March 17

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, a communal leader and organizer of American Reform institutions, was born in Budapest.

Julius Caesar won the final battle of his civil war against the Pompeian forces in southern Hispania, securing his hold over the Roman state.

Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic philosopher-emperor and author of the Meditations, died in his military quarters on the northern frontier, leaving the throne to his son Commodus.

Ibn Khaldun, the North African historian whose Muqaddimah pioneered the study of society and the cycles of dynasties, died in Cairo.

Taixu, the Chinese monk who called for a modern, socially engaged "Buddhism for this world," died on this day in 1947.

The United States launched Vanguard 1, the first solar-powered satellite; long since silent, it remains the oldest human-made object still orbiting the Earth.