Birthday Paper › What happened on …? › March 17

Events on March 17

• 1804 Friedrich Schiller's drama Wilhelm Tell had its premiere at the Weimar Court Theatre under the direction of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who was the theatre's intendant at the time.
• 1848 Under the impression of the March Revolution in Germany, the poet Ferdinand Freiligrath writes the poem Schwarz, Roth, Gold in London, which is later set to music.
• 1920 In Berlin, the Kapp Putsch against the government of the Weimar Republic collapses. However, the putschists Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz succeed in fleeing abroad. The Ehrhardt Brigade, which was crucially involved in the putsch, is allowed to remain in Berlin as a force maintaining order by Reichswehr Minister Gustav Noske.
• 1929 Wilhelm von Opel and his brother Friedrich Opel sell the majority of the shares in their automobile company Opel to the American automotive conglomerate General Motors.
• 1945 The Ludendorff Bridge between Remagen and Erpel, at that time the only intact bridge across the Rhine, collapses 10 days after its capture by the Allies in the Second World War. In doing so, 32 US-American military engineers are killed.
• 1959 The Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso flees to India after the uprising of the Tibetans against Chinese rule has failed.
• 1960 The German Bundestag resolves to privatize the state-owned Volkswagen GmbH in Wolfsburg. The company is converted into a joint-stock company. 60 percent of the shares are offered to private individuals for purchase as people's shares.
• 1991 In a doping test, the use of cocaine is detected in the footballer Diego Maradona. His contract with SSC Napoli is terminated and he is given a 15-month ban.
• 1992 In South Africa, 68.7 percent of white people vote in a referendum for the abolition of apartheid.
• 1994 The Finn Toni Nieminen stands at the ski flying hill in Planica and becomes the first ski jumper to make a jump of 203 metres, after the Austrian Andreas Goldberger had previously jumped over 200 metres as the first man, but had fallen.
• 1999 Thyssenkrupp AG comes into being through registration in the commercial register. Germany's largest steel and armaments company emerges from the merger of the steel concerns Thyssen AG in Düsseldorf and Friedr. Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp in Essen.
• 2005 For the first time in German history, an election for Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein produces no result. Neither Heide Simonis (SPD) nor Peter Harry Carstensen (CDU) achieves a majority, so after four unsuccessful ballots the election is suspended.

Born on March 17

• 1862 Silvio Gesell, German economist
• 1880 Lawrence Oates, British polar explorer
• 1881 Helene Weber, German politician and women's rights activist
• 1930 James Irwin, American astronaut
• 1942 John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer
• 1950 Rötger Feldmann, German comic artist
• 1951 Kurt Russell, American actor
• 1960 Thomas Strobl, German politician
• 1971 Markus Becker, German pop singer
• 1980 Johannes Strate, German singer

Is your birthday on March 17?

Then there is a newspaper that tells only the story of your day: what was going on in the world on March 17 of your birth year, which song was at the top, what the weather was like at your birthplace, plus birthday twins and a personal greeting.

• For every birth year from 1946
• 4 to 10 pages, always €14.90, as a PDF to print
• With a greeting page for voice and video messages

Create the paper for March 17 · €14.90

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Source of events and birthdays: German Wikipedia article „17. März“, licence CC BY-SA 4.0, selected, shortened and translated by Birthday Paper.

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