today in history
Today is Friday March 17, the 76th day of 2023. There are 289 days left in the year. This is Saint Patrick’s Day.
Today’s highlights in history:
On March 17, 1969, Golda Meir became Israel’s prime minister.
In this day:
In 1762, New York held its first St. Patrick’s Day parade.
In 1776, the Revolutionary War siege of Boston ended when British forces evacuated the city.
In 1905, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt married Franklin Delano Roosevelt in New York.
In 1941, the National Gallery of Art opened in Washington, D.C.
In 1942, six days after leaving the Philippines during World War II, General Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia to become Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific theater of operations.
In 1950, scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced that they had created a new radioactive element, “californium.”
In 1966, a US Navy midget submarine located a stray hydrogen bomb that had fallen from a US Air Force B-52 bomber in the Mediterranean off Spain. (It took several more weeks to retrieve the bomb.)
In 1970, the United States cast its first veto in the UN Security Council, overturning a resolution that would have condemned Britain for failing to use force to overthrow the white-ruled government of Rhodesia.
In 2003, on the brink of war, President George W. Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave his country. Iraq rejected Bush’s ultimatum, saying a US attack to topple Saddam would be “a grave mistake.”
In 2010, Michael Jordan became the first former player to become a majority owner in the NBA when the league’s Board of Governors unanimously approved Jordan’s $275 million offer to buy Bob Johnson’s Charlotte Bobcats.
In 2016, finally bowing to years of public pressure, SeaWorld Entertainment said it would no longer breed killer whales or have them perform crowd-pleasing tricks.
In 2020, the Kentucky Derby and the French Open have been postponed from May to September due to the coronavirus.
Ten years ago: Two members of the notorious Steubenville, Ohio high school football team were convicted of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl and sentenced to at least a year in juvenile prison in a case that rocked the Rust Belt city of 18,000. Former Oklahoma quarterback Steve Davis, 60, who led the Sooners to back-to-back national championships in the 1970s, has died in a private plane crash in northern Indiana. Louisville earned the first overall seed in the NCAA tournament after a topsy-turvy season in college basketball.
Five years ago: Fred Meyer Superstore Company announced it would stop selling guns and ammunition; Following the Florida high school shooting, the company had previously said it would stop selling firearms to anyone under the age of 21. Russia said it was expelling 23 British diplomats in an escalating diplomatic spat over a nerve agent attack on a former spy in Britain.
One year ago: Rescuers searched for survivors in the ruins of a theater destroyed by a Russian airstrike in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, while a ferocious shelling raid left dozens dead in a northern city. US Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu and her father Arthur Liu, a former political refugee, were among the targets of a spy operation the Justice Department says was ordered by the Chinese government. St. Patrick’s Day parades across the US, including the largest in New York City, have resumed after a hiatus caused by the pandemic.
Today’s Birthday: Former NAACP National President Myrlie Evers-Williams is 90 years old. Former astronaut Ken Mattingly is 87. Singer-songwriter John Sebastian (The Lovin’ Spoonful) is 79. Former NSA Director and former CIA Director Michael Hayden is 78. Rock musician Harold Brown (War; Lowrider Band) is 77 . Actor Patrick Duffy is 74. Actor Kurt Russell is 72. Country singer Susie Allanson is 71. Actor Lesley-Anne Down is 69. Actor Mark Boone Jr. is 68. Country singer Paul Overstreet is 68. . Actor Gary Sinise is 68 years old. Actor Christian Clemenson is 65. Former basketball and baseball player Danny Ainge is 64. Actor Arye Gross is 63. Actress Vicki Lewis is 63. Actor Casey Siemaszko (sheh-MA’-zshko) is 62. Screenwriter and Director Rob Sitch is 61. Actor Rob Lowe is 59. Rock singer Billy Corgan is 56. Actor Mathew St. Patrick is 55. Actor Yanic (YAH’-neek) Truesdale is 54. Rock musician Melissa Auf der Maur is 51 years old. Olympic gold medalist soccer player Mia Hamm is 51 years old. Rock musician Caroline Corr (The Corrs) is 50. Actress Amelia Heinle is 50. Country singer Keifer Thompson (Thompson Square) is 50. Actress Marisa Coughlan is 49. Actress Natalie Zea is 48. Sports reporter Tracy Wolfson is 48. Actress Brittany Daniel is 47. Singer and TV personality Tamar Braxton is 46 years old. Country musician Geoff Sprung (Old Dominion) is 45. Reggaeton singer Nicky Jam is 42. TV personality Rob Kardashian is 36. Pop/rock singer-songwriter Hozier is 33. Actress Eliza Hope Bennett is 31. The actor John Boyega is 31 years old. Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky is 26 years old. Actor Flynn Morrison is 18.