Happy Birthday March 17

Legendary Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev was born on March 17, 1938. Rudolf Nureyev was a star of the Kirov Ballet in the Soviet Union before defecting to the West while on tour in Paris in 1961. He then became the most prominent ballet dancer in the world before dying of Aids, aged 54.

Nureyev in his dressing room c. 1974, By Allan Aarren

For more March 17 anniversaries, including the end of the Siege of Boston, the opening of Washington DC's National Gallery of Art and the end of apartheid in South Africa, check out OnThatDay.