TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Friday, March 17, the 76th day of 2017. There are 289 days left in the year. This is St. Patrick’s Day. Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 17, 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. On this date:
n In 1776, the Revolutionary War Siege of Boston ended as British forces evacuated the city.
n In 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.)
n In 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.
n In 1941, the National Gallery of Art opened in Washington, D.C.
n In 1956, comedian Fred Allen, 61, died in New York.
n In 1969, Golda Meir became prime minister of Israel.
n In 1970, the United States cast its first veto in the U.N. Security Council, killing a resolution that would have condemned Britain for failing to use force to overthrow the white-ruled government of Rhodesia.
n In 1988, Avianca Flight 410, a Boeing 727, crashed after takeoff into a mountain in Colombia, killing all 143 people on board.
n In 1992, 29 people were killed in the truck bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Whites in South Africa voted by a greater than 2-1 majority to forge ahead with talks to end white rule and give blacks voting rights for the first time in the country’s history. In Illinois, Sen. Alan Dixon was defeated in his Democratic primary re-election bid by Carol Moseley-Braun, who went on to become the first black woman in the U.S. Senate.
One year ago: The Obama administration formally concluded the Islamic State group was committing genocide against Christians and other minorities in Iraq and Syria. Today’s Birthdays: The former national chairwoman of the NAACP, Myrlie Evers-Williams, is 84. Former NASA astronaut Ken Mattingly is 81. Singersongwriter Jim Weatherly is 74. Singer-songwriter John Sebastian (The Lovin’ Spoonful) is 73. Rock musician Harold Brown (War; Lowrider Band) is 71. Actor Patrick Duffy is 68. Actor Kurt Russell is 66. Country singer Susie Allanson is 65. Actress LesleyAnne Down is 63. Country singer Paul Overstreet is 62. Actor Gary Sinise is 62. Actress Vicki Lewis is 57. Actor Rob Lowe is
53. Rock singer Billy Corgan is
50. Olympic gold medal soccer player Mia Hamm is 45. Actress Brittany Daniel is 41. Actress Eliza Hope Bennett is 25. Actor John Boyega is 25. Olympic gold medal swimmer Katie Ledecky is 20. Thought for Today: “History is not life. But since only life makes history, the union of the two is obvious.”—Louis D. Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (1856-1941).