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 77th day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 289 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Sunday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is March 4, 2024 – a Sunday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 1,710,633,600 seconds 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 ‘heptacontaheptagon’ 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 318 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 4,104 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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March 17 Historical Events
- 624 –Led by Muhammad, the Muslims of Medina defeat the Quraysh of Mecca in the Battle of Badr.
- 1780 –American Revolution: George Washington grants the Continental Army a holiday “as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence”.
- 1942 –Holocaust: The first Jews from the Lvov Ghetto are gassed at the Belzec death camp in what is today eastern Poland.
- 1945 –The Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany collapses, ten days after its capture.
- 1958 –The United States launches the Vanguard 1 satellite.
- 1970 –My Lai Massacre: The United States Army charges 14 officers with suppressing information related to the incident.
- 1973 –The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph Burst of Joy is taken, depicting a former prisoner of war being reunited with his family.
- 1988 –A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into a mountainside near the Venezuelan border killing 143.
- 1992 –Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires: Suicide car bomb attack kills 29 and injures 242.
- 2008 –Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer resigns after a scandal involving a high-end prostitute. Lieutenant Governor David Paterson becomes New York State governor.
Who were born on March 17?
- 1725 –Lachlan McIntosh, Scottish-born American military and political leader (d. 1806)
- 1777 –Roger Brooke Taney, 5th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (d. 1864)
- 1862 –Silvio Gesell, Belgian economist (d. 1930)
- 1916 –Ray Ellington, British singer (d. 1985)
- 1936 –Patty Maloney, American actress
- 1949 –Daniel Lavoie, Canadian singer and songwriter
- 1959 –Paul Black, American rock singer
- 1961 –Sam Bowie, American basketball player
- 1964 –Rob Lowe, American actor
- 1976 –Stephen Gately, Irish singer, musician, and actor (Boyzone) (d. 2009)
Who died on March 17?
- 1199 –Jocelin, bishop of Glasgow
- 1713 –Juraj Jánošík, famous Slovak outlaw (b. 1688)
- 1853 –Christian Doppler, Austrian physicist and mathematician (b. 1803)
- 1961 –Susanna M. Salter, American politician (b. 1860)
- 1981 –Paul Dean, American baseball player (b. 1913)
- 1983 –Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1903)
- 1996 –René Clément, French film director and screenwriter (b. 1913)
- 2003 –Su Buqing, Chinese mathematician and educator (b. 1902)
- 2007 –Roger Bennett, American gospel performer (b. 1959)
- 2011 –Michael Gough, British actor (b. 1916)
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