March 17th Anniversaries

Santo Domingo.- The events of March 17, are marked by important historical events and international celebrations that left their mark on world history. Below, the main events of March 17:

• World Social Work Day
• St. Patrick's Day

Saint's Day: Saint Gertrude

National: March 17th Anniversaries

• 1537. Hernando Gorjón grants power to Pedro de Villanueva for the construction of a college of general studies in Santo Domingo.
• 1844. The second armed encounter between invading Haitian troops and the advanced Dominicans takes place in the Las Hicoteas area.
• 1861. President Pedro Santana appoints Colonel Ángel Féliz (Liberata) as commander of Barahona, one of the military figures who stood out in the last stage of the War of Independence.
• 1864. Juan Pablo Duarte arrives in Cap-Haïtien to return to his homeland in arms against Spain.
• 1930. The presidential and vice-presidential candidacies of General Rafael L. Trujillo Molina and lawyer Rafael Estrella Ureña, from the Confederation of Parties, are officially presented in the elections of May 16th of this year.
• 1947. The Dominican Social Security Fund is created through Law 1367, which was modified on December 30, 1948, through Law 1896.
• 1961. The US CIA informs Henry Dearborn, an executive of the Consulate of that nation in the country, that there were prohibitions on the sending of armaments through the diplomatic pouch, as he had requested.
• 1974. Several opposition political organizations, headed by the Dominican Liberation Party, recently formed by former President Juan Bosch, hold a rally, from which the former leader of the PRD unexpectedly absents himself.
• 1975. Journalist Orlando Martínez Howley is assassinated near the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, of which action several civilians and military personnel were accused and convicted.
• 1986. Former President Balaguer is chosen as the presidential candidate of the Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC) and wins the elections of May 16th of this year.
• 2004. The disappeared virtual newspaper “Clave Digital” begins its informative dissemination, under the direction of journalist Fausto Rosario Adames and Gustavo Olivo Peña.
• 2008. Neurosurgeon José Joaquín Puello and lawyer Hatuey De Camps are chosen as running mates by presidential candidates Miguel Vargas Maldonado and Eduardo Estrella, by the PRD and Social Democratic Revolutionary (PRSD) and allies, respectively, for the May 16th elections.
• 2020. The government authorizes duly certified laboratories and under the strict monitoring of the Ministry of Health, to carry out diagnostic tests for the condition caused by covid-19, as one of the measures to stop the expansion of the coronavirus in the country.
• - As part of the measures adopted by the health authorities to ward off the coronavirus pandemic, the suspension of commercial activities is ordered for the next 15 days, “with the exception of those dedicated to basic activities for the population”.
• 2021. One million 50 thousand doses of Sinovac vaccines purchased by the Government to be applied in the National Vaccination Plan against COVID-19 arrive in the country from the People's Republic of China.
• - The recommendations of the Executive Branch, to include the three causes within the new Penal Code, are once again rejected by the Justice Commission of the Chamber of Deputies that is studying the project, maintaining only the initiative to allow the interruption of pregnancy when the mother's life is in danger.

International: March 17th Anniversaries

• 180. Emperor Marcus Aurelius dies.
• 1452. In the Iberian Peninsula, Christian troops conquer the kingdom of Murcia after their victory in the Battle of Los Alporchones.
• 1493. The Capitulations of Barcelona are signed between the Catholic Monarchs and the former king of Granada Boabdil.
• 1526. Francis I of France is released by the Spanish.
• 1776. The British army withdraws from the city of Boston and makes possible the proclamation of the independence of the United States on July 4 of this same year.
• 1861. Philipp Reis presents an electrical sound transmission device which he calls a telephone.
• 1914. Russia increases its military forces from 460,000 to 17,000,000 soldiers.
• 1942. A special division of the German SS begins the use of gas chambers in the Belzec killing center, eliminating approximately 600,000 people, mainly Jews and Roma gypsies.
• 1969. Golda Meyer assumes the position of Prime Minister in Israel.
• 1974. Arab oil ministers decide to postpone their oil embargo against the United States, previously announced.
• 1988. A contingent of 3,320 United States soldiers arrive in Honduras in "prevention" of a possible invasion of that country from its neighbor Nicaragua.
• 1992. The majority of white voters in South Africa decide, through a referendum, to end apartheid.
• 1997. The CNN en Español cable channel is inaugurated in the city of Atlanta, United States.
• 2013. A meteoroid the size of a small rock hits the lunar surface in the Mare Imbrium, causing an explosion ten times brighter than all those that had been observed up to that moment.
• 2015. Researchers looking for the remains of the Spanish author Don Miguel de Cervantes, report having located them "in very bad condition", so they would be difficult to isolate, identify and compare with DNA, as they are mixed in an ossuary with at least 15 other bodies in the crypt of the convent of the Trinitarias Descalzas de Madrid, where he was buried in 1616.
• 2017. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump speak for the first time in person, during their brief chat in the Oval Office of the White House, in which the ruler treats the chancellor coldly, whom he did not want to shake hands with as he usually does with the rest of his colleagues.
• - In Japan, the Maebashi District Court rules that the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011 could have been avoided with preventive safety measures and orders the payment of 38.6 million yen in compensation to a group of evacuees who reported the case.
• 2019. Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo is arrested in the US, where he is fleeing from the Peruvian Justice that claims him for corruption, due to being in a state of intoxication in a restaurant.
• - Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro asks all members of his ministerial cabinet to make their positions available, at a time when the country is recovering from the longest blackout in decades.
• - The death toll from the attacks in two mosques in New Zealand rises to 50 with the discovery of another victim when the police removed corpses from both sites. Some 36 people remain hospitalized, two of them in critical condition.
• 2020. The People's Republic of China reports having given the "green light" to researchers from the Military Academy of Medical Sciences, to conduct the first clinical trials in humans of an experimental vaccine against the coronavirus.
• - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) dismisses the request for aid made by the Venezuelan government, of US$5,000 million from the emergency fund to deal with the coronavirus, alleging that "there is no clarity" on the international recognition of President Nicolás Maduro.
• 2021. United States President Joe Biden defines his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as a murderer, while threatening him with "making him pay a price" for the consequences of Russian interference in the past elections in which he was elected.

Births: March 17th Anniversaries

• 1834: Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer and businessman, co-founder of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft.
• 1919: Nat King Cole, American singer, pianist, and presenter.
• 1941: Paul Kantner, American guitarist and singer, co-founder of Jefferson Airplane.
• 1945: Elis Regina, Brazilian singer, considered one of the greatest representatives of Brazilian popular music.
• 1951: Kurt Russell, American actor (74 years old in 2026).
• 1955: Gary Sinise, American actor and director.
• 1964: Rob Lowe, American actor.
• 1969: Alexander McQueen, British fashion designer.
• 1978: Pilar Rubio, Spanish presenter and model.
• 1992: John Boyega, British actor. 

Deaths: March 17th Anniversaries

• 45 BC: Titus Labienus, Roman military man and tribune who served under the command of Julius Caesar, dies after clashes in the Roman civil war.
• 180: Marcus Aurelius, emperor of the Roman Empire and renowned Stoic philosopher, considered one of the most influential rulers of Antiquity, dies.
• 461: Patrick of Ireland, Christian missionary and patron saint of Ireland, whose death gave rise to the celebration of St. Patrick's Day, dies.
• 1680: François de La Rochefoucauld, French writer and moralist famous for his work Maxims, dies.
• 1782: Daniel Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician known for his contributions to hydrodynamics and probability theory, dies.
• 1815: Mateo Pumacahua, indigenous leader and military man linked to the independence rebellion of Cusco in Peru, dies.
• 1849: William II of the Netherlands, Dutch king who ruled between 1840 and 1849, dies.
• 1976: Luchino Visconti, influential Italian director of neorealist cinema, dies.