Today in History for March 17:
In 461, tradition says St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, died.
In 1233, millions of mice invaded the area of Freising, Germany, forcing the evacuation of entire towns. (Historical records of the incident are scarce and the story may be apocryphal.)
In 1765, St. Patrick's Day was celebrated for the first time in Canada, in Quebec City.
In 1776, British forces left Boston for Halifax after American troops seized Dorchester Heights in a night attack.
In 1810, the first issue of the Kingston 撸奶社区 was published.
In 1845, the Geological Survey of Canada was established.
In 1865, the federal government approved an unprecedented defence budget of $1 million.
In 1866, the U.S. government ended reciprocal tariff concessions for Canadian trade, a month after Canadian fishing concessions to Americans ended. The move helped swing opinion in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in favour of Confederation. Canadian politicians tried unsuccessfully throughout the rest of the 19th century to restore reciprocity.
In 1906, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt first likened crusading journalists to a man with "the muckrake in his hand" in a speech to the Gridiron Club in Washington.
In 1938, Rudolf Nureyev, the ballet dancer and choreographer who defected to the west in 1961, was born in Russia. His partnership with Margot Fonteyn at Covent Garden was an enormous success. He died in Paris of AIDS on Jan. 6, 1993.
In 1942, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur reached Australia to lead Allied forces in the southwest Pacific during the Second World War. He'd been ordered to flee the Philippines on a harrowing boat trip just before its capture by Japan. On March 20th, at Terowie, South Australia, MacArthur made his famous speech in which he said "I came out of Bataan and I shall return."
In 1943, the price of wheat reached $1 a bushel for the first time since 1938.
In 1944, the International Air Transport Authority was created to regulate air traffic among nations.
In 1955, the "Richard Riot" broke out in the Montreal Forum. Canadiens fans were enraged that NHL president Clarence Campbell suspended star forward Maurice Richard for the remainder of the regular season and the playoffs for a stick-swinging incident with a Boston player and an assault on a linesman. When Campbell appeared at the Habs' game versus Detroit, fans threw tomatoes and set off tear gas. After the game was suspended after one period and the Red Wings awarded a 4-1 win, the mob moved outside to overturn cars and loot stores for the next four hours. Without Richard, the Canadiens lost the Stanley Cup to Detroit.
In 1966, the "Gemini 8" capsule, with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott aboard, began to spin violently. It made an emergency landing in the Pacific.
In 1967, for the first time in Canadian history, a special Commons-Senate committee recommended the removal of a federally appointed judge. The committee said Justice Leo Landreville should be removed from the Ontario Supreme Court for misconduct. He was accused of compromising his judicial functions by accepting shares in a natural gas company. Maintaining his innocence, Landreville resigned on June 7. In 1977, a Federal Court invalidated the committee's report, ruling that Landreville was not given an opportunity to refute the charges.
In 1969, Golda Meir was sworn in as Israel's first woman prime minister. She served until 1974.
In 1978, Toronto Sun publisher Douglas Creighton and editor Peter Worthington were charged with violating the Official Secrets Act for publishing information from a top-secret RCMP report on Soviet espionage activities in Canada.
In 1978, the oil tanker "Amoco Cadiz" ran aground on the coast of Brittany, France. Over 220,000 tonnes of crude oil seeped out of the crippled ship, causing serious pollution to the coastline. It was, at the time, the world's worst oil tanker spill and caused an international protest as scenes of marine animals dying under a coat of oil were broadcast all over the world.
In 1982, a 15-day bell-ringing filibuster in the Commons ended with an agreement to split the Liberal government's energy bill.
In 1985, U.S. President Ronald Reagan travelled to Quebec City for the "Shamrock Summit" -- a 24-hour meeting on acid rain with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
In 1987, the House of Commons passed a motion supporting free trade with the United States, despite opposition from the Liberals and the New Democrats.
In 1993, U.S. actress Helen Hayes, who won the highest honours of stage, screen and television and dubbed the "First Lady of American Theatre," died at age 92. She won two Oscars, two Tonys and an Emmy during her 85-year career.
In 1996, the Montreal Canadiens played their first game in the Molson Centre (now Bell Centre). They defeated the New York Rangers 4-2.
In 1998, Zhu Rongji was chosen China's new leader, replacing Li Peng.
In 1999, Tim Johnson was fired as Blue Jays manager for lying about his Vietnam service. He was replaced by Jim Fregosi.
In 2000, about 924 members of the doomsday cult Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God committed suicide by locking themselves in their church and setting it on fire in Kanunga, Uganda.
In 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush gave Saddam Hussein a 48-hour ultimatum to get out of Iraq with his two sons or face war. Prime Minister Jean Chretien declared Canada would not join the war without United Nations support.
In 2007, Adrienne Clarkson, the former governor general, became the first Canadian to assume the role of colonel-in-chief of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, a position formerly held only by royalty.
In 2009, New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur set an NHL record with his 552nd career regular season win, surpassing Patrick Roy. (Brodeur retired with 691 regular season wins.)
In 2009, Madagascar's president handed over power to military leaders who then ceded control to his political rival, opposition leader Andry Rajoelina, after weeks of political unrest.
In 2009, after 146 years, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published its final print edition, becoming an online-only newspaper.
In 2010, the puck Sidney Crosby used to score the winning goal in Canada's 3-2 overtime thriller over the U.S. in the Olympic men's hockey final in Vancouver on Feb. 28 was installed at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
In 2010, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert M. White, the first person to fly a winged aircraft at Mach 4, 5 and 6, died at age 85.
In 2012, John Demjanjuk, convicted of being a low-ranking guard at the Sobibor death camp, died at age 91. His 35-year fight on three continents to clear his name, a legal battle that had not yet ended when he died, made him one of the best-known faces of Nazi prosecutions.
In 2012, Pope Shenouda III, the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church who led Egypt's Christian minority for 40 years during a time of increasing tensions with Muslims, died at age 88.
In 2013, Philippe Couillard was elected to replace Jean Charest as Quebec Liberal leader.
In 2015, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling Likud Party scored a resounding victory in the country's election.
In 2018, Mike MacDonald, a pioneer of the Canadian standup comedy scene, died from heart complications at the Ottawa Heart Institute. He was 63. MacDonald was a regular on the Just for Laughs stage and also appeared on several American shows, including "Late Show with David Letterman" and "The Arsenio Hall Show." He also starred in multiple CBC and Showtime specials.
In 2018, Canadian skier Mark McKeever won his third gold medal at the Pyeongchang Paralympic Games, in the men's visually impaired 10-km classic, extending his Canadian Winter Paralympic record to 16 career medals; Mark Arendz took bronze in the men's standing 10-km classic; Natalie Wilkie and Emily Young took gold and bronze, respectively, in the women's standing 7.5-km classic; Mark Ideson's rink won bronze in wheelchair curling.
In 2018, China's legislature unanimously approved the reappointment of Communist Party Leader Xi Jinping as president with no term limit.
In 2018, The New York Times and The Guardian (London) reported that Cambridge Analytica, a voter-profiling firm based in the U.K., improperly harvested Facebook data of some 87 million users (including 622,000 in Canada) in order to help manipulate the outcomes in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Canadian Christopher Wylie, a former Cambridge Analytics employee, emerged as a primary source for the Times report. The social media giant drew continued criticism for its alleged inaction to protect users' privacy and lost over US$70 billion in market value. Cambridge Analytica filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in May to liquidate operations.
In 2019, Canadian Bianca Andreescu (an-DRESS'-koo) won her first W-T-A Tour title. The unseeded 18-year-old from Mississauga, Ontario upset eighth-seeded German Angelique Kerber 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the women's final at the B-N-P Paribas Open. Andreescu was a major story on the women's circuit during the year by winning 28-of-31 matches. The victory was worth just over $1.35 million dollars U-S.
In 2020, Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency over COVID-19, ordering the closure of bars, restaurants, theatres and libraries. Alberta and British Columbia made similar declarations, while the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs declared a state of emergency for 62 First Nations, closing reserve borders to non-essential travel.
In 2020, Health officials confirmed Ontario's first death in a patient with COVID-19. The 77-year-old man in the Muskoka region was a close contact of another positive case and officials said the virus was discovered after his death.
In 2020, the Canadian Army cancelled its largest annual training event to protect the force from COVID-19 and ensure it is ready to respond should it be called upon. Exercise Maple Resolve is held each May at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright in Alberta, and involves thousands of soldiers from Canada and allied nations.
In 2020, America's longest continuously held sporting event, the Kentucky Derby, was postponed over COVID-19. The CEO of Churchill Downs said it would be the first time the Derby wouldn't be held on its traditional first Saturday in May since 1945.
In 2020, Tom Brady announced he would leave the New England Patriots, becoming a free agent for the first time in his career.
In 2021, the federal government rejected Iran's explanation of human error for the shooting down of an airliner from Ukraine in January of 2020. Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired two missiles at Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 shortly after it took off from Tehran. All 176 people on board were killed, including 55 Canadian citizens and dozens more with ties to the country. Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra largely dismissed the 145-page document, which was posted to the website of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization. They said the report makes no attempt to answer critical questions about what truly happened.
In 2021, a revised bill to expand access to medical assistance in dying received royal assent after passing in the Senate by a vote of 60-25, with five abstentions. The new version of Bill C-7 immediately expands access to intolerably suffering individuals who are not approaching the natural end of their lives, in compliance with a 2019 Quebec Superior Court ruling. People suffering solely from grievous and irremediable mental illnesses would have to wait two years to gain the same right.
In 2021, news of the death of Tanzania's president drew mixed reactions -- sorrow from many, and bitterness that he didn't take the COVID-19 pandemic seriously. Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan announced on national T-V that President John Magufuli, one of Africa's most prominent COVID skeptics, died of heart failure. Tanzania's opposition leader Tundu Lissu alleged the president actually died from COVID-19. Speaking from exile in Belgium, Lissu called Magufuli's death "poetic justice'' for a man who did not believe in science, vaccines or face masks.
In 2022, Health Canada approved the use of Moderna's two-dose COVID-19 vaccine called Spikevax for children between the ages of six and 11. It had already been approved for older children.
In 2023, American actor Lance Reddick died. Reddick's publicist said the 60-year-old died suddenly, and attributed his death to natural causes. The character actor specialized in intense and icy authority figures on TV and film. He was best known for his role as straitlaced Lt. Cedric Daniels on the hit HBO series "The Wire.'' He also played hotel concierge Charon in the "John Wick'' movies.
In 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed he supported a prisoner swap idea involving his political foe and opposition leader Alexei Navalny just days before the latter's death the previous month. Speaking at a news conference Sunday after polls in the country's presidential election closed, Putin referenced Navalny by name and said he agreed to the idea, only on the condition that Navalny not return to Russia after his release. Navalny died at a Russian penal colony the previous month after being sentenced to 19 years for extremism.
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The Canadian Press
