March 17

180 Lucius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus ruled as co-emperor with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 until his father's death. His accession as emperor on March 17, 180 was the first time a son had succeeded his father since Titus succeeded Vespasian in 79. By 190 Commodus had become a megalomaniac, renaming everything after himself. The historian Edward Gibbon took Commodus's reign as the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire.

A bust of Commodus as a youth (Roman-Germanic Museum, Cologne).

1337 Prince Edward of Woodstock KG, better known as Edward the Black Prince, was the eldest son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. Edward was made Duke of Cornwall, becoming the first duke in English history, on March 17, 1337.

1526 King Francis I of France was freed on March 17, 1526 a year after being imprisoned in Madrid. He had been captured following his defeat by Charles I of Spain at the Battle of Pavia, which took place on February 24, 1525, during the Italian Wars. Despite his release, King Francis I quickly reasserted his claim to his former territories in Italy. The French and Spanish continued to engage in conflict throughout the remainder of Francis I's reign.

1600 March 17 became Saint Patrick's feast day in the Catholic Church through the efforts of the Irish Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding, as a member of the commission for the reform of the Breviary in the early part of the seventeenth century.

1649 Oliver Cromwell abolished the position of King of England and the House of Lords on March 17, 1649.  As Lord Protector of England, Cromwell closed pubs, banned theaters and outlawed cockfighting and made swearing and drunkenness punishable offences. He intended to give the common man access to the Bible and planned to replace the Church of England with a Calvinist style church.

1737 The first St. Patrick's Day parade was held in Boston (USA), not Ireland. It took place on March 17, 1737, when the Charitable Irish Society of Boston held a St. Patrick's Day celebration to honor the patron saint of Ireland. March 17 is believed to be Saint Patrick's date of death and is the date celebrated as his Feast Day.

Montreal, St Patrick's Day parades. By Sandra Cohen-Rose and Colin Rose,

1752 At the age of 26, the writer Samuel Johnson married a 46-year-old widow, Elizabeth "Tetty" Porter. in 1735. They were devoted to each other even though according to some of Johnson's contemporaries, Tetty was a drowsy, fat drunkard, who was renowned for her girlish levity and disgusting affection. Elizabeth Johnson died on March 17, 1752.

1776 The Siege of Boston was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War. New England militiamen prevented the movement by land of the British Army garrisoned in what was then the peninsular town of Boston, It started on April 19, 1775 after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and ended on March 17, 1776 when British forces evacuated the city, after George Washington and Henry Knox placed artillery in positions overlooking Boston.

An engraving depicting the British evacuation of Boston, March 17, 1776

1801 On March 17, 1801 Thomas Jefferson moved to the White House as the third American president. He expanded the building outward, creating two colonnades that were meant to conceal stables and storage. Today, Jefferson's colonnades link the residence with the East and West Wings. Jefferson also permitted public tours of his house, which have continued ever since, except during wartime.

1845 Stephen Perry of the London-based rubber manufacturing company Messrs Perry & Company patented the world’s first elastic bands on March 17, 1845. The sleeves of vulcanized rubber chopped into bands were invented to hold papers or envelopes together.

1883 Karl Marx was buried in Highgate Cemetery, London, on March 17, 1883. There were only around ten mourners at his funeral including the loyal Friedrich Engels who paid tribute to the father of communism saying “On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleep—but forever.”

1905 The 22 year old Franklin D Roosevelt married the gauche, garrulous charming but plain 20 year old Eleanor Roosevelt in New York on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1905. In total, the couple had six children in eleven years; however, the third, Franklin Jr., died in infancy. Franklin took several mistresses including a personal secretary, named Lucy Mercy. When Roosevelt became president they remained in a marriage of convenience with separate bedrooms in the White House.

Eleanor and Franklin with their first two children, 1908

1921 Following a wretched first marriage to an impotent man, Marie Stopes wrote Married Love. In it she advocated birth control not only to save women from constant childbearing but also to improve the human race by selective breeding. Stopes opened her first birth-control clinic at 61 Marlborough Road, Holloway, London on March 17, 1921. The Mother's Clinic offered birth control advice and taught moms birth control methods and dispensed Stopes own "Pro-Race" brand cervical cap.

1938 Legendary Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev was born on March 17, 1938. Rudolf Nureyev was a star of the Kirov Ballet in the Soviet Union before defecting to the West while on tour in Paris in 1961. He then became the most prominent ballet dancer in the world before dying of Aids, aged 54.

1941 The National Gallery of Art was officially opened In Washington, D.C. by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 17, 1941. The gallery's collection of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, medals, and decorative arts traces the development of Western Art from the Middle Ages to the present, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas.

1942 The first mass killings of Jews began at Bełżec extermination camp in occupied Poland on March 17, 1942, the first of the Aktion Reinhard camps to begin operation. The Aktion Reinhard camps were different from the concentration camps, as they were designed solely for the purpose of mass murder, and no prisoners were held there for any extended period.

1951 The comic strip character "Dennis the Menace" appeared in The Beano for the first time in issue 452, dated March 17, 1951, and is the longest-running strip in the comic. From issue 1678 onwards (dated September 14, 1974) Dennis the Menace replaced Biffo the Bear on the front cover, and has been there ever since.

Wikipedia

1958 Launched on March 17, 1958, Vanguard 1 is the oldest satellite still orbiting the Earth. Weighing only 3.2 pounds and with a diameter of 6.5 inches, Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, derided it as "the grapefruit satellite".

1973 The current London Bridge was constructed by contractors John Mowlem and Co from 1967 to 1972 and opened by Queen Elizabeth II on March 17, 1973. The old bridge was sold to the Missourian entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch of McCulloch Oil for US$2,460,000. It was reconstructed by Sundt Construction at Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

1992 In 1991, after years of internal dissent and violence and the boycott of South Africa, including the imposition of international trade sanctions by the United Nations (UN) and other organizations, President F W de Klerk repealed the key elements of apartheid legislation. A referendum to end apartheid in South Africa was passed 68.7% to 31.2% on March 17, 1992.

2011 The fastest recorded bicycle crossing of the Sahara Desert by bicycle is 13 days, 5 hours, 50 minutes, and 14 seconds. This record was set by Reza Pakravan of Iran in 2011. He completed his journey from Algeria to Sudan on March 17, 2011, overcoming rain, sandstorms, arrest and numerous flies. Due to safety concerns, his trip was completed in two legs with a flight in between.  

2020 Following the 2020 Coronavirus outbreak, Laura Ashley PLC filed for administration on March 17, 2020, putting 2,700 jobs at risk. After struggling for several years, the company blamed its troubles on a "significant" drop in trade with no end of COVID-19 in sight.