On This Day In History
On this day in 1995, after failing for 130 years to ratify the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery except as punishment for crime, Mississippi finally adopted the amendment. To overcome racial inequality, we must confront our history. https://t.co/4V3Te86qoP
— Equal Justice Initiative (@eji_org) March 16, 2022
March 17th
432 Saint Patrick, aged about 16 is captured by Irish pirates from his home in Great Britain and taken as a slave to Ireland (traditional date)
1521 Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines
1861 Italy is unified into a single kingdom under Victor Emmanuel II following the campaigns led by Giuseppe Garibaldi
1905 Albert Einstein finishes his scientific paper detailing his Quantum Theory of Light, one of the foundations of modern physics
1939 Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and the Japanese breaks out (Sino-Japanese War 1937-1945)
1942 Bełżec Concentration Camp opens with the transport of 30,000 Lublin Polish Jews
Did You Know?
John Philip Holland achieves successful test run for the first modern submarine off Staten Island, submerging for 1 hour 40 minutes
Today in History in 1898
Would You Believe?
Rubber band patented by Stephen Perry of London
Today in History in 1845
This day 389 years ago - 17 March 1631 - St Patrick's Day was first recognised as a liturgical feast day.
This was largely due to Luke Wadding, a Franciscan friar from Waterford who had co-founded the Irish College in Rome, at a time when such seminaries were banned in Ireland. pic.twitter.com/wdP5YJOHyE
— This Day in Irish History (@ThisDayIrish) March 17, 2020
This day 282 years ago – 17 March 1737 – the first formal St Patrick’s Day celebration took place in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, organised by the Charitable Irish Society of Boston.
All in attendance were Protestants.
They would not meet on 17 March again until 1794. pic.twitter.com/C6ZOLhSFCv
— This Day in Irish History (@ThisDayIrish) March 17, 2019
At #Purim we remember Bertha Pappenheim, social reformer, feminist and (in 1904) founder of Germany's League of Jewish Women. She was also 'Anna O' - one of the first subjects of psychoanalysis. https://t.co/MTH2NGPWli
— On This Day She (@OnThisDayShe) March 17, 2022
On this day in 1851, Dr. Samuel Cartwright reported on the discovery of "Drapetomania"—a "curable mental disease" that gave enslaved people the urge to flee bondage and seek freedom. To overcome racial inequality, we must confront our history. https://t.co/2ln2vQcVqk
— Equal Justice Initiative (@eji_org) March 17, 2022
March 18th
1123 1st Latern Council (9th ecumenical council) opens in Rome, agreements of the Concordat of Worms ratified
1314 Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake by King Philip IV of France
1325 According to legend, Tenochtitlan is founded on this date on an island in what was then Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico
1890 German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck resigns after 19 years after disagreement with German Emperor Wilhelm II
1900 Japan uses its influence over Korea to deny Russia's efforts to obtain a naval station at Korean Port of Masampo, the lead up to the Russo-Japanese war
1922 British magistrates in India sentence Mahatma Gandhi to 6 years imprisonment for disobedience
1940 Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler meet at Brenner Pass where the Italian dictator agrees he will, in due course, join Germany's impending war effort in the west
1965 Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space
Did You Know?
Largest art robbery in US history: 13 works of art worth over $500 million are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston
Today in History in 1990
Would You Believe?
Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union
Today in History in 1834
This day 61 years ago - 18 March 1959 - Séan T. O'Kelly became the first Irish leader to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
He spoke of striving for the goal of “Ireland united and free, in a genuine unity of heart and mind, rooted in a common sense of nationhood.” pic.twitter.com/rci0ILlLAi
— This Day in Irish History (@ThisDayIrish) March 18, 2020
On this day in 1741 'Jenny Diver' was hanged at Tyburn with 19 others. A notorious pickpocket, Diver (Mary Young) ingeniously wore a false pair of arms; her real ones were hidden under her dress, allowing her to steal undetected. https://t.co/yplEOPm9z6 pic.twitter.com/tKmO4mUCP6
— On This Day She (@OnThisDayShe) March 18, 2022
On this day in 1831, the Supreme Court failed to enforce treaties that would have protected the Cherokee people from state and federal interference and from forcible removal later that year. To overcome racial inequality, we must confront our history. https://t.co/XHvWbM10tT
— Equal Justice Initiative (@eji_org) March 18, 2022
March 19th
1279 A Mongolian victory at the naval Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China
1644 200 members of Peking imperial family and court commit suicide in loyalty to the Emperor
1863 Confederate cruiser SS Georgiana destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, and medicines then valued over $1,000,000. Wreck discovered exactly 102 years later by teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence.
1920 US Senate rejects Treaty of Versailles for 2nd time refusing to ratify League of Nations' covenant (maintaining isolation policy)
1932 The Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened in Sydney, Australia
2003 Airstrikes by an American and British-led coalition signal the beginning of the Invasion of Iraq, without United Nations support and in defiance of world opinion
Did You Know?
1st stone laid for the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona, designed by Antoni Gaudí
Today in History in 1882
Would You Believe?
The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000, said to have been most powerful Confederate cruiser, discovered by then teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence exactly 102 years after its destruction.
Today in History in 1965
This day 379 years ago – 19 March 1642 – an act was passed in the Parliament of England to raise funds to help suppress rebellion in Ireland.
People would be given 1,000 acres of confiscated land in exchange for £200 (Ulster), £300 (Connacht), £450 (Munster), or £600 (Leinster). pic.twitter.com/XKXyqHPBB8
— This Day in Irish History (@ThisDayIrish) March 19, 2021
#otd in 2021, Samia Suluhu Hassan was sworn in as Tanzania's first female president. First elected to public office in 2000, she came to national prominence in 2014 as the vice-chair of the Constituent Assembly, created to draft a new constitution. https://t.co/OaW8VhRi4E
— On This Day She (@OnThisDayShe) March 19, 2022
On this day in 1939, a young Black man named Lloyd Gaines disappeared just months after winning a desegregation case allowing him into an all-white law school. He was never seen again. To overcome racial inequality, we must confront our history. https://t.co/cYth5f4SYu
— Equal Justice Initiative (@eji_org) March 19, 2022
March 20th
1602 United Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) forms
1800 Alessandro Volta reports his discovery of the electric battery in a letter to Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society of London
1815 Napoleon enters Paris after escape from Elba, begins 100-day rule
1900 US Secretary of State John Hay announces that all nations to whom he sent notes calling for an 'open door' policy in China have essentially accepted his stand
1933 Dachau the first Nazi concentration camp, is completed
2016 Barack Obama becomes the first US President to visit Cuba since 1928, arriving for a 3 day tour
Did You Know?
Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" published in Boston
Today in History in 1852
Would You Believe?
Indian rivers Yamuna and the Ganges declared "living entities" by court in the state of Uttarakhand
Today in History in 2017
This day 107 years ago – 20 March 1914 – 57 out of 70 British officers in the Curragh, Co Kildare, refused to obey orders to quash a possible rebellion from Ulster Volunteers.
Roger Casement described it as the “Curragh coup d'état,” and wrote, “the cat is out of the Irish bag.” pic.twitter.com/HJ656yFR0e
— This Day in Irish History (@ThisDayIrish) March 20, 2021