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March 5

1743  The Christian History became the first religious jounral published in America.

1770  The Boston Massacre, a pre-Revolutionary incident that grew out of anger towards British troops, occurred.  Five antii-British rioters were killed.

1933 In the last free elections in Germany, until after World War II, the Nazi party received 44 per cent of the vote.

1946  Winston Churchill delivered his famous Iron Curtain Speech , "From Stetin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent."

1953  Soviet dictator Josef Stalin diedaat age 73, after 29 years in power.

1963  Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, and Hankshaw Hawkins were killed in a plane crash.

1997  North and Southern Korea representatives met for the first time in 25 years for peace talks. 

March 7

1850  Daniel Webster gave a three-hour speech endorsing the Compromise of 1850.

1876  Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone.

1936  Adolph Hitler broke the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact when he ordered troops to march into the Rhineland.

1945  During World War II,  U.S. troops crossed the bridge at Remagen, the first incursion into Germany by Allied forces.

1965  Peaceful civil rights demonstrators marching from Selma, AL, are brutally attacked with billy clubs and tear gas by police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.  The event is later called "Bloody Sunday".

1977  President Carter met with Yitzhak Rabin.

2004  V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire was invested as the first openly gay Episcopal Church bishop.

2005  John R. Bolton was nominated by President Bush to be U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.

March 9

1611  Johannes Fabricius observed several dark spots on the sun; perhaps the first ever observation of sunspots.

1796  Napoleon Bonaparte married Josephine du Beauharnais, widow of a former French officer executed during the Revolution.

1841  The Supreme Court ruled that the Amistad slaves were free.

1862  The first battle between two ironclad ships, the Monitor (Union) and the Merrimac (Confederacy) occurred, revolutionizing naval warfare.

1933  The special session of Congress know as the "100 days" opened, launching FDR's New Deal.

1964  The Supreme Court issued N.Y. Times versus Sullivan ruling.

1990  Dr. Antonia Novello was sworn in as both the first Hispanic and woman to be U.S. Surgeon General.

March 11

 105  Ts'ai Lun invented paper, made from bamboo, mulberry,, and other fibers, along with fishnets and tags.

1861  The Confederate States of America adopted its constitution.

1888  A torrential rainstorm hit the East Coast. The rain turned to snow the next day and it became the Blizzard of 1888, the most famous snowstorm in American history..  It caused more than 400 deaths.

1918  Jack Coe (pioneed in faith and healing movement) was born.

1930  William Howard Taft became the first U.S. President to be buried in the National Cemetary in Arlington, Virginia.

1941  President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Bill.

1942  General Douglas MacArthur leaves the Phillipines, saying, "I shall return."

1985  Mikhail Gorbachev became head of the Soviet Union following the death of Konstantin Chemenko.  At 54, he was the youngest member of the ruling Politburo.

1990  Augusto Pinochet of Chile, dictator since 1973, steps down.

1990  A newly elected Parliament in Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

1993  Janet Reno won unanimous Senate confirmation to be the first female U.S. Attorney General.

2004  Over 200 people were killed and over 1,400 were injured when bombs exploded in Madrid train stations.  Al-Qaeda took responsibility for the atttacks.

March 13

1639  Cambridge College was renamed Harvard University.

1781  The German-born English astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Georgium Sidus, later known as Uranus.

1852  "Uncle Sam" cartoon appeared for the first time in N.Y. Lantern Weekly.

1868  The Senate began President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial.

1906  Suffagist Susan B. Anthony died.

1925  Tennessee passed a bill prohibiting the teaching of evolution in public schools.

1930  Clyde W. Tombaugh announced the discovery of the planet Pluto.

1972  Britain and China resumed full diplomatic relations after 22 years; Britain withdrew its consulate from Taiwan.

1996  A man shot dead 16 children and a woman teacher in a school in Dunbane, Scotland.  He then shot himself.

March 15

44 B.C.E.  On the "Ides of March", Julius Caesar  was stabbed to death in the Senate house by a group of conspirators led by Cimber, Casca, Cassius, and Marcus Junius Brutus.

1493  Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after his first visit to the Western Hemisphere.

1820  Maine became the 23 state.

1917  Nichoas II, the last czar of Russia, is forced to abdicate his throne (March 2, old style calender).

1937  The first hospital blood bank in the United States was established, in Chicago, in Cook County Hospital.

1965  President Lyndon Johnson asked Congress for legislation guaranteeing every American the right to vote.

2003  Hu Jintao was chosen to replace Jiang Zemin as the President of China.

2004  Scientists reported the discovery of Sedna, the most distant object in the solar system.

March 17                                                                                    Happy St. Patrick's Day!

1762  The first St. Patrick's Day Parade was held in New York City.

1776  British forces evacuated Boston during the Revolutionary War.

1870  Wellesley Female Seminary (later Wellesley College) received its charter from the Massachusetts legislature.

1942  General Douglas MacArthur became Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific Theater during World War II.

1963  Mount Agung on Bali erupted, killing 1,184 people.

1969  Golda Meir was sworn in as Prime Minister of Israel.

2003  President Bush delivered an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein:  leave Iraq within 48 hours or face an attack.

March 19

721 B.C.E  The Babylonians became the first civilization to record a lunar eclipse.

1853  During the Taiping Rebellion in China, the rebels captured Nanking and renamed it T'en-ching (Heavenly Capital).

1920  The United States Senate voted down signing The Treaty of Versailles for the second time.

1931  Nevada state legislature legalized gambling.

1953  The Academy Awards was first televised.

1996 Sarajevo became a united city again after four years when Moslem-Croat authorities took control of the last district held by Serbs.

2003  Operation Iraqi Freedom is launched on Baghdad, the beginning of the war with Iraq.  (March 20 in Iraq).

2003  Mahmoud Abbas became Prime Minister of Palestine.  He would later succeed Yasir Arafat as head of the PLO and President of the Palestinian Authority.

March 21

1556  The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was burned at the stake as a heretic.

1804  The French civil code, The Code Napoleon, was officially put forth.

1871  Journalist Henry M. Stanley began his trek to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone.

1960  Police fired on demonstrators in Sharpeville, South Africa, after which The National African Congress was banned.  Twney-five years later, a march marking the anniversary was also disrupted by police fire.

1963  Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay, a harsh maximum security jail which once housed Al Capone, closed.

1965  Martin Luther King, Jr. led the start of a civil rights march  from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

March 23

1775  Patrick Henry declared, "Give me liberty, or give me death."

1806  Lewis and Clark began their return journey eastward.

1919  Benito Mussolini founded his own party in Italy, the Fasci di Combattimento.

1983  U.S. President Ronald Reagan proposed a space-based missle defense system called the Strategic Defense Initiative or "Star Wars."

1998  The motion picture epic "Titanic" won 11 Oscars at the 70th Academy Awards, tying it with '"Ben Hur" for the most ever.

2001  Russia's Mir space station ended its 15-year orbit of the Earth, splashing down in the South Pacific.

2003  A U.S. Army convoy was ambushed in Iraq with 11 killed and 7 captured, including PFC Jessica Lynch.

March 25

1634  Maryland was founded by settlers sent by the late Lord Baltimore.

1807  Britain abolished its slave trade.

1894  Jacob Sechler Coxey and his "army" of unemployed men began their march from Ohio to Washington, D.C.

1911  A fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. in New York City killed 145 workers.

1931  The Scottsboro boys were arrested in Alabama.

1934  Horton Smith won the first Masters golf tournament at Augusta National in Georgia.

1957  The European Economic Community was established by the Treaty of Rome.

1965  The 25,000-person Alabama Freedom March to protest the denial of voting rights to blacks, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., ended its journey from Selma on the steps of the State Capitol in Montgomery, AL.

1975  King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot and killed by his nephew.

1994  U.S. troops withdrew from Somalia.

2004  The U.S. Congress passed a law making it a separate offense to harm a fetus during a violent federal crime.

March 27

1794  Congress authorizes the construction of six frigates, including the Constitution/(Old Ironsides), for the U.S. Navy.

1866  President Andrew Johnson vetoed a civil rights bill which later became the 14th Amendment.

1884  The first long distance phone telephone call was made, between Boston and New York.

1911 A.A. Allen was born.

1917  The Seattle Metropolitans became the first U.S. hockey team to win the Stanley Cup.

1958  Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party.

1964  A 9.2 magnitude earthquake hit 80 miles east of Anchorage, Alaska, killing 117 and producing a 50 foot tsunami that traveled over 8,000 miles.

1977  Pan American and KLM Boeing 747's collided on a runway in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands.  The 542 people killed is the highest ever for an aviation disaster.

2001  A federal judge ruled that the University of Michigan's affirmative action policy was invalid, a ruling that later would be reversed in an appeal.

March 29

1848  For the first time in American history, Niagara Falls stopped flowing.  An ice jam in the Niagara River above the Falls caused the water to stop.

1867  The North American Act was passed by the British Parliament, creating the  dominion of Canada.

1882  The Knights of Columbus was chartered in Connecticut.

1951  Juliius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty of passing atomic secrets to the Russians and were sentenced to death.

1971  Lt. William Calley was convicted of murdering 22 Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai massacre.

1973  The last U.S. troops left South Vietnam.

1999  The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed about 10,000 for the first time, 10,006.78.

2002  Israel declared Yasir Arafat an enemy.

March 31

1492  Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain expelled Jews who would not accept Christianity.

1860  Rodney (Gipsy) Smith was born.

1889  The Eiffel Tower in Paris officially opened.

1917  The U.S. took possession of the Virgin Islands.

1918  Daylight Saving Time went into effect in the United States.

1949  Newfoundland became Canada's tenth province.

1959  The Dalai Lama, fleeing Chinese repression of an uprising in Tibet, arrived at the Indian border and was granted political asylum.

1968  President Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not run for re-election.

1995  Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanella-Perez, 23, is shot by the President of her fan club in Corpus Christi, Texas.

1995  Major League Baseball players agreed to end the sport's longest strike in history after a judge ordered a preliminary injunction against team owners.

2005  Terry Schiavo died 13 days after her feeding tube was removed.

April 2

1513  Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida.

1792  Congress authorized the first U.S. mint, in Philadlelphia.

1865  Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, VA.

1870  Victoria Claflin Woodhull announced her candidacy for President of the United States.

1917  President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany.

1932  Charles Lindbergh paid a $50,000 ransom for the return of his kidnapped son.

1982  Argentina seized the Falkland Islands from Britain.

2005  Pope John Paul II died.