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. 1905 Anna Eleanor Roosevelt married Franklin Delano Roosevelt in New York.
1941 The National Gallery of Art opened in Washington, D.C.
1942 Six days after departing the Philippines during World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia to become supreme commander of Allied forces in the southwest Pacific theater.
1950 Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced they had created a new radioactive element, “californium.”
1966 A U.S. Navy midget submarine located a missing hydrogen bomb that had fallen from a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber into the Mediterranean off Spain. (It took several more weeks to actually recover the bomb.)
1969 Golda Meir took power in Israel, beginning a stint as prime minister that would last through five crucial years in the nation’s history.
2003 Edging to the brink of war, President George W. Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave his country. Iraq rejected Mr. Bush’s ultimatum, saying that a U.S. attack to force Saddam from power would be “a grave mistake.”
2010 Michael Jordan became the first ex-player to become a majority owner in the NBA as the league’s Board of Governors unanimously approved Mr. Jordan’s $275 million bid to buy the Charlotte Bobcats from Bob Johnson.
2013 Two members of the Steubenville, Ohio, 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 people. 2016 Finally bowing to years of public pressure, SeaWorld Entertainment said it would no longer breed killer whales or make them perform crowdpleasing tricks.
2020 The Kentucky Derby and the French Open were each postponed from May to September because of the coronavirus.
2023 The International Criminal Court said it issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine.
Today’s birthdays: The former national chairwoman of the NAACP, Myrlie Evers-Williams,, 91. Singer-songwriter John Sebastian (The Lovin’ Spoonful), 80. Former NSA Director and former CIA Director Michael Hayden, 79. Actor Patrick Duffy, 75. Actor Kurt Russell, 73. Country singer Susie Allanson, 72. Actor Lesley-Anne Down, 70. Actor Mark Boone Jr., 69. Country singer Paul
Overstreet, 69. Actor Gary Sinise, 69. Actor Christian Clemenson, 66. Former basketball and baseball player Danny Ainge, 65. Actor Arye Gross, 64. Actor Vicki Lewis, 64. Actor Casey Siemaszko, 63. Writer-director Rob Sitch, 62. Actor Rob Lowe, 60. Rock singer Billy Corgan, 57. Actor Mathew St. Patrick, 56. Actor Yanic Truesdale, 55. Olympic gold medal soccer player Mia Hamm, 52. Actor Amelia Heinle, 51. Country singer Keifer Thompson (Thompson Square), 51. Actor Marisa Coughlan, 50. Actor Natalie Zea, 49. Sports reporter Tracy Wolfson, 49. Actor Brittany Daniel, 48. Singer and TV personality Tamar Braxton, 47. Country musician Geoff Sprung, 46. Reggaeton singer Nicky Jam, 43. TV personality Rob Kardashian, 37. Pop/rock singer-songwriter Hozier, 34. Actor Eliza Hope Bennett, 32. Actor John Boyega, 32. Olympic gold medal swimmer Katie Ledecky, 27.