Sunday, March 17, 2013

March 17 - St. Patrick's Day

Are you feeling green today! I know I am (must be the Irish in my blood)!

On this day in history, March 17, 461, St. Patrick died. Over a thousand years later, March 17, 1762, the first St. Patrick's Day Parade took place - not in Ireland, but the United States; Irish soldiers in the English army marched through New York City, the music and parade helping them reconnect with themselves and their Irish roots.

Learn more about St. Patrick (how he was actually born in Roman Britain, and was brought to Ireland as a slave) here: http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day

Check out some of our St. Patrick's Day collection here:
 
"Hooray for St. Patrick's Day", by Joan Holub
 

 
"La Saint-Patrick", by Carmen Bredeson
 
 
"St. Patrick's Day", by Joyce K. Kessel
 

Today is also Campfire Girls Day!

Here are some interesting things that happened on this day in history:

- St. Patrick was carried off to Ireland as a slave in 432. He escaped when he was sixteen, though he returned to bring Christianity to the people of Ireland.
- The first issue of the Kingston Gazette (now the Whig-Standard) was published in 1810, the same day Governor Sir James Craig stopped Le Canadien's presses. Its owners were arrested on charges of treason.
- Henry Jones patented self-raising flour in 1845, the same day Stephen Perry patented the rubber band.
- Italy declared its independence in 1861
- The US ended free trade with Canada in 1866
- The 1600-seat theatre of the Academie de Musique de Quebec was destroyed by a fire in 1900
- Mrs. Luther Halsey Gulick announced the organization "Camp Fire Girls" in 1912
- Tsar Nicolas II of Russia abdicated the throne in 1917
- Maurice Richard's suspension by NHL president Clarence Campbell sparked a riot at the Montreal Forum that spread into the streets in 1955
- The Dalai Lama fled Tibet for India in 1959
- Dorothy Cudahy became the first female Grand Marshal of the St. Patrick's Day Parade in 1989
- John Demjanjuk, a convicted Nazi war criminal, died from natural causes at the age of 91 in 2012

Stay tuned for our next "On This Day in History"! I hope everyone had a memorable St. Patrick's Day!

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