March 17 is the 76th day of the year (77th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 289 days remaining until the end of the year.

2016-03-18 28

Events
45 BC – In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda.
180 – Marcus Aurelius dies leaving Commodus the sole emperor of the Roman Empire.
455 – Petronius Maximus becomes, with support of the Roman Senate, emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
624 – Led by Muhammad, the Muslims of Medina defeat the Quraysh of Mecca in the Battle of Badr.
1001 – The King of Butuan in the Philippines sends a tributary mission to the Song dynasty of China.
1337 – Edward, the Black Prince is made Duke of Cornwall, the first Duchy in England.
1452 – The Battle of Los Alporchones is fought in the context of the Spanish Reconquista between the Emirate of Granada and the combined forces of the Kingdom of Castile and Murcia resulting in a Christian victory.
1560 – Fort Coligny on Villegagnon Island in Rio de Janeiro is attacked and destroyed during the Portuguese campaign against France Antarctique.
1677 – The Siege of Valenciennes, during the Franco-Dutch War, ends with France's taking of the city.
1776 – American Revolution: British forces evacuate Boston, ending the Siege of Boston, after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery in positions overlooking the city.
1780 – American Revolution: George Washington grants the Continental Army a holiday "as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence".
1805 – The Italian Republic, with Napoleon as president, becomes the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King.
1842 – The Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is formed;
1860 – The First Taranaki War begins in Taranaki, New Zealand, a major phase of the New Zealand land wars.
1861 – The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed.
1891 – SS Utopia collides with HMS Anson in the Bay of Gibraltar and sinks, killing 562 of the 880 passengers on board.
1921 – The Second Polish Republic adopts the March Constitution.
1939 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and Japan begins,
1941 – In Washington, D.C., the National Gallery of Art is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1942 – Holocaust: The first Jews from the Lvov Ghetto are gassed at the Belzec death camp in what is today eastern Poland.
1945 – The Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany, collapses, ten days after its capture.
1947 – First flight of the B-45 Tornado strategic bomber.
1948 – The Benelux, France, and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO.
1950 – Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley announce the creation of element 98, which they name "californium".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_17