On this day: March 17

Events on March 17

• 455 After arranging for the assassination of Valentinian III, Petronius Maximus secured the throne of the Western Roman Empire, only to be killed 11 weeks later during the sack of Rome. Wikipedia
• 1337 Edward the Black Prince was created Duke of Cornwall, the first English dukedom. Wikipedia
• 1452 Reconquista: Combined Castilian and Murcian forces defeated the Emirate of Granada at the Battle of Los Alporchones around the city of Lorca. Wikipedia
• 1677 Franco-Dutch War: France captured the town of Valenciennes in the Spanish Netherlands. Wikipedia
• 1776 American Revolutionary War: The 11‑month Siege of Boston ended with the evacuation of the city's British garrison. Wikipedia
• 1864 Second Schleswig War: In an attempt to end a Danish blockade, Eduard von Jachmann led a Prussian squadron in an attack against a Danish fleet led by Edvard van Dockum. Wikipedia
• 1891 The transatlantic steamship Utopia accidentally collided with the battleship HMS Anson in the Bay of Gibraltar, sinking in less than twenty minutes and killing 562. 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
• 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
• 1955 Ice hockey fans in Montreal rioted to protest the suspension of Montreal Canadiens star Maurice Richard for hitting an official. Wikipedia
• 1957 A plane crash on the slopes of Mount Manunggal killed Philippine president Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others. Wikipedia
• 1958 The United States launches the first solar-powered satellite, which is also the first satellite to achieve a long-term orbit. Wikipedia
• 1962 A Clockwork Orange, a British dystopian novel by Anthony Burgess, is published. Wikipedia
• 1963 An eruption of Mount Agung on Bali, Indonesia, killed at least 1,100 people. 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
• 1979 The Penmanshiel Tunnel in the Scottish Borders collapsed during refurbishing construction, killing two workers, and leading to the abandonment of the tunnel. Wikipedia
• 1988 Eritrean War of Independence: Eritrean People's Liberation Front troops encircled Ethiopian forces in the Battle of Afabet, gaining a decisive victory three days later. Wikipedia
• 2000 Hundreds of followers of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, a Ugandan sect, died in a mass murder committed by its leaders. Wikipedia
• 2003 Leader 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. Wikipedia
• 2004 Unrest in Kosovo broke out, resulting in the deaths of 28, the wounding of more than 600 others, and the destruction of several Serb Orthodox churches and shrines. 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
• 1834 Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer and businessman, co-founded Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (died 1900) Wikipedia
• 1856 Mikhail Vrubel, Russian painter (died 1910) Wikipedia
• 1881 Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1973) 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
• 1926 Siegfried Lenz, Polish-German author and playwright (died 2014) 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
• 1964 Rob Lowe, American actor Wikipedia
• 1969 Alexander McQueen, English fashion designer, founded eponymous brand (died 2010) Wikipedia
• 1979 Stormy Daniels, American adult film actress Wikipedia
• 1982 Steven Pienaar, South African footballer Wikipedia
• 1983 Raul Meireles, Portuguese footballer Wikipedia
• 1986 Edin Džeko, Bosnian footballer Wikipedia
• 1989 Shinji Kagawa, Japanese footballer Wikipedia
• 1990 Saina Nehwal, Indian badminton player 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
• 1040 Harold Harefoot, king of England 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
• 1849 William II, Dutch sovereign prince and king (born 1792) Wikipedia
• 1853 Christian Doppler, Austrian physicist and mathematician (born 1803) Wikipedia
• 1926 Aleksei Brusilov, Georgian-Russian general (born 1853) 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
• 1993 Helen Hayes, American actress (born 1900) Wikipedia
• 2005 George F. Kennan, American historian and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union (born 1904) Wikipedia
• 2021 John Magufuli, the fifth President of Tanzania (born 1959) 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

Sources

• Wikipedia — “March 17” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/March 17” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

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 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for March 17 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.