What Happened in March?

The Great Blizzard of 1888, one of the most severe snowstorms in U.S. history reaches the East Coast of the United States. on March 11, 1888. The storm lasted three days, primarily affecting New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, creating 50-foot snowdrifts and complete whiteouts.  Expand +

The main structural work of the Eiffel Tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France is completed on March 31, 1889, in time for the opening of the 1889 world's fair (Exposition Universelle).  Expand +

Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time on March 12, 1894 when a candy merchant in Vicksburg, Mississippi, began bottling the fountain drink to make it accessible to customers in the rural areas. The  straight bottles were significantly different from the contour bottles which became famous later

French scientist Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity on March 1, 1896, while working on a series of experiments on phosphorescent materials. During his experiments, Becquerel observed that uranium compounds produced a photographic image on a plate wrapped in black paper.  Expand +

William McKinley is inaugurated as the 25th President of the United States on March 4, 1897.McKinley emphasized the need for tariff reform and financial stability following the economic distress of the Panic of 1893. The Spanish American War took place during his term in office.

Aspirin, probably the best known brand in medicine is entered in the trademark register of the Kaiserliches Patentamt (Imperial Patent Office) in Berlin on March 6, 1899, by the German company Bayer, after being first successfully synthesized. Expand +

Ferdinand, Graf von Zeppelin, was granted a U.S. Patent for his "navigable balloon" on March 14, 1899. The first Zeppelin airship, the LZ-1, made its maiden flight on July 2, 1900, lasting about 20 minutes over Lake Constance in Germany. Expand +

Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod expedition team begins their ascent of Mt. Erebus, the world's southernmost active volcano on March 5, 1908, reaching Mt. Erebus's summit on March 10. The journey, which came to an end in 1909) was one of the most successful Antarctic expeditions of the time, locating the South Magnetic Pole and reaching 88° 23′ S (just 112 miles from the Geographic South Pole). Expand +

The U.S. first lady Helen Herron Taft and the Viscountess Iwa Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, plant the first two cherry trees from a gift of 3,020 trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to Washington, D.C. on March 27, 1912. The two first trees were planted on the northern bank of the Potomac River Tidal Basin.  Expand +

Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated as the 28th President of the United States on March 4, 1913. The Federal Reserve Act, the Child Labor Reform Act, and legislation supporting unions were passed during his term. However, he also allowed Jim Crow laws to be put into place in Washington D.C., segregating the Treasury and Postal Service departments. Expand +

Mary Mallon, Irish born American domestic, better known as Typhoid Mary, and believed to be responsible for infecting up to 57 people with Typhoid and three confirmed deaths, is placed under a quarantine on March 27, 1915 at North Brother Island, New York City, which lasted until her death in 1938. She was the first person in the U.S. to be identified as an asymptomatic carrier of Salmonella Typhi bacteria.

The German Empire, formally declares war on Portugal, on March 9, 1916, during WWI. Portugal had supported its alliance with Great Britain, seizing German ships which were anchored in Lisbon’s harbor. The declaration of war drew Portugal into World War I alongside the Allied powers.

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the throne on March 15, 1917 (March 2 O.S), amid the chaos, protests and demonstrations of the Russian Revolution, ending the 300 year Romanov dynasty. More

The USS Cyclops (AC-4) was a massive U.S. Navy collier (coal ship) which was last seen on March 4, 1918, departing Barbados for Baltimore on a trip originating in Brazil. Expand +

The first major, documented cases of the1918 influenza pandemic (often called the "Spanish Flu") occurred on March 4, 1918, at Camp Funston, Fort Riley in Kansas. Within days, over 1,100 soldiers were hospitalized and went on to spread rapidly through U.S. military bases and then to Europe, causing 50–100 million deaths worldwide (Roughly 675,000 in the U.S.) Expand +

A new French labor law was passed on March 28, 1919, restricting bakers from working from 10 pm to 4 am. The new labor law had an unintended consequence, it forced a cultural shift away from the traditional French boule, which took hours to prepare, to the baguette, a long, narrow, bread that could be prepared in a fraction of the time. Expand +

The United States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time, on March 19, 1920, preventing U.S. entry into the League of Nations. Expand +

Warren G. Harding is inaugurated as the 29th President of the United States on March 4, 1921. He focused on reducing taxes and promoting business growth, limiting government involvement in the economy. Harding died in office on August 2, 1923 and was succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge. Expand +

British India arrests Mohandas Gandhi in Bombay for organizing resistance against British rule on March 10, 1922, for sedition due to his writings advocating non-cooperation, leading to a six-year prison sentence although he served two.  Expand +

American Physicist Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket on March 16, 1926, in Auburn, Massachusetts. The 10-foot rocket used gasoline and liquid oxygen to reach an altitude of 41 feet and flew for 2.5 seconds, proving the feasibility of liquid propulsion for future space travel.