March 17Birthdays & History

On this day: March 17 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 45 BCIn his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda.Europe
2. 180Commodus becomes sole emperor of the Roman Empire at the age of eighteen, following the death of his father, Marcus Aurelius.Europe
3. 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.Europe
4. 1337Edward the Black Prince is made Duke of Cornwall, the first duchy in England.Europe
5. 1400Turko-Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus.AsiaMiddle East
6. 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.North AmericaEurope
7. 1805The Italian Republic, with Napoleon as president, becomes the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King of Italy.Europe
8. 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.EuropeAsia
9. 1842The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo is formally organized with Emma Smith as president.North America
10. 1860The First Taranaki War begins in Taranaki, New Zealand, a major phase of the New Zealand Wars.Oceania
11. 1861The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed.Europe
12. 1862The first railway line of Finland between cities of Helsinki and Hämeenlinna, called Päärata, is officially opened.Europe
13. 1891SS Utopia collides with HMS Anson in the Bay of Gibraltar and sinks, killing 562 of the 880 passengers on board.Europe
14. 1921The Second Polish Republic adopts the March Constitution.Europe
15. 1942Holocaust: The first Jews from the Lvov Ghetto are gassed at the Belzec death camp in what is today eastern Poland.Europe
16. 1945World War II: The Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany, collapses, ten days after its capture.Europe
17. 1948Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO.Europe
18. 1950Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley announce the creation of element 98, which they name "californium".North America
19. 1957A plane crash in Cebu, Philippines kills Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others.Asia
20. 1958The United States launches the first solar-powered satellite, which is also the first satellite to achieve a long-term orbit.North America
21. 1960Northwest Airlines Flight 710 explodes and crashes near Cannelton, Indiana, killing 63.North America
22. 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.North AmericaLatin America
23. 1962A Clockwork Orange, a British dystopian novel by Anthony Burgess, is published.Europe
24. 1963Mount Agung erupts on Bali killing more than 1,100 people.Asia
25. 1966Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the DSV Alvin submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb.EuropeNorth America
26. 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.North America
27. 1969Golda Meir becomes the first female Prime Minister of Israel.Middle East
28. 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.North AmericaAsia
29. 1979Aeroflot Flight 1691 crashes on approach to Vnukovo International Airport, killing 58.Europe
30. 1979The Penmanshiel Tunnel collapses during engineering works, killing two workers.Europe
31. 1985Serial killer Richard Ramirez, aka the "Night Stalker", commits the first two murders in his Los Angeles murder spree.North America
32. 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.Africa
33. 1988A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into a mountainside near the Venezuelan border killing 143.Latin America
34. 1992Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires: Car bomb attack kills 29 and injures 242.Middle EastLatin America
35. 1992A referendum to end apartheid in South Africa is passed 68.7% to 31.2%.Africa
36. 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 later found dead.Africa
37. 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.EuropeMiddle East
38. 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.Europe
39. 2016Rojava conflict: At a conference in Rmelan, the Movement for a Democratic Society declares the establishment of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.Middle East

Source: Wikipedia "March 17" / CC BY-SA 4.0