Mar 17 in History
45BC — In his last victory (the Battle of Munda), Julius Caesar defeats the forces of the late Pompey the Great in southern Hispania Ulterior. It ends the Roman civil war.
461 — According to tradition, Patrick, an English missionary and bishop of Ireland, dies in Saul, County Down. Though never canonised, he becomes the patron saint of Ireland. The first St Patrick’s Day parade is held in Boston, US, in 1737. Ireland is a little behind, with the first held in Waterford in 1903.
1845 — The first rubber band is patented by British inventor Stephen Perry.
1861 — Victor Emmanuel II, 41, the king of Sardinia, becomes king of (the unified southern) Italy with Turin as capital. Rome is captured on September 20 1870 and becomes the capital on July 2 1871.
1890 — The first railway line (named Rand Tram) in Transvaal, 25.75km between Johannesburg and Boksburg, is opened.
1902 — Bobby Jones, amateur American golfer, is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He achieves the first (a unique) Grand Slam in 1930 — winning the US Open, The Open Championship, US Amateur and The Amateur Championship. He co-designs the Augusta National course and is the founder of the Masters, first played at Augusta in March 1934.
1919 — Nat King Cole, American jazz pianist and singer, is born in Montgomery, Alabama.
1945 — The Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen, the last passage across the River Rhine (after Hitler instructed they all be destroyed) which fell into Allied hands 10 days earlier, collapses at a cost of 28 dead and 63 injured. German attempts to blow up the bridge on March 7 failed and it was captured by US Army forces amid heavy fighting. The Americans continued to repair and use the bridge for nine days under continuous artillery and air attacks, while quickly built treadway and pontoon bridges started carrying much of the vehicular traffic across the river. This victory expedites the end of World War 2.
1992 — White South Africans vote in a referendum to endorse the “continuation of the reform process”, started by State President FW de Klerk on February 2 1990, by a margin of 68.73% to 31.27%.
2000 — An estimated 600 followers of the Movement for the Restoration of Ten Commandments of God, led by Joseph Kibwetere, burn to death in an inferno at their church at Nyabugoto in Kanungu district, Uganda. Further investigations unearth hundreds of other cases, bringing the cumulative death toll to about 1,000. Kibwetere, first thought to have died in the fire, is later reported to be living in Malawi. He becomes Uganda’s most wanted man.