On this date in...

1762...It's the start of a New York tradition, as the first St. Patrick's Day Parade is held in Manhattan.

1871...The National Baseball League is formed at a meeting of baseball officials held at a cafe on Broadway. Teams include the New York Mutuals and the Brooklyn Eckfords.

1993...America's "First Lady of Theater," Helen Hayes, dies at age 92.

2008...David Paterson, a lawmaker from Harlem, takes the oath of office in Albany to become the first African-American – and first legally-blind – governor of New York State. He replaces Eliot Spitzer, who had resigned five days earlier after a federal wiretap caught him arranging to meet a call-girl in a Washington, D.C., hotel room.