March 17
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Featured Event
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National Gallery of Art opens in Washington, D.C.
On this day in 1941, the National Gallery of Art opened in Washington, D.C. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a dedication speech to about 6,000 guests, praising Andrew Mellon, who had donated the entirety of his art collection, funds for building construction, and a hefty endowment. The museum boasts an extensive collection of Western artwork, including pieces by Pablo Picasso, Paul Cezanne, and Claude Monet. The National Gallery also features the only Leonardo da Vinci piece on display in the Americas. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Famous Birthdays
More on March 17
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Today
St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, died this day in 461, according to legend, and now his feast day is celebrated widely in Ireland and the United States. [Why do people eat corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day?]
AP Images
2005
American author Andre Norton, who wrote more than 130 sci-fi and fantasy adventure novels for juveniles and adults, died at age 93. [Test your knowledge of famous novels.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
2000
A fire broke out at the headquarters of the doomsday cult Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God in Kanungu, Uganda, and it eventually led to the discovery of more than 775 bodies, many of which had been poisoned; the cult’s leaders were believed to have killed their followers after a promised apocalypse did not occur. [Read our list of 10 failed doomsday predictions.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1992
Nearly 69 percent of white South African voters backed F.W. de Klerk’s reforms—which included the repeal of racially discriminatory laws—and effectively endorsed the dismantling of apartheid.
Willem van de Poll/National Archives of the Netherlands, 255-4314 (CC0 1.0)
1969
Golda Meir became the fourth prime minister of Israel. [Take our quiz about famous firsts for women.]
Courtesy of the Naval Research Laboratory
1958
The first solar-powered satellite, Vanguard 1, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida; the small satellite—it weighed less than four pounds—stopped transmitting in 1964. [Sort fact from fiction in our objects in space quiz.]
© ewg3D—iStock/Getty Images
1938
Poland issued an ultimatum to Lithuania in an attempt to settle the territorial dispute over the city of Vilnius. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about European history.]
BBC Hulton Picture Library
1921
British activist Marie Stopes and her husband opened the first birth control clinic in England—a London facility called the Mothers’ Clinic for Constructive Birth Control. [Take our quiz about human health.]
William P. Gottlieb Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Neg no. LC-GLB23- 0151)
1919
Nat King Cole, an American musician who first came to prominence as a jazz pianist but who reached enormous popularity with his warm, relaxed, somewhat breathy-voiced ballad singing, was born. [Test your knowledge of musicians.]
Brown Brothers
1905
Eleanor Roosevelt, niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, married her distant cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt, later U.S. president. [How much do you know about the first ladies of the United States?]
UPI/Bettmann Archive
1902
American golfer Bobby Jones, the first player to achieve a Grand Slam, was born. [Sort fact from fiction in our golf quiz.]
Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
1861
In Turin, Italy, after more than 10 years of revolution led by such figures as Giuseppe Garibaldi, a parliament assembled and officially proclaimed the unified Kingdom of Italy. [Take our quiz about plots and revolutions.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1776
British General William Howe evacuated Boston after a successful siege by American revolutionaries led by General George Washington. [How much do you know about the American Revolution?]
© Jupiterimages/Pixland/Getty Images
180
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, who became a symbol in the West of the Golden Age of the Roman Empire, died at the age of 58. [Test your knowledge of the Roman Empire.]