Today in History
Today is Friday, March 17, the 76th day of 2023. There are 289 days left in the year. This is St. Patrick’s Day.
Today’s highlight in history:
On March 17, 1969, Golda Meir became prime minister of Israel.
On this date:
■ In 1762, New York held its first St. Patrick’s Day parade.
■ In 1776, the Revolutionary War Siege of Boston ended as British forces evacuated the city.
■ In 1941, the National Gallery of Art opened in Washington, D.C.
■ In 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.
■ In 1950, scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced they had created a new radioactive element, “californium.”
■ In 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.)
■ 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.
■ In 2003, edging to the brink of war, President George W. Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave his country. Iraq rejected Bush’s ultimatum, saying that a U.S. attack to force Saddam from power would be “a grave mistake.”
■ In 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 Jordan’s $275 million bid to buy the Charlotte Bobcats from Bob Johnson.
■ In 2016, finally bowing to years of public pressure, SeaWorld Entertainment said it would no longer breed killer whales or make them perform crowd-pleasing tricks.
■ In 2020, the Kentucky Derby and the French Open were each postponed from May to September because of the coronavirus.
Ten years ago: 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.