Calendar date · March

What happened on March 17

On March 17, -45: In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda.

Events

38

across history

Notable births

50

Notable deaths

50

Zodiac

Pisces

Featured moment · -45

In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda.

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general, statesman, and author who was the dictator of the Roman Republic almost continuously from 49 BC until his assassination in 44 BC. A member of the First Triumvirate, he led the Roman armies through the Gallic Wars and defeated his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil war. He consolidated power and proclaimed himself dictator for life in 44 BC, helping create the political conditions that led to the collapse of the Roman Republic and the emergence of the Roman Empire.

People

Born on March 17

Pietro Pellegri 2001– Italian association football player
Brandon Aiyuk 1998– American football player (born 1998)
Katie Ledecky 1997– American swimmer (born 1997)
Daniel Sprong 1997– Dutch ice hockey player (born 1997) Claressa Shields 1995– American boxer (born 1995)
DeForest Buckner 1994– American football player (born 1994)
Terry Rozier 1994– American basketball player (born 1994)
Ivan Provedel 1994– Italian footballer (born 1994)
Marcel Sabitzer 1994– Austrian footballer (born 1994)
Show 9 more — notable births on March 17
Matteo Bianchetti 1993– Italian footballer (born 1993)
Rhys Hoskins 1993– American baseball player (born 1993)
Yao Yuanjun 1993– Chinese Border police officer (died 2011)
John Boyega 1992– English actor (born 1992)
Patrick Cantlay 1992– American professional golfer (born 1992)
Yeltsin Tejeda 1992– Costa Rican footballer (born 1992)
Sergey Kalinin 1991– Russian ice hockey player (born 1991)
Cordarrelle Patterson 1991– American football player (born 1991)
Thomas Robinson 1991– American-Lebanese basketball player (born 1991)

People

Died on March 17

John Hemingway Irish RAF fighter pilot (1919–2025)
Lee Shau-kee Hong Kong real estate billionaire (1928–2025)
Lance Reddick American actor (1962–2023)
John Magufuli President of Tanzania from 2015 to 2021
Mike MacDonald Canadian actor & comedian (1954–2018)
Phan Văn Khải Vietnamese politician (1933–2018)
Meir Dagan Israeli general and Mossad director (1945–2016)
Zoltán Kamondi Hungarian film director (1960–2016)
Frank Perris British motorcycle racer
Show 9 more — notable deaths on March 17
Marek Galiński Polish cyclist (1974–2014)
Joseph Kerman American musicologist and music critic (1924–2014)
Rachel Lambert Mellon American horticulturalist and philanthropist (1910–2014)
William B. Caldwell III United States Army general
Lawrence Fuchs American scholar (1927–2013)
A.B.C. Whipple American journalist, editor, historian (1918–2013)
Shenouda III Head of the Coptic Church from 1971 to 2012
Margaret Whitlam Australian social campaigner and athlete
Michael Gough British actor (1916–2011)

Timeline

Every March 17 on record

  1. -45 In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda.

    Roman general and dictator (100–44 BC)

    Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general, statesman, and author who was the dictator of the Roman Republic almost continuously from 49 BC until his assassination in 44 BC. A member of the First Triumvirate, he led the Roman armies through the Gallic Wars and defeated his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil war. He consolidated power and proclaimed himself dictator for life in 44 BC, helping create the political conditions that led to the collapse of the Roman Republic and the emergence of the Roman Empire.

  2. 180 Commodus becomes sole emperor of the Roman Empire at the age of eighteen, following the death of his father, Marcus Aurelius.

    Roman emperor from 177 to 192

    Commodus was Roman emperor from 177 to 192, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father Marcus Aurelius and then ruling alone from 180. Commodus's sole reign is commonly thought to mark the end of the Pax Romana, a golden age of peace and prosperity in the history of the Roman Empire.

  3. 455 Petronius Maximus becomes, with support of the Roman Senate, emperor of the Western Roman Empire; he forces Licinia Eudoxia, the widow of his predecessor, Valentinian III, to marry him.

    Western Roman emperor in 455

    Petronius Maximus was Roman emperor of the West for two and a half months in 455. A wealthy senator and a prominent aristocrat, he was instrumental in the murders of the Western Roman magister militum, Aëtius, and the Western Roman emperor, Valentinian III.

  4. 1337 Edward the Black Prince is made Duke of Cornwall, the first duchy in England.

    Heir of the English throne (1330–1376)

    Edward of Woodstock, known as the Black Prince, was the eldest son and heir apparent of King Edward III of England. He died before his father, and his son Richard II therefore succeeded to the throne instead. Edward was one of the most successful English commanders of the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453).

  5. 1400 Turko-Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus.

    14th-century ethnocultural synthesis in Asia

    The Turco-Mongol or Turko-Mongol tradition was an ethnocultural synthesis that arose in Asia during the 13-14th century among the ruling elites of the Golden Horde and the Chagatai Khanate. The ruling Mongol elites of these khanates eventually assimilated into the Turkic populations that they conquered and ruled over, thus becoming known as Turco-Mongols. These elites gradually adopted Islam, as well as Turkic languages, while retaining Mongol political and legal institutions.

  6. 1776 American Revolutionary War: The British Army evacuates Boston, ending the Siege of Boston, after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery in positions overlooking the city.
  7. 1805 The Italian Republic, with Napoleon as president, becomes the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King of Italy.
  8. 1824 The Anglo-Dutch Treaty is signed in London, dividing the Malay archipelago. As a result, the Malay Peninsula is dominated by the British, while Sumatra and Java and surrounding areas are dominated by the Dutch.
  9. 1842 The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo is formally organized with Emma Smith as president.
  10. 1860 The First Taranaki War begins in Taranaki, New Zealand, a major phase of the New Zealand Wars.
  11. 1861 The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed.
  12. 1862 The first railway line of Finland between cities of Helsinki and Hämeenlinna, called Päärata, is officially opened.
  13. 1891 SS Utopia collides with HMS Anson in the Bay of Gibraltar and sinks, killing 562 of the 880 passengers on board.
  14. 1921 The Second Polish Republic adopts the March Constitution.
  15. 1942 Holocaust: The first Jews from the Lvov Ghetto are gassed at the Belzec death camp in what is today eastern Poland.
Show 15 earlier entries from March 17
  1. 1945 World War II: The Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany, collapses, ten days after its capture.
  2. 1948 Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO.
  3. 1950 Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley announce the creation of element 98, which they name "californium".
  4. 1957 A plane crash in Cebu, Philippines kills Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others.
  5. 1958 The United States launches the first solar-powered satellite, which is also the first satellite to achieve a long-term orbit.
  6. 1960 U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the National Security Council directive on the anti-Cuban covert action program that will ultimately lead to the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
  7. 1960 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710 crashes in Tobin Township, Perry County, Indiana, killing 63.
  8. 1963 Mount Agung erupts on Bali killing more than 1,100 people.
  9. 1966 Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the DSV Alvin submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb.
  10. 1968 As a result of nerve gas testing by the U.S. Army Chemical Corps in Skull Valley, Utah, over 6,000 sheep are found dead.
  11. 1969 Golda Meir becomes the first female Prime Minister of Israel.
  12. 1973 The Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph Burst of Joy is taken, depicting a former prisoner of war being reunited with his family, which came to symbolize the end of United States involvement in the Vietnam War.
  13. 1979 The Penmanshiel Tunnel collapses during engineering works, killing two workers.
  14. 1979 Aeroflot Flight 1691 crashes on approach to Vnukovo International Airport, killing 58.
  15. 1985 Serial killer Richard Ramirez, aka the "Night Stalker", commits the first two murders in his Los Angeles murder spree.

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