Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/March 17

This is a list of selected March 17 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.

Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.

To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.

← March 16	March 18 →

Staging area

Images

Use only ONE image at a time

• 
  Vanguard 1
• 
  Golda Meir
• 
  Mount Agung, Bali, Indonesia
• 
  Voting bulletin of the Soviet Union referendum
• 
  15th-century depiction of Edward the Black Prince
• 
  Wreckage of the SS Utopia
• 
  Sinking of the SS Utopia
• 
  Effigy of Edward the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral
• 
  Aftermath of the Cebu Douglas C-47 crash
• 
  Emma Smith

Ineligible

Blurb	Reason
45 BC – Caesar's Civil War: Julius Caesar scored his final military victory at the Battle of Munda, defeating the Optimate forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger.	multiple issues
1001 – The Song Shi recorded a tributary mission from the Rajahnate of Butuan, centered on the Philippine island of Mindanao, to the Song dynasty of China.	Date not in source cited
1805 – Napoleon transformed the Italian Republic into the Kingdom of Italy.	refimprove section
1842 – The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo is formally organized with Emma Smith as president.	Too much uncited
1860 – New Zealand Wars: A property dispute between the colonial government and Māori landowners in Waitara instigated the First Taranaki War.	Date not cited
1958 – Vanguard 1, the first solar-powered satellite, and the oldest man-made object still in Earth orbit today, was launched.	refimprove section
1969 – Golda Meir became the first female prime minister of Israel.	Too much uncited
1985 – American serial killer Richard Ramirez (pictured), known as "the Night Stalker", began a home invasion burglary and killing spree that resulted in 13 deaths and 11 sexual assaults over the following five months.	Couldn't verify 13 deaths in the period, the table lists fewer deaths and one that was before the period
1992 – A suicide bomber killed 29 people and injured 242 others at the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina.	refimprove section

Eligible

• 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.
• 1337 – Edward the Black Prince (pictured) was created Duke of Cornwall, the first English dukedom.
• 1452 – Reconquista: Combined Castilian and Murcian forces defeated the Emirate of Granada at the Battle of Los Alporchones around the city of Lorca.
• 1677 – Franco-Dutch War: France captured the town of Valenciennes in the Spanish Netherlands.
• 1776 – American Revolutionary War: The 11‑month Siege of Boston ended with the evacuation of the city's British garrison.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1950 – Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announced the synthesis of californium, a radioactive transuranium element.
• 1955 – Ice hockey fans in Montreal rioted to protest the suspension of Montreal Canadiens star Maurice Richard for hitting an official.
• 1963 – An eruption of Mount Agung on Bali, Indonesia, killed at least 1,100 people.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1991 – In a referendum, nearly 70 percent of voters in nine Soviet republics agreed that the Soviet Union should be preserved.
• 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.
• 2011 – First Libyan Civil War: The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1973, authorizing military intervention in Libya to protect civilians.
• Born/died this day: | Gertrude of Nivelles |d|659| François Girardon |b|1628|William F. Raynolds |b|1820| Emily Sartain |b|1841| Rosina Heikel |b|1842|Edith New |b|1877| Walter Rudolf Hess |b|1881| Eduard Fraenkel |b|1888| Toni Preckwinkle |b|1947| William Gibson |b|1948| Chuck Muncie |b|1953 | Stormy Daniels |b|1979|Margaret Whitlam |d|2012

March 17: Saint Patrick's Day (Christianity); Anniversary of the Unification of Italy (1861)

Dorchester Heights Monument

• 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.
• 1902 – The Dorchester Heights Monument (pictured), memorializing the siege of Boston during the American Revolutionary War, was dedicated.
• 1957 – A plane crash on the slopes of Mount Manunggal killed Philippine president Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others.
• 1979 – The Penmanshiel Tunnel in the Scottish Borders region of Scotland collapsed during refurbishing construction, killing two workers, and leading to the abandonment of the tunnel.
• 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.

• Jocelin of Glasgow (d. 1199)
• Menno van Coehoorn (d. 1704)
• Pattie Boyd (b. 1944)
• Shu Xiuwen (d. 1969)

More anniversaries:

• March 16
• March 17
• March 18