On this day: March 17

Events on March 17

• 45 BC In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda. Wikipedia
• 180 Commodus becomes sole emperor of the Roman Empire at the age of eighteen, following the death of his father, Marcus Aurelius. Wikipedia
• 1400 Turko-Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus. Wikipedia
• 1776 American 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. Wikipedia
• 1776 American Revolutionary War: The 11‑month Siege of Boston ended with the evacuation of the city's British garrison. Wikipedia
• 1805 The Italian Republic, with Napoleon as president, becomes the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King of Italy. Wikipedia
• 1862 The first railway line of Finland between cities of Helsinki and Hämeenlinna, called Päärata, is officially opened. Wikipedia
• 1902 The Dorchester Heights Monument , memorializing the siege of Boston during the American Revolutionary War, was dedicated. Wikipedia
• 1917 World War I: Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster led a force to rescue 92 prisoners of war from Bir Hakeim, killing the Senussi guards and their families. Wikipedia
• 1942 The Holocaust: The first mass killings of Jews began at Belzec extermination camp in occupied Poland, the first of the Operation Reinhard camps to begin operation. Wikipedia
• 1942 Holocaust: The first Jews from the Lvov Ghetto are gassed at the Belzec death camp in what is today eastern Poland. Wikipedia
• 1945 World War II: The Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany, collapses, ten days after its capture. Wikipedia
• 1948 Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO. Wikipedia
• 1950 Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announced the synthesis of californium, a radioactive transuranium element. Wikipedia
• 1950 Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley announce the creation of element 98, which they name "californium". Wikipedia
• 1960 U.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. Wikipedia
• 1968 Six thousand sheep were killed on ranches near Dugway Proving Ground in Utah as a result of the U.S. Army spraying a nerve agent. Wikipedia
• 1969 Golda Meir becomes the first female Prime Minister of Israel. Wikipedia
• 1973 Slava Veder took his Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph Burst of Joy, which came to symbolize the end of United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Wikipedia
• 1973 The 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. Wikipedia
• 1988 A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into a mountainside near the Venezuelan border killing 143. Wikipedia
• 1988 Eritrean 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. Wikipedia
• 1992 A referendum to end apartheid in South Africa is passed 68.7% to 31.2%. Wikipedia
• 2000 Five 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. Wikipedia
• 2004 Unrest in Kosovo: More than 22 are killed and 200 wounded. Thirty-five Serbian Orthodox shrines in Kosovo and two mosques in Serbia are destroyed. Wikipedia
• 2011 First Libyan Civil War: The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1973, authorizing military intervention in Libya to protect civilians. Wikipedia

Born on March 17

• 763 Harun al-Rashid, Abbasid caliph (died 809) Wikipedia
• 1473 James IV of Scotland (died 1513) Wikipedia
• 1537 Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Japanese daimyō (died 1598) Wikipedia
• 1665 Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, French harpsichord player and composer (died 1729) Wikipedia
• 1834 Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer and businessman, co-founded Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (died 1900) Wikipedia
• 1842 Rosina Heikel, Finnish physician (died 1929) Wikipedia
• 1848 Ernesta Forti, Italian anarchist and dairy worker Wikipedia
• 1881 Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1973) Wikipedia
• 1888 Paul Ramadier, French lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of France (died 1961) Wikipedia
• 1907 Takeo Miki, Japanese politician, 41st Prime Minister of Japan (died 1988) Wikipedia
• 1919 Nat King Cole, American singer, pianist, and television host (died 1965) Wikipedia
• 1920 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladeshi politician, 1st President of Bangladesh (died 1975) Wikipedia
• 1938 Rudolf Nureyev, Russian-French dancer and choreographer (died 1993) Wikipedia
• 1939 Giovanni Trapattoni, Italian footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1948 William Gibson, American-Canadian author and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1969 Alexander McQueen, English fashion designer, founded eponymous brand (died 2010) Wikipedia
• 1979 Stormy Daniels, American adult film actress Wikipedia
• 1983 Raul Meireles, Portuguese footballer Wikipedia
• 1986 Edin Džeko, Bosnian footballer Wikipedia
• 1989 Shinji Kagawa, Japanese footballer Wikipedia
• 1992 John Boyega, British actor and producer Wikipedia
• 1997 Katie Ledecky, American swimmer Wikipedia

Died on March 17

• 180 Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor (born 121) Wikipedia
• 1406 Ibn Khaldun, Tunisian sociologist, historian, and scholar (born 1332) Wikipedia
• 1680 François de La Rochefoucauld, French author (born 1613) Wikipedia
• 1782 Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-Swiss mathematician and physicist (born 1700) Wikipedia
• 1846 Friedrich Bessel, German astronomer, mathematician, and physicist (born 1784) Wikipedia
• 1853 Christian Doppler, Austrian physicist and mathematician (born 1803) Wikipedia
• 1902 John Houlding, English businessman, founded Liverpool Football Club (born 1833) Wikipedia
• 1956 Irène Joliot-Curie, French physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1897) Wikipedia
• 1976 Luchino Visconti, Italian director and screenwriter (born 1906) Wikipedia
• 1983 Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1903) Wikipedia
• 1993 Helen Hayes, American actress (born 1900) Wikipedia
• 2007 John Backus, American mathematician and computer scientist, designed Fortran (born 1924) Wikipedia
• 2021 John Magufuli, the fifth President of Tanzania (born 1959) Wikipedia
• 2025 John Hemingway, Irish fighter pilot, last surviving Battle of Britain pilot (born 1919) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Birthday of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Bangladesh) Wikipedia
• Children's Day (Bangladesh) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Alexius of Rome (Eastern Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gertrude of Nivelles Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John Sarkander Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Joseph of Arimathea (Western Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Patrick of Ireland Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: March 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Evacuation Day (Suffolk County, Massachusetts) Wikipedia
• Saint Patrick's Day, a public holiday in Ireland, Montserrat and the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, widely celebrated in the English-speaking world and to a lesser degree in other parts of the world. Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “March 17” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.