Today’s highlight:

On March 17, 1969, Golda Meir took power in Israel, beginning a stint as prime minister that would last through five crucial years in the nation’s history.

On this date

1762: New York held its first St. Patrick’s Day parade.

1905: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt married Franklin Delano Roosevelt in New York.

1966: A U.S. Navy midget submarine located a missing hydrogen bomb that had fallen from a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber into the Mediterranean off Spain. (It took several more weeks to actually recover the bomb.

1970: The United States cast its first veto in the U.N. Security Council, killing a resolution that would have condemned Britain for failing to use force to overthrow the white-ruled government of Rhodesia.

2003: Edging to the brink of war, President George W. Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave his country. Iraq rejected Bush’s ultimatum, saying that a U.S. attack to force Saddam from power would be “a grave mistake.”

2016: Finally bowing to years of public pressure, SeaWorld Entertainment said it would no longer breed killer whales or make them perform crowd-pleasing tricks.

Today’s birthdays

Actor Patrick Duffy is 75. Actor Kurt Russell is 73. Actor Gary Sinise is 69. Former basketball and baseball player Danny Ainge is 65. Actor Rob Lowe is 60. Gold medal soccer player Mia Hamm is 52. Sports reporter Tracy Wolfson is 49. Gold medal swimmer Katie Ledecky is 27.