On This Day for March 17 - Vote to end apartheid, Mia Hamm is featured, and more

Created: 2020-03-17 10:03 Updated: 2020-03-17 10:03 Notebook: On this Day in History

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March 17

FEATURED BIOGRAPHY

1972

Mia Hamm

FEATURED EVENT

1992

Vote to end apartheid

MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY

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 .]

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; a search was undertaken for the cult's leaders, who were believed to have killed their followers after a promised apocalypse did not occur.

1969: Golda Meir became the fourth prime minister of Israel. [ Take our quiz about famous firsts for women .]

1917: 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 .]

1902: American golfer Bobby Jones, the first player to achieve a Grand Slam, was born. [ Sort fact from fiction in our golf quiz .]

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.

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ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY

1948

William Gibson
American-Canadian author

1919

Nat King Cole
American singer and musician

1804

Jim Bridger
American frontiersman

1942

John Wayne Gacy
American serial killer

1938

Rudolf Nureyev
Soviet-born dancer