March 16, 2017 (Thursday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Piracy off the coast of Somalia
- The Somali pirates that hijacked the Aris 13, a United Arab Emirates-owned oil tanker, release it without condition. (BBC)
- Syrian Civil War
Disasters and accidents
- An eruption at Mount Etna on the Italian island of Sicily injures at least ten people, including several in a BBC News crew. (The Independent) (Reuters)
- A fire in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, damages 10 buildings. (WNCN)
Law and crime
- A shooting at a school in Grasse, France, injures at least eight people. Authorities arrest a 17-year-old student. (The Telegraph)
- A letter bomb explodes at the office of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Paris, injuring one person. (BBC)
- Kidnapping of Elizabeth Thomas
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation becomes involved in the search for Elizabeth Thomas and the manhunt for her suspected kidnapper, Tad Cummins. (FOX 17 Nashville)
- An all-points bulletin is issued for Cummins. (FOX 17 Nashville)
Politics and elections
- United States immigration ban
- A second U.S. federal judge, Theodore D. Chuang of Maryland, grants that state's motion for a temporary restraining order on President Trump's revised travel ban. (The Washington Post)
Science and technology
- List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches
- SpaceX successfully launches the EchoStar 23 satellite, a Direct-to-home television broadcast services for Brazil, into a geosynchronous transfer orbit, using the fully expendable version of their Falcon 9 launch vehicle. (NASA Spaceflight)