Tag: march

Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in March 2025 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more.
(Find out more at the end of this article.)

We’ve randomly selected an anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2025, which lists more than 3,600 anniversaries. The Date-A-Base Book 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029 are also available.

1 Mar 1995 – 30 years ago
The internet search company Yahoo! was founded.
Its search engine was launched on 5^th March.

2 Mar 1950 – 75 years ago
Birth of Karen Carpenter, American singer and drummer (The Carpenters). (Died 1983.)

3 Mar 1875 – 150 years ago
The first recorded indoor ice hockey game was played, at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal, Canada.
It is now recognised by the International Ice Hockey Federation as the first organised ice hockey game.

4 Mar 1825 – 200 years ago
John Quincy Adams was inaugurated as the 6^th President of the United States.
He was appointed President in a contingent election after no candidates won a majority in the 1824 presidential election.

5 Mar 1975 – 50 years ago
The Homebrew Computer Club held its first meeting in Menlo Park, California, USA.
It is considered to have started the personal computer revolution. Several notable computer pioneers and entrepreneurs were members, including the founders of Apple.

6 Mar 1985 – 40 years ago
American boxer Mike Tyson’s first professional fight, at the age of 18.
He knocked out Hector Mercedes in the first round.

7 Mar 1875 – 150 years ago
Birth of Maurice Ravel, French composer. Best known for Boléro.

8 Mar 1950 – 75 years ago
Volkswagen launched the Type 2 Transporter van – also known as the VW Camper, Bus, microbus, or Kombi.
It became the best-selling van in history, and early versions remain much-loved icons of the counterculture/hippie movement.

9 to 10 Mar 1945 – 80 years ago
World War II – Operation Meetinghouse (the Bombing of Tokyo, Japan). Considered to be the most destructive air raid in history.
330 U.S. B-29 bombers carried out low-altitude incendiary bomb attacks on Tokyo, destroying a quarter of the city and killing over 100,000 people.

10 Mar 1960 – 65 years ago
The UK’s first Top 50 record chart was published by the music trade magazine Record Retailer (now Music Week).

11 Mar 1955 – 70 years ago
Death of Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish bacteriologist.
Joint winner of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering penicillin.

12 Mar 1950 – 75 years ago
The Llandow air disaster, Sigingstone, Wales.
A privately hired plane stalled and crashed during a return flight from Ireland, killing 75 passengers and all five crew. Three passengers survived. It was the world’s worst air disaster at that time.

13 Mar 1955 – 70 years ago
Death of Tribhuvan, King of Nepal (1911–50, 1951–55). Died in mysterious circumstances.
Succeeded by Mahendra.

14 Mar 1925 – 100 years ago
Death of Walter Camp, (‘the Father of American Football’), American football player, coach and sports writer.

15 Mar 1985 – 40 years ago
The first .com internet domain name was registered (symbolics.com).

16 Mar 1935 – 90 years ago
Driving tests were introduced in Britain.
They were voluntary until 1^st June. From that date anyone who had started to drive on or after 1^st April 1934 had to pass the test.

17 Mar 1950 – 75 years ago
The creation of the chemical element Californium (Cf – atomic no. 98) was announced by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, USA.

18 Mar 1850 – 175 years ago
American Express, the multinational financial services company, was founded in Buffalo, New York, USA.

19 Mar 1975 – 50 years ago
The film Tommy, a musical based on The Who’s rock opera album Tommy, was released in the USA.
(UK: 26^th March.)

20 Mar 1900 – 125 years ago
Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla was granted a U.S. patent for the wireless transmission of electric power.
(U.S. Patent 645,576.)

21 Mar 1925 – 100 years ago
The Butler Act was signed into law in Tennessee, USA.
Tennessee became the first U.S. state to ban the teaching of the theory of evolution. It led to the Scopes Trial in July 1925.

22 Mar 1960 – 65 years ago
The first laser was patented by American physicists Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes of Bell Telephone Laboratories.
(U.S. Patent 2,929,922.)

23 Mar 1775 – 250 years ago
American Revolution: Patrick Henry, a Founding Father of the United States, gave a famous speech at the Second Virginia Convention. He called for America’s independence from Britain, saying: ‘Give me liberty, or give me death!’

24 Mar 1935 – 90 years ago
The first episode of the radio talent show Major Bowes Amateur Hour was broadcast on NBC in the USA.
(It began in April 1934 as a New York-only show but was broadcast nationally on this date. It transferred to CBS in September 1936. There was also a television version from 1948.)

25 Mar 1965 – 60 years ago
Martin Luther King Jr. led the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march in Alabama, USA.
This was the third, and finally successful, attempt to march to the state capitol. The first attempt was aborted because mobs and police violently attacked the demonstrators (known as ‘Bloody Sunday’). The second attempt was blocked by a court injunction.

26 Mar 1995 – 30 years ago
The Schengen Treaty came into effect in the European Union.
Seven nations (Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain) eliminated their internal border controls and tightened their external borders.

27 Mar 1625 – 400 years ago
Death of James VI and I, King of England and Ireland (1603–25) as James I, King of Scotland (1567–1625) as James VI.
Succeeded by Charles I.

28 Mar 1960 – 65 years ago
The first permanent star was installed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, California, USA.
It honoured film director Stanley Kramer. Eight temporary stars, two of which honoured actress Joanne Woodward and actor Burt Lancaster, had been installed in 1958 to show what the Walk of Fame might eventually look like.

29 Mar 1945 – 80 years ago
World War II: the last German V-1 flying bomb hit Britain (in Datchworth, Hertfordshire).
On the same day, the Allies captured the last German V-1 launch site, preventing any further attacks.

30 Mar 1775 – 250 years ago
American Revolution: Britain passed the New England Restraining Act, prohibiting its colonies in New England from trading with any country except Britain, Ireland and the British West Indies (from 1^st July 1775).
In April the Act was extended to include colonies outside of New England.

31 Mar 1900 – 125 years ago
The first advertisement for an automobile appeared in the USA.
The W. E. Roach Company’s advertisement in the Saturday Evening Post simply claimed that Roach automobiles ‘give satisfaction’.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2025.

The 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029 editions are also available if you work further ahead.

Each edition is available as a PDF ebook (with a free Excel spreadsheet) or as a printed paperback book.

How to use the anniversaries:

How can you turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines, newspapers and websites? How do you get paid for writing them, and how can you make a great living from it?

Download our free guide Ditch Your Day Job. It tells you everything you need to know!

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Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in March 2024 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2024, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries.

1 Mar 1974 – 50 years ago
A national speed limit of 55 mph came into effect in the USA because of the oil crisis.
The limit was partially lifted in 1987 and fully repealed in 1995.

2 Mar 1949 – 75 years ago
U.S. Air Force Captain James Gallagher completed the first non-stop round-the-world flight.
He landed his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas, having taken off from there 94 hours and one minute earlier.

3 Mar 1849 – 175 years ago
The United States Department of the Interior was formed.

4 to 10 Mar 1899 – 125 years ago
Cyclone Mahina hit Bathurst Bay in Queensland, Australia, killing between 300 and 400 people.
It was the deadliest cyclone in Australian history, and may have been the most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere. It produced the largest-recorded storm surge of 43 feet (13 metres) which swept up to 3 miles (5 km) inland.

5 Mar 1984 to Mar 1985 – 40 years ago
The 1984 miners’ strike, UK.
6,000 coal miners in Yorkshire, England began a strike to protest against pit closures and job losses.
On 6^th March the National Coal Board announced that 20 mines in the north of England, Scotland and Wales would close, with the loss of 20,000 jobs. On 12^th March the strike in Yorkshire became a national one involving tens of thousands of miners.

6 Mar 1964 – 60 years ago
American world heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay was given the name Muhammad Ali after joining the Nation of Islam.

7 Mar 1274 – 750 years ago
Death of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, philosopher and theologian.

8 Mar 1974 – 50 years ago
Charles de Gaulle Airport opened in Paris, France.

9 Mar 1824 –200 years ago
Birth of Leland Stanford, American industrialist and politician.
Co-founder (with his wife) of Stanford University.
Governor of California (1862–63). U.S. Senator from California (1885–93).

10 Mar 1949 – 75 years ago
American Nazi wartime broadcaster ‘Axis Sally’ (Mildred Gillars) was found guilty of treason by a jury in Washington D.C., USA
She was sentenced to 10 – 30 years in prison and fined $10,000. She was released in June 1961.

11 Mar 1824 – 200 years ago
The Bureau of Indian Affairs was established in the USA. It is now a federal agency within the Department of the Interior.
It is responsible for laws and policies relating to American Indians and Alaska Natives.

12 Mar 1964 – 60 years ago
New Hampshire became the first U.S. state to legally sell lottery tickets.

13 Mar 1974 – 50 years ago
The U.S. Senate voted to restore the death penalty, which had been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1972.
The death penalty was restored in 1976.

14 Mar 1964 – 60 years ago
Jack Ruby, the American nightclub owner who shot Lee Harvey Oswald after he was arrested for assassinating U.S. President John F. Kennedy in November 1963, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.
He appealed, but died of lung cancer less than three years later.

15 Mar 1874 – 150 years ago
The Second Treaty of Saigon was signed by France and Vietnam. It effectively made Vietnam a French protectorate.

16 Mar 1774 – 250 years ago
Birth of Matthew Flinders, British navigator and cartographer.
He led the first inshore navigation of Australia, and was the first person to call the country by that name. He was also part of the expedition that confirmed that Tasmania was an island.

17 Mar 1899 – 125 years ago
The first radio distress signal was sent. It was transmitted by the East Goodwin Lightship to the South Foreland Lighthouse to summon a lifeboat when the merchant ship Elbe ran aground on the Goodwin Sands off the coast of Kent, England.

18 Mar 1899 – 125 years ago
Saturn’s moon Phoebe was discovered by American astronomer William Henry Pickering while he was studying photographic plates taken in Peru in August 1898. It was the first moon to be discovered from photos.

19 Mar 1524 – 500 years ago
Florentine explorer Giovanni de Varrazano became the first European to reach the Atlantic coast of North America.
He reached Pamlico Sound, North Carolina on this date, continued north to New Brunswick in Canada, and then sailed southwards, exploring and surveying the coast to Florida.

20 Mar 1974 – 50 years ago
Britain’s Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips escaped from an attempted kidnapping in London.
The would-be kidnapper shot and wounded three people who tried to intervene.

21 Mar 1999 – 25 years ago
Death of Ernie Wise, British comedian and actor (Morecambe and Wise).

22 Mar 1934 – 90 years ago
The first Masters Tournament was held at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, USA.

23 Mar 1924 – 100 years ago
Birth of Bette Nesmith Graham, American typist and artist. The inventor of Liquid Paper correction fluid.
Mother of the musician Michael Nesmith (The Monkees). (Died 1980.)

24 Mar 1874 – 150 years ago
Birth of Harry Houdini, Hungarian-born American escape artist, illusionist and stunt performer.

25 Mar 1924 – 100 years ago
Greece became a republic. The monarchy was abolished and the Second Hellenic Republic was proclaimed.
Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis became its first president.

26 Mar 1934 – 90 years ago
Driving tests were introduced in Britain. They were voluntary until June 1935.

27 Mar 1899 – 125 years ago
The first international radio transmission.
Italian inventor and electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi broadcast a radio telegraph message across the English channel from Wimereux in northern France to the South Foreland Lighthouse in England. The message was addressed to The Times newspaper and reported the success of his trials.

28 Mar 1964 – 60 years ago
Radio Caroline, Britain’s first off-shore pirate radio station, began broadcasting.

29 Mar 1974 – 50 years ago
The Terracotta Army was discovered in Shaanxi, China by a group of farmers who were digging a well.
The 8,000 life-sized warriors, plus chariots and horses were buried with the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang (247 BC – 221 BC), to protect him in the afterlife. Non-military figures were later discovered in nearby pits. They included government officials, acrobats, musicians and strongmen.

30 Mar 1964 – 60 years ago
The first episode of the television quiz show Jeopardy! was broadcast on NBC in the USA.

31 Mar 1949 – 75 years ago
The first 7-inch 45 rpm vinyl single record was released. The first single was PeeWee the Piccolo, released by RCA Victor.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2024. The 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.

How to use the anniversaries:

If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.

It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.

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Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in March 2023 (so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for “On This Day in History” features, biographies and anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with readers and viewers, and editors and producers love them. They’re easy to research too. And you can easily turn them into newspaper and magazine articles, TV/radio features, films, documentaries, and more.

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, which features more than 3,000 anniversaries. . The 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027 editions are also available if you work further ahead.

1 Mar 1873 – 150 years ago
Remington began producing the first practical typewriter – the Sholes and Glidden typewriter, also known as the Remington No. 1. It went on sale on 1^st July 1874.

2 Mar 1933 – 90 years ago
The première of the film King Kong, in New York City, USA. (Released 7^th April.)

3 Mar 1923 – 100 years ago
The first issue of Time magazine was published in the USA.

4 Mar 1933 – 90 years ago
Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32^nd President of the United States.

5 Mar 1623 – 400 years ago
The first American temperance law came into effect in the Colony of Virginia in an effort to control the consumption of alcohol.

6 Mar 1973 – 50 years ago
Death of Pearl S. Buck, American writer. The first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1938).

7 Mar 1848 – 175 years ago
The Great Mahele, Hawaii. The land of Hawaii was divided to protect it from foreign ownership. 1/3 was given to the Crown, 1/3 to the chiefs and managers, and 1/3 to the common people. The law required people to claim their land within two years. Many did not make a claim and the land was sold.

8 Mar 1723 – 300 years ago
Death of Sir Christopher Wren, English architect. Best known for designing St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

9 Mar 1993 – 30 years ago
Death of C. Northcote Parkinson, British historian and writer. Noted for his books on naval history and for formulating Parkinson’s Law (work expands to fill the time available for its completion).

10 Mar 1933 – 90 years ago
The Long Beach earthquake, California, USA. 120 people were killed.

11 Mar 1948 – 75 years ago
Reginald Weir became the first African American to play in an official United States Lawn Tennis Association event, after several years of lobbying to be accepted. His acceptance paved the way for Althea Gibson to take part the following year.

12 Mar 1933 – 90 years ago
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the first of his ‘fireside chats’ – a radio address to the nation. His first chat was about the banking crisis.

13 Mar 1933 – 90 years ago
Joseph Goebbels became the German Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

14 Mar 1983 – 40 years ago
OPEC agreed to cut oil prices for first time since it was founded in 1961.

15 Mar 1998 – 25 years ago
Death of Dr Benjamin Spock, American paediatrician and writer. Known for his best-selling book Baby and Child Care.

16 Mar 1898 – 125 years ago
Death of Aubrey Beardsley, British illustrator. His black ink drawings, influenced by Japanese woodcuts, contributed to the development of Art Nouveau.

17 Mar 1973 – 50 years ago
The new London Bridge opened in the UK.

18 Mar 1963 – 60 years ago
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Miranda decision: states must provide defendants in criminal cases with a lawyer if they are unable to afford their own. This led to the creation of the public defender system.

19 Mar 1848 – 175 years ago
Birth of Wyatt Earp, legendary American lawman, gambler and gunfighter of the Old West. Noted for his role in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in 1881.

20 Mar 1993 – 30 years ago
An IRA bomb exploded at a shopping mall in Warrington, England. Two children were killed and more than 50 people were injured.

21 Mar 1963 – 60 years ago
The U.S. Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, California, closed.

22 Mar 1933 – 90 years ago
The first Nazi concentration camp opened in Dachau, Germany. The Nazis eventually established over 1,000 concentration camps throughout occupied Europe.

23 Mar 1983 – 40 years ago
U.S. President Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (’Star Wars’) system, which would use satellites to detect and destroy enemy missiles.

24 Mar 1953 – 70 years ago
Death of Queen Mary of the United Kingdom, (Mary of Teck), Queen Consort of King George V. Mother of King Edward VIII and King George VI. Grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II.

25 Mar 1948 – 75 years ago
The first official tornado forecast/warning. U.S. Air Force Captain Robert C. Miller and Major Ernest Fawbush predicted a high risk of a tornado strike at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. Two large tornadoes struck the base that evening, damaging or destroying aircraft and buildings.

26 Mar 1923 – 100 years ago
BBC radio began broadcasting a daily weather forecast.

27 Mar 1963 – 60 years ago
Dr Richard Beeching, the chairman of British Railways, issued a report (The Reshaping of British Railways) which led to the closure of thousands of miles of railway lines and stations across the country – about a third of the rail network.

28 Mar 1963 – 60 years ago
The première of Alfred Hitchcock’s horror-thriller film The Birds, in New York City, USA. (Released: 29^th March. UK première: 10^th September, released 12^th September.)

29 Mar 1948 – 75 years ago
Death of Harry Price, British psychic investigator. Best known for his investigation of the supposedly haunted Borley Rectory in Essex.

30 Mar 1953 – 70 years ago
Albert Einstein’s equations for a revised Unified Field Theory were published. They represented the relationship between the forces of gravity and electromagnetism, and their relationship to space, time and physical forces.

31 Mar 1973 – 50 years ago
The racehorse Red Rum won Britain’s Grand National steeplechase for the first time. The tightly fought battle for the finish is considered one of the greatest sporting moments. It was also a record-breaking time.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2023. The 2024, 2025 and 2026 and 2027 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The 2028 edition will be available from April 2023. Find out more at ideas4writers.com.

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