On this day: 17 March

Years ago today

Events · 21

• 45 BCE(Julian date)
  Battle of Munda — final battle of Caesar's civil war against the Roman Republic, and against the Optimate leaders
• 1452(Julian date)
  Battle of Los Alporchones — 1452 battle of the Spanish Reconquista
• 1776
  Evacuation Day — commemorates the evacuation of British forces from Boston in 1776
• 1805
  Kingdom of Italy — kingdom in southern Europe between 1805 and 1814
• 1824
  Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 — 1824 treaty
• 1842
  Relief Society — women's organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• 1860
  First Taranaki War — 1860s war between the Māori and the New Zealand government
• 1861
  Kingdom of Italy — kingdom in Southern Europe from 1861 to 1946
• 1864
  Battle of Jasmund — 1864 battle
• 1890
  Convention of Calcutta
• 1948
  Treaty of Brussels — 1948 Western European defence treaty
• 1955
  Richard Riot — Riot that occurred in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• 1957
  1957 Cebu Douglas C-47 crash — Aircraft accident in the Philippines, killing 25
• 1960
  Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710 — 1960 aviation accident
• 1973
  Burst of Joy — photograph
• 1979
  Aeroflot Flight 1691 — 1979 Tupolev Tu-104 crash near Moscow
• 1988
  Avianca Flight 410 — 1988 aviation accident
• 1988
  Battle of Afabet — 1988 watershed battle in the Eritrean War of Independence
• 1992
  1992 attack on Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires — 1992 suicide bombing attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires
• 1992
  South African apartheid referendum, 1992 — 1992 referendum in South Africa to endorse the moves to end apartheid
• 2004
  2004 unrest in Kosovo — unrest in Kosovo in March 2004

Births · 60

• 1473(Julian date)
  James IV of Scotland — King of Scotland from 1488 to 1513 (1473-1513)
• 1537(Julian date)
  Toyotomi Hideyoshi — Japanese samurai and daimyo (1537–1598)
• 1754
  Manon Roland — French revolutionary
• 1777
  Roger B. Taney — chief justice of the United States from 1836 to 1864 (1777–1864)
• 1834
  Gottlieb Daimler — German engineer and industrialist (1834–1900)
• 1846
  Kate Greenaway — British artist (1846-1901)
• 1856
  Mikhail Vrubel — Russian painter (1856-1910)
• 1862
  Silvio Gesell — German-Argentine economist (1862–1930)
• 1873
  Margaret Bondfield — British feminist and trade unionist (1873–1953)
• 1880
  Lawrence Oates — British explorer (1880-1912)
• 1881
  Walter Rudolf Hess — Swiss physiologist (1881-1973)
• 1886
  Princess Patricia of Connaught — British princess (1886-1974); younger daughter of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, and Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia
• 1901
  Alfred Newman — American composer (1900-1970)
• 1902
  Bobby Jones — American amateur golfer and lawyer (1902–1971)
• 1907
  Takeo Miki — Japanese politician (1907-1988)
• 1908
  Brigitte Helm — German actress (1908–1996)
• 1919
  Nat King Cole — American singer and jazz pianist (1919–1965)
• 1920
  Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — President of the Provisional Government of Bangladesh and the 2nd Prime Minister and first President of Bangladesh
• 1925
  Gabriele Ferzetti — Italian actor (1925-2015)
• 1926
  — German author (1926-2014)
• 1930
  James Irwin — American astronaut (1930-1991)
• 1933
  Penelope Lively — British novelist (born 1933)
• 1936
  Ken Mattingly — American astronaut
• 1938
  Rudolf Nureyev — Soviet ballet dancer and choreographer (1938–1993)
• 1939
  Giovanni Trapattoni — Italian association football player and manager (born 1939)

Deaths · 60

• 45 BCE(Julian date)
  Titus Labienus — lieutenant of Julius Caesar in Gaul
• 180(Julian date)
  Marcus Aurelius — 16th Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 and Stoic philosopher
• 659
  Gertrude of Nivelles — Benedictine abbess and saint (626-659)
• 1008(Julian date)
  Emperor Kazan — Emperor of Japan
• 1040(Julian date)
  Harold Harefoot — King of England from 1035 to 1040
• 1058(Julian date)
  Lulach — Scottish king (1030-1058)
• 1272(Julian date)
  Emperor Go-Saga — Emperor of Japan
• 1303(Julian date)
  Otto IV, Count of Burgundy — Count Palatine of Burgundy
• 1361(Julian date)
  An-Nàssir Hàssan — Mamluk Sultan of Egypt 1347-1361 (intermittent)
• 1406(Julian date)
  Ibn Khaldun — historiographer and historian
• 1425(Julian date)
  Ashikaga Yoshikazu — The fifth shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate of Japan (1407–1425)
• 1516(Julian date)
  Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours — Italian nobleman, the third son of Lorenzo the Magnificent (1479-1516)
• 1640
  Philip Massinger — English playwright (1583–1640)
• 1680
  François de La Rochefoucauld — French author of maxims and memoirs (1613-1680)
• 1741
  Jean-Baptiste Rousseau — French poet
• 1782
  Daniel Bernoulli — Swiss mathematician and physicist (1700-1782)
• 1828
  James Edward Smith — English botanist, founder of the Linnean Society of London (1759–1828)
• 1829
  Sophia Albertina of Sweden — Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg (1753–1829)
• 1830
  Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr — Marshal of France (1764-1830)
• 1846
  Friedrich Bessel — German astronomer and mathematician
• 1849
  William II of the Netherlands — King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1840 to 1849 (1792-1849)
• 1853
  Christian Dopplerr — Austrian mathematician and physicist (1803-1853)
• 1871
  Robert Chambers — Scottish publisher and writer (1802–1871)
• 1893
  Jules Ferry — French politician (1832-1893)
• 1902
  John Houlding — English businessman