What happened on 17 March?

11 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1861 Kingdom of Italy proclaimed Vittorio Emanuele II proclaimed King of Italy; first unified state on the peninsula since the Roman empire (Venice and Rome added later).
2. 1912 Oates walks into the blizzard His frostbitten feet slowing the party to a fatal crawl, Captain Lawrence Oates leaves the tent on the morning of his 32nd birthday with the most famous exit line in exploration: '
3. 1962 Born: Kalpana Chawla First Indian-born woman in space; died in Columbia disaster.
4. 1969 Premiership of Golda Meir Israel's only woman prime minister, brought down by the intelligence failure before the Yom Kippur War.
5. 1858 Irish Republican Brotherhood founded A secret oath-bound society dedicated to an independent Irish republic, ancestor of the IRA.
6. 180 Reign of Commodus Marcus Aurelius's son ends the Five Good Emperors; capricious gladiator-emperor strangled by his wrestling partner.
7. 2023 Taylor Swift's Eras Tour begins Highest-grossing concert tour ever; cultural event of the mid-2020s.
8. 1776 The British evacuate Boston Waking to find Henry Knox's captured Ticonderoga cannon on Dorchester Heights above their anchorage, the British army sails out of Boston with a thousand loyalists — the rebels' fi
9. 45 BCE Battle of Munda Caesar's last battle; defeats the sons of Pompey in Spain, ending the civil war.
10. 1969 Golda Meir becomes prime minister of Israel The Kyiv-born, Milwaukee-raised party organiser takes office at 70 and leads Israel through the Yom Kippur War.
11. 1801 Henry Addington's premiership Addington makes the short-lived Peace of Amiens with Napoleon before war resumes.