Anniversaries 17 March

Birth

Thomas Boston3

Scottish church leader, theologian and philosopher 1676–1732

Sir Francis Buller, 1st Baronet24

British judge 1746–1800

Marie-Jeanne Roland de la Platière2

French revolutionary 1754–1793

Thomas Chalmers18

Scottish mathematician and a leader of the Free Church of S… 1780–1847

Jean Ingelow39

British writer 1820–1897

Robert Blatchford2

British writer and activist 1851–1943

Benjamin Franklin King, Jr.3

American humorist and poet 1857–1894

Stephen Samuel Wise3

American rabbi (1874-1949) 1874–1949

Lawrence Oates1

British explorer 1880–1912

Pat O'Keeffe3

British boxer 1883–1960

D. V. Gundappa26

Indian writer 1887–1975

Lavrentiy Beria6

Georgian Soviet NKVD police chief under fellow Georgian and… 1899–1953

John Fire Lame Deer1

American activist 1903–1976

Bayard Rustin3

American civil rights activist and gay rights activist 1912–1987

Nat King Cole8

American singer and jazz pianist 1919–1965

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman17

Bengali revolutionary, founder ("father") of Bangladesh 1920–1975

Patrick Suppes1

philosopher from United States of America 1922–2014

Patrick Allen10

Film, television and voice actor 1927–2006

Peter L. Berger45

Austrian-born American sociologist 1929–2017

James Irwin3

American astronaut 1930–1991

Penelope Lively2

British novelist 1933

John L. Heilbron4

American historian 1934

Patty Maloney1

American actress 1936

Rudolf Nureyev9

Soviet ballet dancer and choreographer 1938–1993

John Wayne Gacy13

American serial killer and torturer 1942–1994

Michael Hayden (general)1

United States Air Force four-star general 1945

James K. Morrow166

(1947-) science fiction author 1947

Irina Dunn1

Australian writer, documentary maker and Nuclear Disarmamen… 1948

Theo Jansen6

artist 1948

William Gibson117

American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and founder … 1948

Kurt Russell2

American actor 1951

Gary Sinise1

American actor 1955

Charles E. Gannon23

American novelist 1960

Dana Reeve10

Actress, singer, activist 1961–2006

Kalpana Chawla3

American astronaut 1962–2003

Billy Corgan26

American musician, songwriter, producer, and author 1967

Bruce Parry6

British documentarian 1969

Alexander McQueen1

British fashion designer and couturier 1969–2010

Kolas Yotaka1

Taiwanese politician 1974

Jack Monroe1

British writer, journalist and political campaigner 1988

Juan Lagares1

baseball player 1989

Sania Nehwal7

Indian badminton player 1990

John Boyega4

British Nigerian actor 1992

Death

Marcus Aurelius400

Emperor of Ancient Rome 121–180

Saint Patrick35

5th-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop … 385–461

Ibn Khaldun14

Arab historiographer and historian 1332–1406

Philip Massinger17

English writer 1583–1640

François de La Rochefoucauld156

French author of maxims and memoirs 1613–1680

Leopold Zunz1

German Reform Rabbi 1794–1886

Robert Chambers (publisher, born 1802)100

Scottish publisher and writer 1802–1871

Christian Doppler1

mathematician, physicist 1803–1853

Franz Brentano1

Austrian philosopher 1838–1917

Johann Most17

German-American anarchist politician, newspaper editor, and… 1846–1906

Henry Scott Holland4

British theologian 1847–1918

Antoni Lange11

Polish writer and philosopher 1862–1929

Austen Chamberlain12

British politician 1863–1937

Lawrence Oates1

British explorer 1880–1912

Fred Allen12

comedian 1894–1956

Malvina Reynolds7

American folk singer 1900–1978

Helen Hayes20

actress 1900–1993

Quentin Reynolds1

American journalist and war correspondent 1902–1965

George F. Kennan46

American advisor, diplomat, political scientist and histori… 1904–2005

Andre Norton16

American writer of science fiction and fantasy 1912–2005

Robert Monroe12

American founder of The Monroe Institute 1915–1995

Anthony Storr5

English psychiatrist 1920–2001

John Backus4

American computer scientist 1924–2007

Derek Walcott17

Saint Lucian–Trinidadian poet and playwright 1930–2017

Antonio Dorado Soto2

Spanish bishop 1931–2015

Tanya Reinhart2

Israeli journalist 1943–2007

Yom Tov of Joigny4

English rabbi