Unix Timestamp: 984787200
Saturday, March 17. 2001, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Arab Spring and the Libyan civil war: The United Nations Security Council votes 10-0 to create a no-fly zone over Libya in response to allegations of government aggression against civilians.

The United Nations Security Council after the failure of Libyan authorities to comply with its 1970 resolution of 26 February 2011, adopts Resolution 1973 //www.un.org/Docs/sc/unsc_resolutions11.htm (UN Security Council resolutions 1970 1973) that imposes a No-fly zone over Libya //www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/17/un-resolution-libya-no-fly-zone ("The Guardian"), //news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/17/u-n-imposes-no-fly-zone-over-libya/ (CNN), enforcing the arms embargo, freezing Libya's assets, and banning travel of Libyan officials involved in recruiting mercenaries, by All means necessary an addition that bypasses the UNSCR 1970's military intervention prevention and imposes a no-fly zone, initially rejected on UNSCR 1970.

The President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, is overthrown in a "coup d\\'état", following a month of rallies in Antananarivo. The military appoints opposition leader Andry Rajoelina as the new president.

Indian politicians, including Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, express concern over the Chinese response to Tibetan protests. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7300661.stm (BBC News)

Chinese security forces round up Tibetan dissidents in Lhasa. Qiangba Puncog, Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, says the official death toll from the unrest is 13 and calm is returning to the city. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7299965.stm (BBC News)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and half of her cabinet visit Israel in a move to upgrade bilateral relations //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7300691.stm (BBC News)

Albanian Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu resigns over the 2008 Tirana explosions. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7301098.stm (BBC News)

Subprime mortgage crisis:

A pogrom-like organized violence breaks out over 2 days in Kosovo 19 people are killed, 8000 Serbian homes burned, schools and businesses vandalized, and over 300 Orthodox monasteries and churches burned and destroyed.

Sri Lanka wins the Cricket World Cup by storming to a famous victory against the tournament favourite Australia.

The PKK announces a unilateral ceasefire in Iraq.

The Civic Tower of Pavia, built in the 14th century, crumbles down.

Alfredo Cristiani is elected President of El Salvador.

Expo '85, a World's Fair, is held in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, until September 16.

Expo \\\'85, a World\\'s Fair, is held in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, until September 16.

In Italy the Propaganda DueMasonic Lodge is discovered.

The Penmanshiel Tunnel in the U.K. collapses, killing 2 workers.

California Jam II is held at the Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California, attracting more than 300,000 fans.

The oil tanker "Amoco Cadiz" runs aground on the coast of Brittany.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan, is sentenced to death by hanging for ordering the assassination of a political opponent.

My Lai massacre: The United States Army charges 14 officers with suppressing information related to the incident.

General Lon Nol ousts Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.

United States Postal Service workers in New York City go on strike the strike spreads to the state of California and the cities of Akron, Ohio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Chicago, Boston, and Denver, Colorado 210,000 out of 750,000 U.S. postal employees walk out. President Nixon assigns military units to New York City post offices. The strike lasts 2 weeks.

A demonstration in London's Grosvenor Square against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War leads to violence 91 people are injured, 200 demonstrators arrested.

Northwest Airlines Flight 710 crashes near Tell City, Indiana, killing all 63 on board.

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet.

The United States launches the Vanguard 1satellite.

Convention on the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) enters into force, founding the IMCO as a specialized agency of the United Nations.

Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others are killed in a plane crash.

The Richard Riot occurs in Montreal.

The first nuclear test of Operation Upshot-Knothole is conducted in Nevada, with 1,620 spectators at .

University of California, Berkeley researchers announce the creation of element 98, which they have named californium.

The Shamrock Hotel in Houston, Texas, owned by oil tycoon Glenn McCarthy, has its grand opening.

WWII: Kobe, Japan is fire-bombed by 331 B-29 bombers, killing over 8,000 people.

WWII: The Nazis execute almost 400 prisoners, Soviet citizens and anti-fascist Romanians at Rîbniţa.

Éamon de Valera makes the speech The Ireland That We Dreamed Of, commonly called the comely maidens speech.

Holocaust: the Nazi Germanextermination cBełżec opens in occupied Poland about 1 km south of the local railroad station of Bełżec in the Lublin district of the General Government. Between March and December 1942, at least 434,508 people are killed there.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain gives a speech in Birmingham, stating that Britain will oppose any effort at world domination on the part of Germany.

Poland presents an ultimatum to Lithuania, to establish normal diplomatic relations that were severed over the Vilnius Region.

In a result that astonished even Hitler, the Austrian electorate in a national referendum approved Anschluss by an overwhelming 99.73%.

General Werner von Fritsch is acquitted of charges of homosexuality at his court-martial.

Édouard Daladier becomes prime minister of France. He appoints as Foreign Minister a leading advocate of the policy of appeasement, Georges Bonnet, effectively negating Blum's reassurances of March 14.

Mexico nationalizes all foreign-owned oil properties within its borders.

The Atherton Report (private investigator Edwin Atherton's report detailing vice and police corruption in San Francisco) is released.

March 18 ndash St. Patrick's Day Flood: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, suffers the worst flooding in its history.

Nevada legalizes gambling.

N.S.) (March 4, O.S.) ndash Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia refuses the throne, and power passes to the newly formed Provisional Government under Prince Georgy Lvov.

The Uruguayan Air Force is founded.

Albert Einstein publishes his paper "On a heuristic viewpoint concerning the production and transformation of light", in which he explains the photoelectric effect using the notion of light quanta.

The British steamship SS "Utopia", carrying Italian migrants to New York, sinks in the inner harbor of Gibraltar after collision with the battleship HMS "Anson", killing 564.562 passengers and crew from "Utopia" and two rescue sailors from HMS "Immortalité" -

The British steamship SS \\\\\'\\\\\'Utopia\\\\\'\\\\\', carrying Italian migrants to New York, sinks in the inner harbor of Gibraltar after collision with the battleship HMS \'\'Anson\'\', killing 564.562 passengers and crew from "Utopia" and two rescue sailors from HMS ''Immortalité'' -

Carrollton Massacre: 20 African Americans are killed in Mississippi.

Italian unification: The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed by the new Parliament, with Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia becoming its king.

The First Taranaki War begins at Waitara, New Zealand, when Māori refuse to sell land to British settlers.

Taiping Rebellion: A Taiping army of 350,000 invades Anhui.

The rubber band is invented in England.

The Relief Society, a philanthropic and educational women's organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) was founded.

Texas abolishes the slave trade.

MayndashJuly ndash King Kamehameha II of Hawaii and his Queen Consort Kamāmalu make a state visit to London, where they both die of smallpox.

The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 is signed.

First performance of Friedrich Schiller's play "Wilhelm Tell", at Weimar under the direction of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

American Revolution: Threatened by Patriot cannons on Dorchester Heights, the British evacuate Boston.

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in New York City for the first time (at the Crown and Thistle Tavern).

first official Saint Patrick's Day

Third Anglo-Dutch War: The Kingdom of England declares war on the Dutch Republic.ref name=Cassell's Chronology/

Oliver Cromwell makes first appearance in the English Parliament as Member for Huntingdon.

MayndashAugust 4 ndash Thirty Years\\\' War: As a result of its refusal to accept the Capitulation of Franzburg, Stralsundis besieged by Wallenstein's imperial army.

The Cathay Company is formed to send Martin Frobisher back to the New World for more gold.

Leaders of the Amboise conspiracy, including Godefroy de Barry, seigneur de La Renaudie, make an unsuccessful attempt to storm the château of Amboise, where the young French king and queen are residing. La Renaudie is subsequently caught and executed, along with over a thousand of his followers.

Princess Elizabeth is imprisoned in the Tower of London.

March ndash Paracelsus is appointed as town physician of Basle.

Battle of Khanwa: This and two other major Moghul victories lead to the domination of northern India.

King Lulach of Scotland is killed in battle against his cousin and rival Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, who later becomes King as Máel Coluim III.

Justus becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Battle of Badr is fought: Led by Muhammad, the Muslims of Medina defeat the Quraysh of Mecca in Badr, present-day Saudi Arabia.

Maximus appoints Avitus, most trusted general, to the rank of "magister militum" and sends him on an embassy to Toulouse to gain support of the Visigoths. He elevates his son Palladius to "Caesar" and led him marry Eudocia, eldest daughter of Valentinian III.

Petronius Maximus, former "domesticus" (elite bodyguard) of Aetius, becomes with support of the Roman Senate emperor of the Western Roman Empire. He secures the throne by bribing officials of the imperial palace. Maximus consolidates his power by a forced marriage with Licinia Eudoxia, widow of Valentinian III.

Northern Brits from beyond Hadrian's Wall invade the North of modern day England causing Emperor Commodus to allow swathes of Northern cities to establish city walls.

The Era of the Five Good Emperors ends.

Rome creates a 4-mile wide buffer zone by the Danube.

Northern Brits from beyond Hadrian's Wall invade the North of modern day England causing Emperor Commodus to allow swathes of Northern cities to establish city walls.

Galen's popular work on hygiene is published.

Porta Nigra is built in Germanian Trier.

Lake Taupo erupts, forming ash clouds as far as China and Europe.

Emperor Marcus Aurelius dies after a week's illness at his c in Vindobona (modern Vienna). He is succeeded by his son Commodus (age 18).

This year is often suggested as the first year of the Three Kingdoms period of China.

In his "Methodus Medendo", Greek physician Galen describes the connection between paralysis and the severing of the spinal cord.

Work begins in Rome on the building of the Column of Marcus Aurelius.

180ndash395 ndash Late Empire in Rome.

The Goths reach the banks of the Black Sea.