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This day in history

Monday, March 17, is the 76th day of 2014. There are 289 days left in the year. This is St. Patrick’s Day.

Birthdays: Former astronaut Ken Mattingly is 78. Rock musician Paul Kantner is 73. Singer John Sebastian is 70. Actor Patrick Duffy is 65. Actor Kurt Russell is 63. Actress Lesley-Anne Down is 60. Actor Gary Sinise is 59. Actor Christian Clemenson is 56. Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge is 55. Actor Rob Lowe is 50. Rock singer Billy Corgan is 47. Rock musician Caroline Corr (The Corrs) is 41.

In 1762, New York’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place.

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In 1776, British forces evacuated Boston during the Revolutionary War.

In 1912, the Camp Fire Girls organization was incorporated in Washington, D.C., two years to the day after it was founded in Thetford, Vt. (The group is now known as Camp Fire USA.)

In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet for India in the wake of a failed uprising by Tibetans against Chinese rule.

In 1969, Golda Meir became prime minister of Israel.

In 2009, US journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were detained by North Korea while reporting on refugees living across the border in China. (Both were convicted of entering North Korea illegally and were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor; both were freed in August 2009.)