in Calcutta
1994 - "Little More Magic" opens at Belasco
Theater NYC for 30 performances
1994 - Iran transport aircraft crashes in Azerbaijan (32
killed)
1994 - It is announced there is no smoking in Cleve Indians
new ballpark
1995 - British pound hits 2.4545 to Dutch guilder (record)
1995 - Sinn-Fein leader Gerry Adams visits White House
1995 - USt approves 1st chicken pox vaccine, Varivax by
Merck & Co
1996 - "Bus Stop" closes at Circle in Sq Theater
NYC after 29 performances
1996 - "Getting Away With Murder" opens at
Broadhurst NYC for 17 perfs
1996 - Aravinda De Silva gets 107* & 3-42 in cricket
World Cup victory
1996 - Liselotte Neumann wins LPGA Ping/Welch's Golf
Championship
1996 - Montreal Canadian's 1st game in their new arena
1996 - Sri Lanka beat Australia by 7 wickets to win the
World Cup
1997 - CNN begins spanish broadcasts
2000 - The 800+ deaths of members of the Ugandan cult
Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God is considered to be
a mass murder and suicide orchestrated by leaders of the cult.
2003 - British Cabinet Minister Robin Cook, resigns over
government plans for the war with Iraq.
2004 - Unrest in Kosovo results in more than 22 killed, 200
wounded, and the destruction of 35 Serb Orthodox shrines in Kosovo and two
mosques in Belgrade and Nis.
2008 - New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer resigns after a
scandal involving a high-end prostitute. David Paterson becomes acting New York
State governor.
2012 - Bolton Wanderer footballer Fabrice Muamba collapses
and is rushed to hospital during a live football match against Tottenham
Hotspur
2012 - Wales defeat France to record their eleventh Grand
Slam in the Six Nation's Championship
2012 - John Demjanjuk, convicted Nazi war criminal, dies
from natural causes at 91
2013 - 10 people are killed by a car bombing in Basra, Iraq
2013 - Toyo Ito wins the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize
2013 - Pope Francis delivers his first Angelus prayer and
blessing
0461 - Bishop Patrick, St. Patrick, died in Saul. Ireland celebrates this day in his honor. (More about St. Patrick's Day) 1756 - St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in New York City for the first time. The event took place at the Crown and Thistle Tavern. 1766 - Britain repealed the Stamp Act that had caused resentment in the North American colonies. 1776 - British forces evacuated Boston to Nova Scotia during the Revolutionary War. 1868 - Postage stamp canceling machine patent was issued. 1870 - Wellesley College was incorporated by the Massachusetts legislature under its first name, Wellesley Female Seminary. 1884 - In Otay, California, John Joseph Montgomery made the first manned, controlled, heavier-than-air glider flight in the United States. 1886 - 20 Blacks were killed in the Carrollton Massacre in Mississippi. 1891 - The British steamer Utopia sank off the coast of Gibraltar. 1901 - In Paris, Vincent Van Gogh's paintings were shown at the Bernheim Gallery. 1909 - In France, the communications industry was paralyzed by strikes. 1910 - The Camp Fire Girls organization was founded by Luther and Charlotte Gulick. It was formally presented to the public exactly 2 years later. 1914 - Russia increased the number of active duty military from 460,000 to 1,700,000. 1917 - America’s first bowling tournament for ladies began in St. Louis, MO. Almost 100 women participated in the event. 1930 - Al Capone was released from jail. 1941 - The National Gallery of Art was officially opened by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, DC. 1942 - Douglas MacArthur became the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in the Southwestern Pacific. 1944 - During World War II, the U.S. bombed Vienna. 1950 - Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced that they had created a new radioactive element. They named it "californium". It is also known as element 98. 1958 - The Vanguard 1 satellite was launched by the U.S. 1959 - The Dalai Lama (Lhama Dhondrub, Tenzin Gyatso) fled Tibet and went to India. 1961 - The U.S. increased military aid and technicians to Laos. 1962 - Moscow asked the U.S. to pull out of South Vietnam. 1966 - A U.S. submarine found a missing H-bomb in the Mediterranean off of Spain. 1967 - Snoopy and Charlie Brown of "Peanuts" were on the cover of "LIFE" magazine. 1969 - Golda Meir was sworn in as the fourth premier of Israel. 1970 - The U.S. Army charged 14 officers with suppression of facts in the My Lai massacre case. 1972 - U.S. President Nixon asked Congress to halt busing in order to achieve desegregation. 1973 - Twenty were killed in Cambodia when a bomb went off that was meant for the Cambodian President Lon Nol. 1973 - The first American prisoners of war (POWs) were released from the "Hanoi Hilton" in Hanoi, North Vietnam. 1982 - In El Salvador, four Dutch television crewmembers were killed by government troops. 1985 - U.S. President Reagan agreed to a joint study with Canada on acid rain. 1989 - A series of solar flares caused a violent magnetic storm that brought power outages over large regions of Canada. 1992 - In Buenos Aires, 10 people were killed in a suicide car-bomb attack against the Israeli embassy. 1992 - White South Africans approved constitutional reforms to give legal equality to blacks. 1995 - Gerry Adams became the first leader of Sinn Fein to be received at the White House. 1998 - Washington Mutual announced it had agreed to buy H.F. Ahmanson and Co. for $9.9 billion dollars. The deal created the nation's seventh-largest banking company. 1999 - A panel of medical experts concluded that marijuana had medical benefits for people suffering from cancer and AIDS. 1999 - The International Olympic Committee expelled six of its members in the wake of a bribery scandal. 2000 - In Norway, Jens Stotenberg and the Labour Party took office as Prime Minister. The coalition government of Kjell Magne Bondevik resigned on March 9 as a result of an environmental dispute. 2000 - In Kanungu, Uganda, a fire at a church linked to the cult known as the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments killed more than 530. On March 31, officials set the number of deaths linked to the cult at more than 900 after authorities subsequently found mass graves at various sites linked to the cult. 2007 - Mike Modano (Dallas Stars) scored his 502nd and 503rd career goals making him the all-time U.S. leader in goal-scoring. 2009 - The iTunes Music Store reached 800 million applications downloaded.
1762 The first St. Patrick's Day parade was held in New York City. 1776 British forces evacuated Boston during the Revolutionary War. 1870 Wellesley Female Seminary (later Wellesley College) received its charter from the Massachusetts legislature. 1942 Gen. Douglas MacArthur became supreme commander of Allied forces in the southwest Pacific theater during World War II. 1963 Mount Agung on Bali erupted, killing 1,184 people. 1969 Golda Meir was sworn in as prime minister of Israel. 2003 President Bush delivered an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein: leave Iraq within 48 hours or face an attack. Read more: This Day in History: March 17 | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory/March-17#ixzz2uFjgBKDz
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/mar17.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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