On this day, March 17

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.

1903 The office of mayor was restored to the Pittsburgh city charter. William B. Hays, who had taken office as city recorder, assumed the title of mayor.

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.

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.

1978 School officials confiscated knives, guns, baseball bats and an ax after a racial brawl at Brashear High School in Beechview.

2006 Federal regulators reported the deaths of two women in addition to four others who had taken the abortion pill RU486; Planned Parenthood said it would immediately stop disregarding the approved instructions for the drug’s use.

2013 Two members of Steubenville, Ohio’s celebrated high school football team were found guilty of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl and sentenced to at least a year in juvenile prison in a case that rocked the Rust Belt city of 18,000. Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology).

— Compiled by Alyssa Brown Today’s birthdays: The former national chairwoman of the NAACP, Myrlie EversWilliams, 86. Former astronaut Ken Mattingly, 83. Singer-songwriter John Sebastian (The Lovin’ Spoonful), 75. Former NSA director and former CIA director Michael Hayden, 74. Actor Patrick Duffy, 70. Actor Kurt Russell, 68. Actress Lesley-Anne Down, 65. Actor Gary Sinise, 64. Former basketball and baseball player Danny Ainge, 60. Actor Rob Lowe, 55. Olympic gold medal soccer player Mia Hamm, 47. Olympic gold medal swimmer Katie Ledecky, 22.

Thought for today: “Beagan agus a ra go maith.” (Say little, but say it well.)

— Irish saying