Browse Historical Events by Month:
The first Olympic games, the founding of dynasties, and legendary battles. Explore historic milestones from March that influenced today's world. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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Elisha Otis installed the first commercial passenger elevator at the E.V. Haughwout Department Store in New York City, on March 23, 1857. The steam-powered lift, traveling five stories, featured his revolutionary safety brake. The invention made vertical urban expansion possible leading to the skyscraper era. More
Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States on March 4, 1861, at the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The inauguration occurred amidst growing tensions and the secession of several Southern states. Inaugural Address
The unified Kingdom of Italy was formally proclaimed on March 17, 1861, by the first Italian Parliament, in Turin, with Victor Emmanuel II of the House of Savoy as its first king.
The declaration of the Kingdom of Italy followed over a decade of Risorgimento struggles (starting from the 1848 revolutions) and the successful "Expedition of the Thousand" led by Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860, which unified the south with the north. At the time of the 1861 proclamation, Venice and Rome were not yet part of the new kingdom; Venice became part of Italy in1866 and Rome on September 20, 1870, after Italian troops captured the city, breaking the power of the Papal States. Rome was formally annexed, and it was officially proclaimed the capital of Italy on February 3, 1871.
President Abraham Lincoln promotes Ulysses S. Grant, to lieutenant-general, on March 10, 1864, placing Grant in command of the Armies of the United States, replacing General-in-Chief Henry Halleck.
On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War.
Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated for his second term as the 16th President of the United States on March 4, 1865, at the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. He delivered a 700-word address focused on national reconciliation, famously calling for "malice toward none" and "charity for all" to "bind up the nation's wounds"
Nebraska is admitted to the United States Union on March 1, 1867, becoming the 37th State. View list of Admission
The United States Congress passes the first Reconstruction Act, on March 2, 1867, over President Andrew Johnson’s veto, targeting the South for reconstruction after the Civil War. and setting conditions for readmission into the Union. Congress went on to pass additional Reconstruction Acts in 1867, and 1868, to implement more efficient government in the Southern states following the Civil War.
The First Reconstruction Act (or Military Reconstruction Act) placed the south under martial law to ensure order and enforce new civil rights dividing the ten former Confederate states into five military districts governed by Union generals. It mandated new state constitutions, ratification of the 14th Amendment, and voting rights for African American men to rejoin the Union. More
The "Lancet" publishes the first of a series of articles by Doctor Joseph Lister on March 16, 1867; outlining the discovery of antiseptic surgery. Lister was a prominent British surgeon and medical scientist who established the study of antisepsis by applying Louis Pasteur's germ theory of fermentation on wound putrefaction.
He promoted the idea of sterilization in surgery using carbolic acid (phenol) as an antiseptic. Lister had performed the first antiseptic surgery on August 12, 1865. Before the methods promoted by Lister, mortality rates for major operations were roughly 45-50%; dropping to approximately 15% following the introduction of his antiseptic system in his wards at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Despite the demonstrated results, Lister faced significant skepticism from the medical community for years, with critics arguing his methods were too complex and "fussy". However, his work eventually laid the foundation for modern sterile (aseptic) surgery. More
The United States signs the agreement to buy Alaska from Russia for $7.2 Million on March 30, 1867. The agreement, negotiated by Secretary of State William H. Seward to purchase Alaska for roughly two cents per acre, ended Russia's presence in North America. The formal Transfer took place on October 18, 1867 (now celebrated as Alaska Day).
Many Americans initially deemed the purchase a waste of money, calling it "Seward's Folly". The purchase added 586,412 square miles to the U.S. and was vindicated by the discovery of gold and later oil.
Ulysses S. Grant takes office as the 18th President of the United State for his first term on March 4,1869, succeeding Andrew Johnson.
He took office focusing on Reconstruction, protecting civil rights for freed slaves, and stabilizing the economy following the Civil War. In his inaugural address, Grant defined his priorities to be; the need to pay off war debt, restore financial stability by returning to a gold standard, and protect the rights of "the original occupants of the land" (Native Americans).Andrew Johnson did not attend the ceremony, marking the third time in history an outgoing president boycotted his successor's inauguration.
U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signs the bill creating the first U.S. national park at Yellowstone on March 1, 1872. The 2.2 Million acres National Park offers the unique opportunity to observe wildlife in an intact ecosystem hydrothermal and geologic features with about half the world’s active geysers and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. More
Alexander Graham Bell makes the first transmission of intelligible speech over electrical wires on March 10, 1876. He called out to his assistant Thomas Watson who was in another room“; Mr. Watson, come here! I want to see you.” Bell had received his patent for for the telephone, three days earlier.
This transmission took place in their attic laboratory located in a near here at 5 Exeter Place. More
Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake Ballet premieres on March 4, 1877, at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, featuring choreography by Julius Reisinger. Originally, the production was not well received bordering in failure. It achieved an iconic revival in 1895.
Rutherford B. Hayes is inaugurated as the 19th President of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881. Hayes's administration was influenced by his belief in government providing equal treatment without regard to wealth, social standing, or race.
One of the defining events of his presidency was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, which he resolved by calling in the U.S. Army against the railroad workers. It remains the deadliest conflict between workers and strikebreakers in American history. Hayes appointed John Marshall Harlan to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Salvation Army begins operations in the United States, holding their first Official Meeting on March 14, 1880, at Harry Hill’s Variety Theatre, a local dance hall and saloon in New York City.
James A. Garfield is inaugurated as the 20th President of the United States on March 4, 1881.
Alexander II, the Emperor of Russia, is assassinated in Saint Petersburg, Russia on his way back to the Winter Palace from Mikhailovsky Manège. The assassination was planned and executed by the Narodnaya Volya ("People's Will") organization. The assassination is popularly considered to be the most successful action by the Russian nihilist movement of the 19th century.
German scientist Robert Koch identifies the tubercle bacillus responsible for tuberculosis on March 24, 1882. He also determined how the disease spread, primarily through bodily fluids, like sputum. For this work, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1905. More
German physician, Robert Koch publishes his findings on Tuberculosis on March 24, 1882, stating that the disease was infectious and caused by a bacterium. The believe at the time was that tuberculosis was an inherited disease.
His findings were presented before the German Physiological Society at Berlin, explaining that the causative agent of the disease was the slow-growing Mycobacterium tuberculosis. More
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Grover Cleveland is inaugurated as the 22nd President of the United States on Wednesday, March 4, 1885, at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. marking the start of his first four-year term as president.
