Today is Sunday, March 17, day 77 of 2024. There are 289 days left in this year. It’s St. Patrick’s Day.
Today’s historical highlights:
On March 17, 2010, Michael Jordan became the first former player to become a majority owner in the NBA when the league’s Board of Governors unanimously approved Jordan’s bid to purchase the Charlotte Bobcats from Bob Johnson for $275 million.
on this day:
In 1762, New York held its first St. Patrick’s Day parade.
The Revolutionary War siege of Boston ended in 1776 with the evacuation of British troops.
In 1905, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt married Franklin Delano Roosevelt in New York.
In 1941, the National Gallery of Art opened in Washington, DC.
In 1942, six days after leaving the Philippines during World War II, General Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia to become Supreme Allied Commander in the Southwest Pacific Theater.
In 1950, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, announced that they had created a new radioactive element, californium.
In 1966, a U.S. Navy midget submarine discovered a missing hydrogen bomb that had failed when it fell from a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber into the Mediterranean Sea near Spain. (It took several more weeks to actually recover the bomb.)
Golda Meir came to power in Israel in 1969, beginning a term as prime minister that would last five crucial years in the country’s history.
In 1970, the United States cast its first veto in the United Nations Security Council, vetoing a resolution condemning Britain’s failure to use force to overthrow the white-ruled Rhodesian government.
In 2003, on the brink of war, President George W. Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave his country. Iraq rejected Bush’s ultimatum, saying it would be “a grave mistake” for the United States to launch an attack to force Saddam Hussein from power.
In 2010, Michael Jordan became the NBA’s first former player to become a majority owner when the league’s Board of Governors unanimously approved Jordan’s $275 million bid to purchase the Charlotte Bobcats from Bob Johnson.
In 2013, two members of Steubenville, Ohio’s famous high school football team were found guilty of raping an intoxicated 16-year-old girl and sentenced to at least a year in juvenile prison, a case that rocked the city of 18,000. Rust Belt cities for people.
In 2016, finally bowing to years of public pressure, SeaWorld Entertainment said it would no longer breed killer whales or have them perform crowd-pleasing tricks.
In 2020, both the Kentucky Derby and French Open were postponed from May to September due to the impact of the coronavirus.
In 2023, the International Criminal Court stated that it had issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes because he was suspected of participating in the abduction of Ukrainian children.
Today’s birthday: Myrlie Evers-Williams, former national president of the NAACP, turns 91. Singer-songwriter John Sebastian (The Lovin’ Spoonful) turns 80. Former National Security Agency and former CIA Director Michael Hayden is 79. Rock musician Harold Brown (Lowrider Band), 78. Actor Patrick Duffy is 75 years old. Actor Kurt Russell is 73 years old. Country singer Suzy Alanson is 72 years old. Actor Leslie-Anne Down is 70 years old. Actor Mark Boone Jr. is 69 years old. Country singer Paul Overstreet is 69 years old. Actor Gary Sinise is 69 years old. Actor Christian Clemenson is 66 years old. Former basketball and baseball player Danny Ainge is 65 years old. Actor Arye Gross is 64 years old. Actor Vicki Lewis is 64 years old. Actor Casey Siemaszko is 63 years old. Writer-director Rob Sitch is 62. Actor Rob Lowe turns 60. Rocker Billy Corgan is 57 years old. Actor Mathew St. Patrick is 56 years old. Actor Yanic Truesdale is 55 years old. Rock musician Melissa Auf der Maur is 52 years old. Olympic gold medal soccer player Mia Hamm is 52 years old. Rock musician Caroline Corr (Corrs) is 51 years old. Actor Amelia Heinle is 51 years old. Country singer Kiefer Thompson (Thompson Square) is 51 years old. Actor Marisa Coughlan is 50 years old. Actor Natalie Zea is 49 years old. Sports reporter Tracy Wolfson is 49 years old. Actor Brittany Daniel is 48 years old. Singer and television personality Tamar Braxton is 47 years old. Country musician Geoff Sprung (Old Dominion) is 46 years old. Reggae singer Nicky Jam is 43 years old. TV personality Rob Kardashian is 37 years old. Pop/rock singer and songwriter Hozier is 34 years old. Actor Eliza Hope Bennett is 32 years old. Actor John Boyega is 32 years old. Olympic gold medal swimmer Katie Ledecky is 27 years old. Actor Flynn Morrison is 19 years old.