On March 17, 1776, British forces were forced to evacuate
Boston following General George Washington’s successful
placement of fortifications and cannons on Dorchester Heights,       
which overlooked the city from the south.

On March 17, 1992, white South Africans vote overwhelmingly
in a referendum to end minority rule, by a margin of 68.7
percent to 31.2 percent. Thus ended the turbulent period
called apartheid, a racial segregation policy that separated
the minority white population by designating areas and
activities prohibited to Black people.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013)

(Tenement Museum)

The first recorded parade honoring the Catholic feast day of
St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland,was held in what is now
St. Augustine, Florida.

Records show that a St. Patrick’s Day parade was held on
March 17, 1601 in a Spanish colony under the direction of
the colony’s Irish vicar, Ricardo Artur.

More than a century later, homesick Irish soldiers serving
in the English military marched in Boston in 1737 and in 
New York City on March 1762. 

The dates of St.Patrick’s life cannot be fixed with
certainty, but there is general agreement that he
was active as a missionary in Ireland during the
fifth century.

The photo depicting Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm and his family,
called “Burst of Joy,” goes on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1974.

Stirm was among 20 POWs from prison camps in North
Vietnam aboard the plane that landed at Travis AFB,
where a large crowd of family members turned up to
welcome their loved ones home.

Stirm, an Air Force fighter pilot shot down over Hanoi in
1967, had spent more than five years as a prisoner of the
Vietnam War.

“Burst of Joy” has appeared in numerous books and
exhibits and symbolizes for many the end of the divisive
Vietnam War—which claimed some 58,000 American lives
and the dawn of new life after a dark period.

Stirm retired from the United States Air
Force as a Colonel and lives in California.

Slava "Sal" Veder