What are the important events that happened on March 17? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.

March 17: Facts & Myths About This Day

March 17 is the 76^th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 289 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Monday.

Under the Julian calendar, this day is March 4, 2025 – a Monday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?

When this day started, 29,036,160 minutes has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.

Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘heptacontahexagon’ day.

Pisces is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Aquamarine is the modern birthstone for this month. Jade is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 337 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,469 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.

March 17 Historical Events

• 180 –
  Marcus Aurelius dies leaving Commodus the sole emperor of the Roman Empire.
• 1776 –
  American Revolution: British forces evacuate Boston, Massachusetts, ending the Siege of Boston, after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery in positions overlooking the city.
• 1945 –
  The Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany collapses, ten days after its capture.
• 1948 –
  Benelux, France, and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO.
• 1985 –
  Serial killer Richard Ramirez, aka the “Night Stalker”, commits the first two murders in his Los Angeles, California murder spree.
• 1988 –
  A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into a mountainside near the Venezuelan border killing 143.
• 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.
• 1992 –
  A referendum to end apartheid in South Africa is passed 68.7% to 31.2%.
• 1992 –
  Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires: Suicide car bomb attack kills 29 and injures 242.
• 2000 –
  More than 800 members of the Ugandan cult Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God die in what is considered to be a mass murder and suicide orchestrated by leaders of the cult.

Who were born on March 17?

• 1777 –
  Patrick Bronte, Anglo-Irish writer, curate, and father of the Bronte sisters
• 1787 –
  Edmund Kean, English actor (d. 1833)
• 1900 –
  Alfred Newman, American film composer (d. 1970)
• 1926 –
  Siegfried Lenz, German writer
• 1941 –
  Wang Jin-pyng, Taiwanese politician
• 1944 –
  John Sebastian, American singer and songwriter
• 1952 –
  Barry Horne, Animal rights activist (d. 2001)
• 1957 –
  Michael Kelly, American journalist (d. 2003)
• 1960 –
  Arye Gross, American actor
• 1973 –
  Jerome Woods, American football player

Who died on March 17?

• 1649 –
  Gabriel Lallemant, French Jesuit missionary, one of the Canadian Martyrs (b. 1610)
• 1830 –
  Laurent, Marquis de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, French marshal (b. 1764)
• 1849 –
  William II of the Netherlands (b. 1792)
• 1937 –
  Austen Chamberlain, English statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1863)
• 1981 –
  Paul Dean, American baseball player (b. 1913)
• 1993 –
  Helen Hayes, American actress (b. 1900)
• 1994 –
  Mai Zetterling, Swedish actress and director (b. 1925)
• 1995 –
  Ronald “Ronnie” Kray, British gangster (b. 1933)
• 2002 –
  Rosetta LeNoire, American actress (b. 1911)
• 2002 –
  Van Tien Dung, Vietnamese general and politician (b. 1917)