What Happened on March 17
Significant Events
- 432 Saint Patrick, aged about 16 is captured by Irish pirates from his home in Great Britain and taken as a slave to Ireland (traditional date)
- 1521 Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines
- 1861 Italy is unified into a single kingdom under Victor Emmanuel II following the campaigns led by Giuseppe Garibaldi
- 1905 Albert Einstein finishes his scientific paper detailing his Quantum Theory of Light, one of the foundations of modern physics
- 1939 Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and the Japanese breaks out (Sino-Japanese War 1937-1945)
- 1942 Bełżec Concentration Camp opens with the transport of 30,000 Lublin Polish Jews
March 17 in Film & TV
- 1960 One of the first French New Wave films, "Breathless", directed by Jean-Luc Godard, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg is released in France
March 17 in Music
March 17 in Sport
- 1908 Tommy Burns KOs Jem Roche in 88 seconds in the quickest world heavyweight boxing title fight
Did You Know?
John Philip Holland achieves successful test run for the first modern submarine off Staten Island, submerging for 1 hour 40 minutes
On March 17, 1898
Famous Birthdays
Dred Scott
(1777 - 1858)
Bobby Jones
(1902 - 1971)
Nat King Cole
(1919 - 1965)
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
(1922 - 1975)
John Wayne Gacy
(1942 - 1994)
Billy Corgan
51 Years Old
Famous Weddings
- 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
- 1961 Actor Christopher Lee (38) weds actress Gitte Lee (25)
- 1966 The Who drummer Keith Moon (19) weds model Kim Kerrigan (18) at Brent Registry Office
Famous Divorces
- 2008 Musician Paul McCartney (65) divorces former model and anti-landmines campaigner Heather Mills (40) on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour
Marcus Aurelius
Christian Doppler
Irene Joliot-Curie
Ramon Magsaysay
Helen HayesMarch in History
Nature Blows Gunboat Diplomacy Out of the Water
The world's superpowers were prepared to use the power of their warships to control the Samoan Islands in the 1880s. But nature had other ideas.
March 15, 1889
Nat King Cole's Struggle With Racism
Sure, he had unique talent and a golden voice, but as Nat King Cole, born on this day, was to discover, that wasn't enough for American racists.
March 17, 1917
The First People To Hop On A Bus
It was an idea probably two centuries years ahead of its time, but public buses first took to the streets of Paris on this day in history.
March 18, 1662
Dr Livingstone, I Presume?
Explorer David Livingstone, born on this day, spawned one of the most famous encounters when he was found in Africa by journalist Henry Stanley.
March 19, 1813