Holidays Calendar for March 17, 2026
Saint Patrick’s Day, also known as the Feast of Saint Patrick, is a religious and cultural celebration largely associated with Ireland. It is observed on March 17, the traditional feast day of Saint Patrick, Ireland’s foremost patron saint.
On March 17, the citizens of Bangladesh celebrate Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Birthday. It is a national holiday dedicated to a preeminent Bengali nationalist leader who is considered the father of the nation and liberator of Bangladesh.
World Social Work Day is an annual observance held on the third Tuesday of March. It is coordinated by the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), a worldwide organization that represents social workers from 116 member countries and strives for human rights, social justice and social development through the promotion of social work.
Thais are so proud of their national martial art, Muay Thai, also known as Thai boxing, that they celebrate National Muay Thai Day twice a year: on February 6 and on March 17, The second date, however, is much more popular than the first.
Mobilization Employee Day is an official professional holiday in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, celebrated annually on March 17. Until 2016, its date was September 14.
Evacuation Day is the commemoration of the withdrawal of the British army during the American Revolutionary War. In Suffolk County, Massachusetts, it is celebrated on March 17 to commemorate the end of the siege of Boston in 1776. The day is also observed by public schools in Sommerville, Middlesex County.
Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Day is observed in the Philippines on March 17 every year. It commemorates the death anniversary of the seventh president of the Philippines who was widely regarded as “people’s president”.
Many people think that corned beef and boiled cabbage is a traditional Irish dish for St. Patrick's Day, but this is actually not true. This is an Irish-American invention, that is why we celebrate National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day on March 17.
The government of Bangladesh pays much attention to the well-being of children and it annually organizes special cultural events to celebrate National Children Day. It annually falls on March 17.
This Day in History
- 2023 Died: Lance Reddick, American actor and musician. He was known for his roles as Cedric Daniels in The Wire, Phillip Broyles in Fringe, and Chief Irvin Irving in Bosch.
- 2014 Died: L'Wren Scott (born Laura Bambrough), American model, stylist, fashion designer and costume designer, longtime companion of Mick Jagger.
- 2007 Died: John Backus, American computer scientist who is best known for inventing the first widely used high-level programming language (FORTRAN).
- 2004 Violent unrest in Kosovo broke out. Kosovo Albanians attacked Serbian people. 28 people were killed and thousands were forced to leave their homes.
- 2002 Died: Sylvester Weaver, American radio advertising executive who created The Today Show and The Tonight Show. Sigourney Weaver is his daughter.
- 1992 Born: John Boyega, British film actor and producer who had his international breakthrough playing Finn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy films from 2015 to 2019.
- 1992 29 people were killed in a suicide bombing attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Islamic Jihad Organization claimed responsibility.
- 1990 Born: Hozier (stage name of Andrew John Hozier-Byrne), Irish musician, singer and songwriter whose debut single, "Take Me to Church", became multi-platinum and catapulted him to fame.
- 1976 Died: Luchino Visconti, Italian theater, opera, and film director and screenwriter who is best known for his films The Leopard and Death in Venice.
- 1973 Associated Press photographer Slava "Sal" Veder took his famous Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph "Burst of Joy at Travis Air Force Base, California".
- 1969 Golda Meir became the first female Prime Minister of Israel. She resigned in 1974, following the Yom Kippur War, and was succeeded by Yitzhak Rabin.
- 1969 Born: Alexander McQueen, British fashion designer and couturier who had been working at Givenchy for 5 years before founding his own label.
- 1957 Mt. Pinatubo, Douglas C-47 aircraft, crashed near Cebu City, Philippines. 25 people were killed in the crash, including Ramon Magsaysay, President of the Philippines.
- 1956 Died: Fred Allen (born John Florence Sullivan), American comedian who was one of the most popular humorists in the Golden Age of American radio.
- 1956 Died: Irène Joliot-Curie, French chemist who was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie.
- 1951 Born: Kurt Russell, American actor whose career spans more than 60 years (he began his acting career at the age of 6 and first appeared a film at the age of 11).
- 1950 The team of physicists from the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley announced the discovery of element 98, californium.
- 1949 Born: Daniel Lavoie, Canadian singer-songwriter, actor, producer, and radio host who is known for playing Frollo in the musical Notre-Dame de Paris.
- 1948 Benelux, France and the United Kingdom signed the Treaty of Brussels that provided the basis for the establishment of the Western European Union.
- 1948 Born: William Gibson, American-Canadian speculative fiction writer who is recognized as a primary exponent of cyberpunk. He coined the term "cyberspace".
- 1944 Born: Pattie Boyd, English model, photographer and writer. Pattie Boyd was the first wife of both George Harrison and Eric Clapton.
- 1938 Born: Rudolf Nureyev, Soviet-born dancer who is considered one of the most outstanding dancers of ballet and modern dance of the 20th century.
- 1937 Died: Austen Chamberlain, British statesman who was awarded the 1925 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the Locarno Treaties. He shared it with Charles G. Dawes.
- 1919 Born: Nat King Cole (stage name of Nathaniel Adams Coles), American singer and jazz pianist who was widely noticed for his soft, baritone voice.
- 1891 The transatlantic passenger steamship Utopia collided with the battleship HMS Anson in the Bay of Gibraltar. 564 people (including 2 rescuers) died in the accident.
- 1881 Born: Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss psychologist who was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, sharing it with Egas Moniz.
- 1860 The First Taranaki War broke out in New Zealand. It was sparked by a dispute between Māori land owners and the New Zealand Government.
- 1856 Born: Mikhail Vrubel, Russian painter noted for his unusual manner. His best known works include Demon Seated in a Garden and The Swan Princess.
- 1834 Born: Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer, industrialist, and industrial designer who is best known for inventing the high-speed petrol engine.
- 1782 Died: Daniel Bernoulli, Swiss physicist and mathematician whose name is commemorated in the Bernoulli's principle formulated in his 1738 work Hydrodynamica.
- 1776 The Siege of Boston, the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War, ended. British forces were evacuated from the city of Boston.
- 1680 Died: François de La Rochefoucauld, French author of memoirs and maxims (aphorisms). Along with memoirs and maxims, his literary heritage includes letters.
- 180 Died: Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the Five Good Emperors, the other four being Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius.