March 17th is
St. Patrick’s Day
Camp Fire Girls Day *
World Sleep Day *
Corned Beef & Cabbage Day
Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence
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MORE! St. Patrick, Kate Greenaway and Golda Meir, click
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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS
Bangladesh –
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Birthday
Canada, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Monserrat, Switzerland and United States – St.Patrick’s Day *
Ireland – Dublin:
St. Patrick’s Festival/Parade
United States –
Boston MA: Evacuation Day
New York NY: St. Patrick’s Day Parade
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On This Day in HISTORY
45 BC – In Hispania, at Munda, the last battle of the civil war between Julius Caesar and the forces of the Optimates (the traditionalist majority of the Roman Senate) who have backed Pompey, ends with Caesar victorious and Pompey’s eldest son, Gnaeneus Pompeius killed in the battle. Caesar can now return to Rome and rule as the elected Roman dictator perpetuo rei publicae constituendae, dictator-for-life
180 – Marcus Aurelius, last of the “Five Good Emperors” and regarded as a philosopher king, dies, leaving his unstable son Commodus, whom he named as Caesar in 166 and ruled jointly with since 177, as sole Emperor of the Roman Empire
461 – St. Patrick, dies in Saul. Ireland celebrates St.Patrick’s Day * in his honor
763 – Harun al-Rashid born, 5th Caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate – al-Rashid means “the Just”; his reign is marked by scientific, cultural, and religious expansion. Islamic art and music flourished; He establishes the legendary library Bayt al-Hikma (“House of Wisdom”) in Baghdad, and during his rule Baghdad becomes a center of knowledge, culture and trade
1655 – Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre born, French harpsichord player-composer
1756 – St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated in New York City for the first time, at the Crown and Thistle Tavern
1766 – Britain repeals the Stamp Act which has caused so much resentment in the North American colonies
1804 – Jim Bridger born, American fur trader and explorer
1805 – The Italian Republic, with Napoleon as president, becomes the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King, but actually run by Napoleon’s step-son, Eugène de Beauharnais, serving as Viceroy
1820 – Jean Ingelow born, English poet and novelist
1834 – Gottlieb Daimler born, German engineer and businessman, co-founded Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft
1845 – Stephen Perry patents the rubber band, originally made from vulcanized rubber
1846 – Kate Greenaway born, English author and illustrator; pseudonym ‘Orris’
1849 – Cornelia Maria Clapp born, American zoologist-marine biologist
1868 – Postage stamp canceling machine patent is issued
1870 – Wellesley College is incorporated by the Massachusetts legislature under its original name, Wellesley Female Seminary
1873 – Margaret Bondfield born, British Labour politician and feminist, first woman Cabinet minister in the United Kingdom, one of the first three women to be Labour Members of Parliament
1881 – Walter R. Hess born, Swiss physiologist, Nobel Laureate
1884 – In Otay, California, John Joseph Montgomery makes the first manned, controlled, heavier-than-air glider flight in the United States
1892 – Sayed Darwish born, Egyptian singer and composer, ‘father of Egyptian popular music’ and its greatest composer
1899 – Radie Britain born, American pianist, author and composer
1901 – In Paris, Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings are shown at the Bernheim Gallery
1901 – Alfred Newman born, American composer and conductor; nominated 43 times for and winner of 9 Academy Awards for Best Musical Score; Wuthering Heights, Captain from Castile, All About Eve, How The West Was Won are among his best-known scores
1902 – Robert Tyre ‘Bobby’ Jones born, American amateur golfer and lawyer; first to win golf’s ‘Grand Slam’ in 1930: U.S. Open, British Open and both U.S. and British Amateur Championships; fights a debilitating illness from 1948 until his death in 1971
1905 – Eleanor Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt, distant cousins, are married; Teddy Roosevelt walks his niece down the aisle
1909 – In France, the communications industry is paralyzed by strikes
1910 – Camp Fire Girls Day * Founded by Luther and Charlotte Gulick in Thelford VT; now called Camp Fire USA
1912 – Bayard Ruskin born, American civil rights activist
1914 – Russia increased the number of active duty military from 460,000 to 1,700,000
1919 – Nat King Cole, American singer, pianist, and television host
1930 – Al Capone is released from jail
1930 – In New York, construction begins on the Empire State Building.
1930 – Paul Horn born, American-Canadian flute player and saxophonist
1933 – Myrlie Evers-Williams born, American journalist and activist, Chair of the NAACP 1995-1998; the first woman and first layperson to deliver the invocation at a presidential inauguration, for President Obama’s second inaugural
1933 – Penelope Lively born, British author, fiction for adults and children; winner of Booker Prize, Carnegie Medal and several other honors
1938 – Zola Taylor born, American singer, The Platters
1938 – Rudolf Nureyev born, Soviet dancer and choreographer who defects to the West; Director, Paris Opera Ballet (1983-1989), one of the greatest dancers of all time
1939 – Robin Knox-Johnston born, English sailor; first single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the globe
1941 – The National Gallery of Art is officially opened by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, DC.
1941 – Paul Kantner born, American singer-songwriter-guitarist, Jefferson Airplane
1942 – Douglas MacArthur arrives in Australia, becomes Supreme Commander of the WWII Allied forces in the Southwestern Pacific
1944 – During World War II, the U.S. bombs Vienna
1944 – John Sebastian born, American singer-songwriter-guitarist, Lovin’ Spoonful
1950 – Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announce that they have created a new radioactive element, and named it “californium” aka element 98
1958 – The Vanguard 1 satellite is launched by the U.S.
1959 – The Dalai Lama (Lhama Dhondrub, Tenzin Gyatso) flees Tibet for India in the wake of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule
1961 – The U.S. increases military aid and technicians to Laos
1962 – Moscow asks the U.S. to pull out of South Vietnam
1966 – A U.S. submarine finds a missing H-bomb off the coast of Spain
1967 – Snoopy and Charlie Brown of Peanuts are on the cover of LIFE magazine
1967 – Billy Corgan born, American musician, lead singer for Smashing Pumpkins
1969 – Golda Meir is sworn in as the first female and fourth premier of Israel
1970 – The U.S. Army charges 14 officers with suppression of facts in the My Lai case
1972 – U.S. President Nixon asks Congress to pass legislation imposing a “moratorium” on the Federal courts to prevent them from ordering any new busing of schoolchildren to achieve racial balance
1973 – The first American prisoners of war (POWs) are released from the “Hanoi Hilton” in Hanoi, North Vietnam.
1985 – U.S. President Reagan agrees to a joint study with Canada on acid rain
1989 – A series of solar flares set off a violent magnetic storm causing power outages over large regions of Canada
1992 – White South Africans approve constitutional reforms to give legal equality to black South Africans
1995 – Gerry Adams is the first leader of Sinn Fein to be received at the White House
1998 – Washington Mutual announces it has agreed to buy H.F. Ahmanson and Co. for $9.9 billion dollars, a deal which creates the nation’s seventh-largest banking company
1999 – A panel of medical experts conclude that marijuana has medical benefits for people suffering from cancer and AIDS
2000 – In Norway, Jens Stotenberg of the Labour Party takes office as Prime Minister; the coalition government of Kjell Magne Bondevik resigned over an environmental dispute
2000 – In Kanungu, Uganda, a fire at a church linked to the cult known as the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments kills more than 530. On March 31, officials set the number of deaths linked to the cult at more than 900 after authorities find mass graves at various sites linked to the cult
2003 – Edging to the brink of war, President George W. Bush gives Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave his country; the ultimatum is rejected
2004 – NASA’s Messenger is the first spacecraft to enter into orbit around Mercury; it takes more than 270,000 pictures before it crashes to Mercury’s surface in April, 2015
2008 – World Sleep Day * is launched by the World Association of Sleep Medicine
2011 – U.N. Security Council votes to authorize military action to protect civilians and impose a no-fly zone over Libya
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Visuals
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Lots of things are very interesting, St. Patrick’s Day is an notable day. Too bad it’s the Amature drinking Day.
Commodus, interesting individual.
Hi Russell –
I once wrote a rant against St.Patrick’s Day – as it is celebrated in America, with all the plastic Shamrocks, green beer and maudlin fake-Irish songs written by Americans and an Englishman, but especially against the times when the Irish Republican Army went through the American pubs collecting for their Cause, and using the money to build bombs.
I also keep reminding people that there are OTHER Celts than the Irish, and you shouldn’t use Celtic when you’re only talking about the Irish. The words are NOT synonymous.
The Roman Empire has a long and colorful history of good Emperor/batshit crazy Emperor swings. The problem with any kind of leader being in charge for life, especially when it is hereditary inheritance, is that your country’s government is automatically going to be bi-polar, and assassination is the only way to get rid of the bad ones, which also encourages bad people to use it to get rid of the good ones too.
I’ll see your Marcus Aurelius and raise you a Caligula.
LOL HI Gene – enjoying you propaganda series