March 17 in History

Historical Events on March 17

1776 American Revolution: British forces evacuate Boston, ending the Siege of Boston, after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery in positions overlooking the city.

1939 Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and Japan begins,

1942 Holocaust: The first Jews from the Lvov Ghetto are gassed at the Belzec death camp in what is today eastern Poland.

1948 Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO.

1950 Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley announce the creation of element 98, which they name "californium".

1959 Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet for India.

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.

1988 A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into a mountainside near the Venezuelan border killing 143.

2000 Five hundred 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.

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Famous Birthdays on March 17

1948 William Gibson

1969 Alexander McQueen

1979 King Joe

1990 Saina Nehwal

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Famous Deaths on March 17

180 Marcus Aurelius

1965 Amos Alonzo Stagg

2005 George F. Kennan

2012 Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria

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