Today In History

Today is Saturday, March 17, the 76th day of 2018. There are 289 days left in the year. This is St. Patrick’s Day.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

› 1968: A peaceful anti-Vietnam War protest in London was followed by a riot outside the U.S. Embassy; more than 200 people were arrested and over 80 people were reported injured.

ON THIS DATE

› 1762: New York held its first St. Patrick’s Day parade.

› 1776: The Revolutionary War Siege of Boston ended as British forces evacuated the city.

› 1906: President Theodore Roosevelt first likened crusading journalists to a man with “the muckrake in his hand” in a speech to the Gridiron Club in Washington.

› 1912: The Camp Fire Girls organization was incorporated in Washington, D.C., two years to the day after it was founded in Thetford, Vermont. (The group is now known as Camp Fire.)

› 1936: Pittsburgh’s Great St. Patrick’s Day Flood began as the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers and their tributaries, swollen by rain and melted snow, started exceeding flood stage; the high water was blamed for more than 60 deaths.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

The former national chairwoman of the NAACP, Myrlie Evers-Williams, is 85. Former astronaut Ken Mattingly is 82. Singer-songwriter Jim Weatherly is 75. Singer-songwriter John Sebastian (The Lovin’ Spoonful) is

74. Actor Patrick Duffy is

69. Actor Kurt Russell is

67. Country singer Susie Allanson is 66. Actress Lesley-Anne Down is

64. Actor Mark Boone Jr. is 63. Country singer Paul Overstreet is 63. Actor Gary Sinise is 63. Actor Christian Clemenson is 60. Actor Rob Lowe is 54. Rock singer Billy Corgan is 51. Rock musician Van Conner (Screaming Trees) is 51. Actor Mathew St. Patrick is 50. Actor Yanic Truesdale is 49. Rock musician Melissa Auf der Maur is

46. Olympic gold medal soccer player Mia Hamm is 46. Actress Marisa Coughlan is 44. Rapper Swifty (D12) is 43. Actress Natalie Zea is 43. Actress Brittany Daniel is 42. Country musician Geoff Sprung (Old Dominion) is 40. Pop/rock singer-songwriter Hozier is

28. Actress Eliza Hope Bennett is 26. Actor John Boyega is 26. Olympic gold medal swimmer Katie Ledecky is 21. Actor Flynn Morrison is 13.