Today in History, March 17th
On March 17, 1776, British troops evacuated Boston after Washington fortified Dorchester Heights. Plus Golda Meir and South Africa's vote.
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March 17 is best known in American history for 1776, when British troops sailed out of Boston after George Washington’s army fortified Dorchester Heights. It is also St. Patrick’s Day, and the date saw Golda Meir become Israel’s prime minister in 1969 and white South African voters back an end to apartheid in 1992.
The big story: The British Leave Boston (1776)
British troops had occupied Boston since 1768, and by early 1776 George Washington’s army had the city under siege. What he needed was a way to make the British leave, and the answer turned out to be a hill and some borrowed artillery. On the night of March 4, Gen. John Thomas led about 800 soldiers and 1,200 workers up Dorchester Heights, south of the city, while American guns fired elsewhere to cover the noise. By morning, more than a dozen cannons taken from Fort Ticonderoga sat in the new fortifications, looking down on the city. British commander Sir William Howe hoped to use his ships to wipe out the position, but a storm blew in and gave the Americans time to finish their work. On March 17, about 11,000 British troops, along with roughly 1,000 Loyalists, sailed for Halifax, Nova Scotia.
More events on March 17
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 180 | Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius died at age 58. |
| 1601 | The first recorded St. Patrick’s Day parade was held in St. Augustine, Florida, then a Spanish colonial outpost. |
| 1861 | A parliament meeting in Turin proclaimed the unified Kingdom of Italy. |
| 1905 | Eleanor Roosevelt married her distant cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt in New York. |
| 1921 | Marie Stopes and her husband opened the first birth control clinic in England, in London. |
| 1941 | The National Gallery of Art opened in Washington, D.C., with President Franklin Roosevelt giving the dedication speech. |
| 1958 | Vanguard 1, the first satellite powered by solar cells, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. |
| 1969 | Golda Meir became prime minister of Israel, the first woman to hold the job. |
| 1973 | At Travis Air Force Base in California, AP photographer Sal Veder took “Burst of Joy,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of a Vietnam prisoner of war’s homecoming. |
| 1992 | Nearly 69 percent of white South African voters backed President F.W. de Klerk’s reforms in a referendum, endorsing an end to apartheid. |
| 2003 | President George W. Bush told Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave Iraq within 48 hours or face military action. |
Born on March 17
- 1834: Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer and automobile pioneer.
- 1912: Bayard Rustin, civil rights activist and chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.
- 1919: Nat King Cole, jazz pianist and singer from Montgomery, Alabama.
- 1972: Mia Hamm, soccer star who won two World Cups and two Olympic gold medals with the U.S. team.
Sources
- British evacuate Boston, History.com
- What happened on March 17, History.com
- March 17, Britannica On This Day
- President Says Saddam Hussein Must Leave Iraq Within 48 Hours, The White House (archived)
- Gottlieb Daimler, Britannica
- Bayard Rustin, Britannica
- Nat King Cole, Britannica
- Mia Hamm, Britannica
Some of these dates bring back memories, thanks.