When I was in eighth grade, my history teacher always began class by talking about interesting events that had happened that day in history. These events were often things that I had taken for granted because they weren’t recognized by a national holiday, or really anything. The point is that we go through our days, weeks, and years, not even thinking about the significance that they have had throughout history. So, I’m going to through each day in the month of March and fill you guys in stuff you probably had no idea happened this month in history.
March 1
1932 – The son of Charles Lindbergh (you know, the first guy to fly across the Atlantic Ocean) was kidnapped from the family mansion.
1781 – The Articles of the Confederation were ratified.
1961 – President JFK established the Peace Corps
1692 – The Salem Witch Hunt began
1872 – Yellowstone Park was established
March 2
1904 – Dr. Seuss was born
1807 – Congress abolished the African slave trade
1942 – Grave robbers stole Charlie Chaplin’s body
March 3
1931 – “The Star-Spangled Banner” became official
1875 – First indoor game of ice hockey
1887 – Anne Sullivan began teaching six-year old Helen Keller with “touch teaching” for the first time. Sullivan later became known as “the miracle worker.”
March 4
1933 – President FDR was inaugurated
1861 – President Lincoln was inaugurated
2005 – Martha Stewart was released from prison
1952 – Ernest Hemingway finished The Old Man and the Sea
1952 - Future president Ronald Reagan also married his second wife, Nancy Davis.
March 5
1963 – The Hula Hoop was patented
1770 – The Boston Massacre
1929 – David Dunbar Buick, the founder of the Buick Motor Company, died
1946 – Churchill delivered his Iron Curtain speech
1953 – Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union since 1924, died
March 6
1899 – Bayer patented aspirin
1857 – The Dred Scott decision (stated that African Americans could not become citizens of the U.S.)
1951 – The Rosenburg trial began in which the Rosenburgs were convicted of selling nuclear secrets to Russia and sentenced to death row.
1475 – Michelangelo was born
1986 – Artist, Georgia O’Keefe died
1902 – Real Madrid (the professional soccer club for you non-sports people) was founded
March 7
1876 - Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone
1938 – The first female Indy 500 driver, Janet Guthrie, was born.
1988 – The Writers Guild of America strike in Hollywood began
1974 – Pearl Bailey and Richard Nixon serenaded a White House audience
March 8
1951 – The Lonely Hearts Killers are executed for killing multiple women who placed personal ads in newspapers.
1661 – Mount Etna erupted in Italy, killing more than 20,000 people
2014 – Malaysia Airline flight vanished with more than 200 people aboard
1957 – Egypt opened the Suez Canal
1993 – MTV aired its first episode of Beavis and Butthead
March 9th
1959 – Barbie made its debut
1985 – The first adopt-a-highway sign went up
1997 – Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G. was shot at a stoplight in LA (ongoing feud between rap music artists from the East and West coasts?)
1981 – A Japanese power plant leaked nuclear radioactive waste into Wakasa Bay, contaminating fish and many people.
March 10
1969 – James Earl Ray pled guilty to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and was sentenced to 99 years in jail.
1997 – The Warner Brothers introduced the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
March 11
1989 – The show COPS, where cameras film police arrests and other escapades, premiered on Fox
1818 – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein was published
1997 – Paul McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his “service to music.”
March 12
1933 – President FDR gave his first fireside chat
1947 – The Truman Doctrine, which came to be known as the official declaration of the Cold War, was announced
1988 – Hail caused a stampede that killed over 70 people at a soccer match in Nepal
1930 – Gandhi protested the British monopoly on salt with his march to the sea
March 13
1942 – The U.S. Army launched K-9 Corps, its War Dog Program
1781 - Astronomer, William Hershel discovered Uranus
1868 – The impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson began
March 14
1879 - Albert Einstein was born
1950 – The FBI began its “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list
1964 – Lee Harvey Oswald’s killer, Jack Ruby, was sentenced to death
1948 – Billy Crystal, who starred in When Harry Met Sally, was born
March 15
1972 – The Godfather was released in theaters
44 B.C. – Julius Caesar was murdered (The Ides of March)
1767 – Future president Andrew Jackson was born
March 16
1802 – The U.S. Military Academy was established
1751 - James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution,” was born.
1850 – Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, “The Scarlet Letter.”
1945 – Fighting on Iwo Jima during World War II ended
March 17
461 – Christian missionary, Saint Patrick, died
1776 – British forces are forced to evacuate Boston during the American Revolution
1762 – The first Saint Patrick’s Day parade
2000 – After the movie, Erin Brockovich, was released on this day, Julia Roberts became the first actress to earn $20 million per movie.
1905 – Future president FDR married Eleanor Roosevelt in New York.
March 18
1852 – Henry Wells and William G. Fargo combine with investors to form Wells Fargo
1766 – Parliament repealed the Stamp Act
1925 – The worst tornado in U.S. history passed through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana killing and injuring thousands
March 19
1957 – Elvis Presley placed a down payment on Graceland
2003 – The war in Iraq began
1931 – Gambling was legalized in Nevada (Vegas babyyyyyy)
1953 – The First Academy Awards was shown on NBC
March 20
1854 - The Republican Party was founded
1982 – Joan Jett topped the pop charts with “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
1861 – Willie and Tad Lincoln got the measles.
March 21
1963 – Alcatraz Prison closed down and transferred its last prisoners.
1965 – The march from Selma to Montgomery began, led by Martin Luther King Jr.
1980 – Soccer phenomenon, Ronaldinho, was born
March 22
1765 – Britain passed its Stamp Act for the American colonies
1983 – The development of the Humvee, later used to transport military troops and cargo, began
1947 – Best-selling author, James Patterson is born
1933 – President FDR legalizes the sale of beer and wine
1894 – The first Stanley Cup championship is played
March 23
2011 – Hollywood icon, Elizabeth Taylor, died at age 79
1994 – Hockey player, Wayne Gretzky, scored is 802nd goal, breaking the NHL’s record for most goals scored in a career
March 24
1603 – Queen Elizabeth I died
1958 – Elvis Presley was inducted into the U.S. Army
1976 – Peyton Manning was born
March 25
1982 – The first woman to win an IndyCar Series race, Danica Patrick, was born
1946 – Soviets announced their withdrawal from Iran during the Cold War
1958 – Boxer Sugar Ray Robinson defeats Carmen Basilio for the middleweight championship
1911 – A fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York killed 145 workers, resulting in a series of laws for the better protection of factory workers
March 26
1872 – A deadly earthquake hit California, killing 30 people
1953 – Dr. Jonas Salk announced the vaccine for polio
1920 – F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel, This Side of Paradise, was published
March 27
1998 – FDA approved Viagra
1952 – The founder of Toyota, Kiichiro Toyoda, died
1905 – The fingerprinting technique is used for one of the first times to solve a British murder case
1977 – Two jumbo jets crashed into each other on the runway at an airport in the Canary Islands, killing 582 people
1973 –Marlon Brando, declined his Best Actor Oscar for his role in The Godfather
1939 – March Madness began
March 28
1979 – The nuclear accident at Three Mile Island
2006 – Duke lacrosse team suspended following the sexual assault allegations
1969 – President Dwight Eisenhower died
1776 – San Francisco was founded
1984 – The NFL team, the Baltimore Colts, became the Indianapolis Colts
March 29
1973 – The U.S. withdrew from Vietnam
1951 – The Mad Bomber struck New York by setting of a bomb in Grand Central Station
1974 – The first spacecraft visited Mercury
March 30
1981 –John Hinckley Jr. shot President Reagan
1980 – A floating apartment for oil workers collapsed in the North Sea, killing 123 people
1974 – Singer John Denver had his first #1 song, “Sunshine on My Shoulders”
March 31
1889 – The Eiffel Tower opened
1776 – Abigail Adams urged her husband, John Adams, to “remember the ladies.”
1959 – The Dalai Lama began is exile in India
1999 – Hollywood released The Matrix
1959 – The longest strike in MLB history ends
Mind = blown. You’re welcome.
