March 17......

March 17 is the 76th (77th in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 289 days remaining in the year on this date.

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

EVENTS

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

● 432 - St. Patrick, a bishop, is carried off to Ireland as a slave {Date appears apocryphal since March 17 is also recorded as the date his death.}

● 455 - Roman senator Petronius Maximus becomes Emperor

● 461 - Bishop Patrick, St. Patrick, died in Saul. Ireland celebrates this day in his honor. (NYT -- Some sources list the year as 493, others say 461.)

● 624 - A key victory by Muhammad over his Meccan adversaries in the Battle of Badr.

● 1526 - French king François I freed from Spain

● 1537 - French troops invade Flanders

● 1577 - The Cathay Company is formed to send Martin Frobisher back to the New World for more gold.

● 1580 - Prince Willem of Orange welcomed in Amsterdam

● 1658 - Pro-Charles II plot in England discovered

● 1672 - England declares war on Netherlands

● 1673 - Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet begin their exploration of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi river.

● 1722 - Willem KH Friso appointed mayor of Drente

● 1734 - Forty-two families of German Protestant refugees landed in the American colonies. Sponsored by the British Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK), the 78 religious pilgrims soon founded the town of Ebenezer, 30 miles from Savannah, Georgia.

● 1753 - 1st official St Patrick's Day

● 1755(75?) - Richard Henderson, a North Carolina judge, buys a vast tract of Cherokee land for the Transylvania Land Co.; purchase is later declared invalid but land cession is not reversed.

● 1756 - St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in New York City for the first time (at the Crown and Thistle Tavern).

● 1757 - Prince Mas Saïd of Mataram surrenders to Mangkubumi in Java

● 1762 - 1st St Patrick's Day parade in NYC

● 1766 - Britain repealed the Stamp Act that had caused resentment in the North American colonies.

● 1776 - American Revolution: British forces evacuate Boston, Massachusetts after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery overlooking the city.

● 1777 - Roger Taney, the fifth chief justice of the United States and author of the Supreme Court's infamous Dred Scott decision on slavery, was born in Calvert County, Maryland.

● 1789 - Birth of Charlotte Elliott, English devotional writer. An illness at age 33 left her an invalid her remaining 50 years, during which she devoted herself to religious writing. Of her 150 hymns, "Just As I Am" remains popular today.

● 1800 - English warship Queen Charlotte catches fire; 700 die

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

● 1824 - England & Netherlands sign a trade agreement

● 1826 - The utopian Kendal Community founded in Ohio. "Friendly Association for Mutual Interests."

● 1836 - Texas abolishes slavery

● 1841 - Birth of James R. Murray, American sacred music editor. A veteran of the American Civil War, Murray is better remembered today as composer of the hymn tune MUELLER, to which we sing the Christmas carol, "Away in a Manger."

● 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

● 1854 - 1st park land purchased by a US city, Worcester MA

● 1860 - Japanese embassy arrives aboard Candinmarruh

● 1861 - Italy declares independence; Kingdom of Italy proclaimed

● 1863 - Battle of Kelly's Ford, Virginia (211 casualities)

● 1868 - Postage stamp canceling machine patent issued

● 1870 - Wellesley College was incorporated by the Massachusetts legislature under its first name, Wellesley Female Seminary.

● 1871 - Official founding of the Paris Commune, lasting 71 days.

● 1876 - U.S. Army soldiers attack and massacre a sleeping village of Lakota, mistakenly believing it to be the encampment of Lakota warrior Crazy Horse. Powder River, South Dakota. In the first of a series of "battles" to claim the Black Hills -- promised to the Lakota "in perpetuity" less than a decade previous" -- Col. Joseph Reynolds leads troops in an attack on a peaceful camp near the Powder River. From positions on ledges and behind rocks, the Indians hold the soldiers at bay until women and children can escape across the river. Then the brave soldiers burn the tepees and everything inside, including the winter food supply, and drive away all the Lakotas' ponies. After dark, the Indians will raid the Army encampment and recover their stolen horses. This lead to a court martial of Colonel Reynolds.

● 1884 - John Joseph Montgomery made the first glider flight in Otay, California.

● 1886 - Carrollton Massacre, (Mississippi) 20 blacks killed

● 1890 - Birth of Julius R. Mantey, co-author (with H. E. Dana) of a popular intermediate biblical language grammar. Originally published in 1927, the "Dana & Mantey" New Testament Greek Grammar is still popular, and still in print!

● 1891 - The British steamship SS Utopia sinks off the coast of Gibraltar, killing 574.

● 1894 - US & China sign treaty preventing Chinese laborers from entering US

● 1897 - Emilie Grace Briggs became the first woman in America to graduate from a Presbyterian theological school, when she received her Bachelor of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary, in New York City.

● 1898 - 1st practical submarine 1st submerges, New York NY (for 1 hour 40 minutes)

● 1899 - Windsor luxury hotel in NYC catches fire, 92 die

● 1901 - Birth of anarchist/typographer Severino di Giovanni, Chieti, Italy.

● 1901 - Free thinking-Democratic Union forms in Netherlands

● 1901 - A showing of 71 Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris, 11 years after his death, creates a sensation.

● 1902 - Bobby Jones, the American golfer who was the first winner of the Grand Slam, was born.

● 1905 - Franklin D. Roosevelt married his distant cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt, in New York City. The wedding was attended by President Theodore Roosevelt, FDR's fifth cousin, who gave his niece away.

● 1906 - President Theodore Roosevelt first used the term "muck-rake" as he criticized what he saw as the excesses of investigative journalism in a speech to the Gridiron Club in Washington.

● 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.

● 1913 - The Uruguayan Air Force was founded.

● 1914 - Russia increased the number of active duty military from 460,000 to 1,700,000.

● 1919 - Dutch steel workers strike for 8 hour day & minimum wages

● 1920 - General strike overcomes Kapp Putsch, Germany.

● 1921 - Dr Marie Stopes opens Britain's 1st birth control clinic (London)

● 1921 - Lenin proclaims New Economic Politics

● 1921 - Red Army crushes sailor revolt at Kronstadt Naval Base, Russia. Under the direction of Trotsky, who boasted he would "shoot them like pigeons," thousands are slaughtered when the island is taken.

● 1921 - The Second Republic of Poland adopts the March Constitution.

● 1924 - Netherlands & USSR begin talks over USSR recognition

● 1924 - Sweden & USSR exchange diplomats

● 1926 - Dutch Calvinists oust Reverend J G Geelkerken over Genesis 3

● 1926 - Spain & Brazil prevent Germany joining League of Nations

● 1927 - Arthur Ponsonby proposed abolition of Royal Air Force, House of Commons, Britain.

● 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

● 1930 - Al Capone was released from jail.

● 1931 - Stalin throws Krupskaya Lenin out of Central Committee

● 1931 - Nevada legalizes gambling.

● 1932 - German police raid Hitler's Nazi-headquarters

● 1934 - Dollfuss, Mussolini & Gömbös sign Donau Pact (protocols of Rome)

● 1939 - Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945): The Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and the Japanese breaks out.

● 1941 - In Washington, DC, the National Gallery of Art is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

● 1942 - Holocaust: 1,500 Jews from the Lviv Ghetto (western Ukraine) arrived at Belzec death camp (eastern Poland). Until 30 March 15,000 Jews from Lviv (Ukraine) were deported to face death in Belzec by German Gestapo.

● 1942 - General Doug MacArthur arrives in Australia to become supreme commander in the southwest Pacific theater.

● 1943 - Aldemarin (Ned) & Fort Cedar Lake (US) torpedoed & sinks

● 1944 - During World War II, the U.S. bombed Vienna.

● 1945 - Allied ships bomb North-Sumatra

● 1948 - Benelux, France, and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the NATO Agreement.

● 1950 - Belgian government of Eyskens resigns

● 1950 - University of California, Berkeley researchers announce the creation of element 98, which they name "Californium".

● 1953 - At a "Friendly Sons of St. Patrick" dinner in New York, U.S. Attorney General Herb Brownell boasts that "10,000 citizens are being investigated for denaturalization, and 12,000 aliens for deportation as subversives."

● 1953 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1957 - BEA withdraws Viscount aircraft; British European Airways withdraws 25 Viscount 701s in the wake of the fatal Manchester aircrash.

● 1957 - Dutch ban on Sunday driving lifted

● 1957 - Ramon Magsaysay, President of Philippines dies in a plane crash

● 1958 - Navy launches Vanguard 1 into orbit (2nd US), measures Earth shape

● 1959 - Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet and travels to India.

● 1959 - Australia & USSR restore diplomatic relations

● 1960 - President Eisenhower signed a National Security Council directive on the anti-Cuban covert action program which lead to the Bay of Pig invasion

● 1961 - New York DA arrests professional gamblers who implicate Seton Hall players

● 1961 - South Africa leaves British Commonwealth

● 1961 - The U.S. increased military aid and technicians to Laos.

● 1962 - Moscow asked the U.S. to pull out of South Vietnam.

● 1963 - Elizabeth Ann Seton of New York beatified (canonized in 1975)

● 1963 - Eruptions of Mount Agung Bali, kills 1,500 Balinese

● 1965 - Italy - U.S.-backed King Farouk of Egypt, well-deposed and exiled, dies in Rome.

● 1965 - Sixteen hundred demonstrate at Montgomery, Alabama courthouse.

● 1966 - Beginning of a three week march by Cesar Chavez and the National Farm Workers Association, from Delano to Sacramento, Calif., arriving on Easter Sunday.

● 1966 - South Africa government bans Defense & Aid Fund

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

● 1968 - Anti-Vietnam demo turns violent; More than 200 people are arrested after thousands clash in an anti-Vietnam war protest outside the United States embassy in London.

● 1968 - 2-tiered gold price negotiated in Washington DC by US & 6 European nations

● 1969 - Golda Meir of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, becomes the 4th Prime Minister of Israel.

● 1970 - U.S. postal wildcat strike.

● 1970 - My Lai massacre: The United States Army charges 14 officers with suppressing information related to the incident.

● 1970 - US casts their 1st UN Security Council veto (in support of Great Britain)

● 1972 - Dita Beard dictates a statement from a hospital to which she had been spirited by Nixon Administration agents, alleging her previously disclosed memo linking an ITT trust settlement with a Nixon re-election campaign contribution was a "forgery" and a "hoax."

● 1972 - U.S. President Nixon asked Congress to halt busing in order to achieve desegregation. {The Republicans were firmly entrenched in their 'Southern Strategy' by this time.}

● 1973 - Queen Elizabeth II opens new London Bridge

● 1973 - St Patrick's Day marchers carry 14 coffins commemorating Bloody Sunday

● 1973 - The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph Burst of Joy is taken, as a former prisoner of war comes home to the United States to reunite with his family.

● 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.

● 1974 - Three thousand Ethiopian women workers march for equal pay and better labor conditions.

● 1976 - Italy - Nationwide wildcat work stoppage, roads blocked, town halls besieged. Unions declare a one-day general strike.

● 1976 - Rubin "Hurricane" Carter is retried

● 1976 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1978 - Worst oil spill off Brittany - Supertanker Amoco Cadiz breaks in two; 223,000 tons lost.

● 1978 - Civilians flee southern Lebanon; Thousands of Palestinian civilians flee a third day of Israeli attacks.

● 1982 - 4 Dutch TV crew members shot dead in El Salvador

● 1984 - Boat race halted before starting; The 130th Boat Race is postponed less than an hour before it is due to start after the Cambridge vessel is involved in a collision.

● 1985 - U.S. President Reagan agreed to a joint study with Canada on acid rain.

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

● 1986 - Haemers gang robs gold transport in Belgium of 35 million BF

● 1988 - U.S. soldiers sent to Honduras.

● 1988 - A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into the side of the mountains near the Venezuelan border killing 143.

● 1988 - Iran says Iraq uses poison gas

● 1989 - A series of solar flares caused a violent magnetic storm that brought power outages over large regions of Canada.

● 1991 - New Jersey raises turnpike tolls 70%

● 1991 - USSR holds a referendum to determine if they should stay together; 9 of 15 Soviet representatives officially approve new union treaty

● 1992 - De Klerk wins a white only referendum in South Africa {DUH!}

● 1992 - Islamic Jihad truck bombs Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires Argentina killing 29

● 1992 - Russian manned space craft TM-14, launches into orbit

● 1993 - Actress Helen Hayes died at age 92.

● 1993 - 86 killed by bomb attack in Calcutta

● 1994 - Iran transport aircraft crashes in Azerbaijan (32 killed)

● 1995 - Sinn-Fein leader Gerry Adams visits White House

● 1995 - US approves 1st chicken pox vaccine, Varivax by Merck & Co

● 1995 - Killer Ronnie Kray dies; Notorious gangland killer Ronnie Kray dies in hospital two days after he collapses in his ward at Broadmoor.

● 1996 - Thirty thousand march in Villahermosa, Mexico, in support of a campaign to blockade state-owned oil wells that had displaced thousands of poor people.

● 1997 - CNN begins Spanish broadcasts

● 1999 - A panel of medical experts concluded that marijuana had medical benefits for people suffering from cancer and AIDS. {And the US government has chosen forever more to ignore these facts.}

● 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.

● 2003 - Edging to the brink of war, President George W. Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave his country. Iraq rejected the ultimatum.

● 2003 - British Cabinet Minister, Robin Cook, resigns over government plans for war with Iraq.

● 2004 - Massive Unrest in Kosovo. Over 22 killed, 200 wounded, 35 destroyed Serb Orthodox shrines in Kosovo and two mosques in Belgrade and Nis.

BIRTHS

● 1231 - Emperor Shijo of Japan (d. 1242)

● 1473 - King James IV of Scotland (d. 1513)

● 1628 - François Girardon, French sculptor (d. 1715)

● 1676 - Thomas Boston, Scottish church leader (d. 1732)

● 1686 - Jean-Baptiste Oudry, French Rococo painter, designer and illustrator (d. 1755)

● 1725 - Lachlan McIntosh, Scottish-born American military and political leader (d. 1806)

● 1777 - Roger Brooke Taney, 5th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (d. 1864)

● 1780 - Thomas Chalmers, Scottish pastor, social reformer, author, and scientist (d. 1847)

● 1804 - Jim Bridger, American trapper and explorer (d. 1881)

● 1820 - Jean Ingelow, English poet (d. 1897)

● 1834 - Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer and inventor (d. 1900)

● 1846 - Kate Greenaway, English children's author and illustrator (d. 1901)

● 1849 - Charles Brush, American inventor and industrialist (d. 1929)

● 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)

● 1880 - Sir Patrick Hastings, British barrister (d. 1952)

● 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)

● 1892 - Benjamin Drake Van Wissen, Australian Engineer (d. 1984)

● 1894 - Paul Green, American writer (d. 1981)

● 1899 - Gloria Swanson, American film, stage and television actress (d. 1983)

● 1901 - Alfred Newman, American film composer (d. 1970)

● 1902 - Bobby Jones, American golfer; first to win the Grand Slam (d. 1971)

● 1907 - Sonny Werblin, former owner of the New York Jets (d. 1991)

● 1908 - Brigitte Helm, German actress (d. 1996)

● 1912 - Bayard Rustin, American civil rights activist (d. 1987)

● 1914 - Sammy Baugh, American football player

● 1916 - Ray Ellington, British singer (d. 1985)

● 1919 - Nat King Cole, American singer (d. 1965)

● 1922 - Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Founding Leader of Bangladesh (d. 1975)

● 1926 - Siegfried Lenz, German writer

● 1930 - James Irwin, American astronaut (d. 1991)

● 1933 - Myrlie Evers-Williams, Former NAACP chairwoman

● 1936 - Ladislav Kupkovic, Slovakian composer

● 1936 - Ken Mattingly, American astronaut

● 1938 - Rudolf Nureyev, Russian-born dancer and choreographer (d. 1993)

● 1938 - Keith Michael Patrick O'Brien, Northern Irish clergyman

● 1939 - Jim Gary, American sculptor (d. 2006)

● 1940 - Mark White, American politician

● 1941 - Paul Kantner, American musician (Jefferson Airplane/Starship)

● 1942 - John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (d. 1994)

● 1942 - Dimitris Poulikakos, Greek composer, singer and actor

● 1943 - Jim Weatherly, Singer, songwriter

● 1944 - Pattie Boyd, British photographer and model

● 1944 - Cito Gaston, American baseball player and manager

● 1944 - John Sebastian, American singer and songwriter (Lovin' Spoonful)

● 1945 - Elis Regina, Brazilian singer (d. 1982)

● 1945 - Michael Hayden, General USAF, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency

● 1945 - Katri Helena, Finnish singer

● 1946 - Harold Brown, Rock musician (War)

● 1947 - James Morrow, American author

● 1947 - Kurt Russell, American actor

● 1948 - William Gibson, American writer

● 1949 - Patrick Duffy, American actor

● 1949 - Pat Rice, Northern Irish footballer and football manager

● 1950 - Patrick Adams, American record producer and songwriter

● 1951 - Kurt Russell, Actor

● 1951 - Donald Findlay, Scottish lawyer

● 1951 - Scott Gorham, American musician (Thin Lizzy)

● 1952 - Susie Allanson, Country singer

● 1953 - Filemon Lagman, Filipino communist revolutionary (d. 2001)

● 1954 - Lesley-Anne Down, English actress

● 1955 - Cynthia McKinney, American politician

● 1955 - Paul Overstreet, Country singer

● 1955 - Gary Sinise, American actor ("CSI: NY")

● 1956 - Patrick McDonnell, American cartoonist

● 1957 - Mal Donaghy, Northern Irish footballer

● 1957 - Michael Kelly, American journalist (d. 2003)

● 1959 - Danny Ainge, American basketball player and coach

● 1960 - Vicki Lewis, Actress

● 1961 - Casey Siemaszko, American actor

● 1962 - Rob Sitch, Writer-director

● 1962 - Clare Grogan, Scottish actress-singer

● 1963 - Nick Peros, Canadian composer

● 1964 - Rob Lowe, American actor

● 1964 - Lee Dixon, English footballer

● 1967 - Billy Corgan, American musician (Smashing Pumpkins)

● 1967 - Van Conner, Rock musician (Screaming Trees)

● 1967 - Barry Minkow, American businessman

● 1969(68? NYT) - Mathew St. Patrick, American actor (''Six Feet Under'')

● 1970(69? NYT) - Yanic Truesdale, Canadian actor (''Gilmore Girls'')

● 1971 - Bill Mueller, American baseball player

● 1972 - Melissa Auf der Maur, Canadian musician

● 1972 - Marc Gunn, poet, podcaster, and Celtic musician (Brobdingnagian Bards)

● 1972 - Mia Hamm, American soccer player

● 1973 - Rico Blanco, Filipino singer (Rivermaya)

● 1973 - Caroline Corr, Irish singer and musician (The Corrs)

● 1974 - Marisa Coughlan, Actress

● 1975 - Swifty, Rapper (D12)

● 1975 - Justin Hawkins, British singer (The Darkness)

● 1975 - Andrew Martin, Canadian professional wrestler known as Test

● 1976 - Stephen Gately, Irish singer, musician, and actor (Boyzone)

● 1979 - Andrew Ference, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1979 - Samoa Joe, Samoan professional wrestler

● 1979 - Nicole Austin, American model

DEATHS

● 45 BC - Titus Labienus, Roman leader

● 45 BC - Gnaeus Pompeius, the Younger, Roman general

● 180 - Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor (b. 121)

● 493 - Saint Patrick, patron saint of Ireland

● 659 - Gertrude of Nivelles, Belgian abbess

● 1040 - Harold Harefoot, King of England

● 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 di Lorenzo de' Medici, ruler of Florence (b. 1478)

● 1565 - Alexander Ales, Scottish theologian (b. 1500)

● 1620 - St. John Sarkander, Moravian priest, died of injuries caused by torturing

● 1640 - Philip Massinger, English dramatist (b. 1583)

● 1680 - François de La Rochefoucauld, French writer (b. 1613)

● 1704 - Menno van Coehoorn, Dutch military engineer (b. 1641)

● 1715 - Gilbert Burnet, Scottish Bishop of Salisbury (b. 1643)

● 1741 - Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French poet (b. 1671)

● 1764 - George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, English astronomer

● 1782 - Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-born mathematician (b. 1700)

● 1830 - Laurent, Marquis de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, French marshal (b. 1764)

● 1846 - Friedrich Bessel, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1784)

● 1849 - William II of the Netherlands (b. 1792)

● 1853 - Christian Doppler, Austrian physician and mathematician (b. 1803)

● 1875 - Ferdinand Laub, Czech violinist (b. 1832)

● 1893 - Jules Ferry, French statesman (b. 1832)

● 1917 - Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist (b. 1838)

● 1926 - Aleksei Brusilov, Russian general (b. 1853)

● 1937 - Austen Chamberlain, English statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1863)

● 1941 - Marguerite Nichols, American actress (b. 1895)

● 1949 - Aleksandra Ekster, Russian painter (b. 1882)

● 1956 - Fred Allen, American actor and comedian (b. 1894)

● 1956 - Irene Joliot-Curie, French physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1897)

● 1957 - Ramon Magsaysay, President of the Philippines (b. 1907)

● 1965 - Amos Alonzo Stagg, American football coach, player, and innovator (b. 1862)

● 1974 - Louis Kahn, American architect

● 1976 - Luchino Visconti, Italian director (b. 1906)

● 1981 - Paul Dean, American baseball player (b. 1913)

● 1983 - Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1903)

● 1987 - Santo Trafficante, Jr., American gangster (b. 1914)

● 1989 - Merritt Butrick, American actor (b. 1959)

● 1990 - Capucine, French actress (b. 1931)

● 1993 - Helen Hayes, American actress (b. 1900)

● 1995 - Ronnie Kray, British gangster (b. 1933)

● 1995 - Rick Aviles, American actor (b.1952)

● 1999 - Ernest Gold, Austrian composer (b. 1921)

● 1999 - Rod Hull, British comedian (b. 1936)

● 2002 - Rosetta LeNoire, American actress (b. 1911)

● 2002 - Pat Weaver, American broadcast executive (b. 1908)

● 2004 - J.J. Jackson, American television personality (b. 1941)

● 2005 - George F. Kennan, American Cold War strategist and historian (b. 1904)

● 2005 - Andre Norton, American writer (b. 1912)

● 2006 - Bob Blue, American singer/songwriter

● 2006 - Oleg Cassini, American fashion designer (b. 1913)

● 2006 - Ray Meyer, American basketball coach (b. 1913)

● 2006 - Bob Papenbrook, American voice actor (b. 1955)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Agricola
● St. Gertrude of Nivelles
● St. Jan Sarkander
● St. Joseph of Arimathea
● St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland
● St. Paul of Cyprus
● Bl. Peter Lieou

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for March 4 (Civil Date: March 17)
● St. Gerasimus of the Jordan.
● Martyrs Paul, his sister Juliana, and Quadratus, Acacius, and Stratonicus, at Ptolemais in Syria.
● St. Gregory, Bishop of Constantius in Cyprus.
● St. James the Faster of Phoenicia (Syria).
● St. Daniel, prince of Moscow.
● Martyr Wenceslaus, prince of the Czechs.
● Blessed Basil (Basilko), prince of Rostov.
● St. Gregory, Bishop of Assa near Ephesus.
● St. Gerasimus, monk of Vologda.
● Saints of Pskov martyred by the Latins.
● Saints Ioasaph of Snetogorsk and Basil of Mirozh monasteries.
● Repose of Schemamonk Mark of Glinsk Hermitage (1893).

● Christian:
● St. Gertrude of Nivelles
● St. Joseph of Arimathea

● Anglican:
● St. Patrick, bishop, missionary to Ireland

● Ancient Rome - the second day of the Bacchanalia in honor of Bacchus

● Ancient Rome - the Liberalia in honor of Liber

● Ancient Latvia - Kustonu Diena (return of the larks) observed

● Feast day of St. Patrick: a public holiday in Ireland (National feast) and Montserrat, widely celebrated in North America and worldwide

● World : World Maritime Day

● Boston, Massachusetts - Evacuation Day (1776)


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

Permanent Backlink to Post