Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr, the 20-month-old son of the famous aviator and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was kidnapped on March 1, 1932, from the nursery on the second floor of the Lindbergh home near Hopewell, New Jersey. More
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What Happened in March?
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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Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States, on March 4, 1933, at the height of the Great Depression and delivers his famous "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" speech.
Adolf Hitler, orders the rearmament of the country on March 16, 1935, using the justification that Germany needed to be able to defend itself. The order included army, air force and navy expansions and conscription, all in violation of The Treaty of Versailles, which had limited the German army to 100,000 men and did not allowed a draft. More
The Hoover Dam is officially completed on March 1, 1936, when it was turned over to the federal government by the contractors. Completed in just under five years, ahead of the seven-year schedule from its official start of April 20, 1931. The final concrete was placed on May 29, 1935, and it was dedicated by President Franklin Roosevelt on September 30, 1935.
On March 7, 1936, over 20,000 German troops re-occupied the Rhineland, a de-militarized zone in Germany according to the Treaty of Versailles, that bordered France, . This action was directly against the terms which Germany had accepted after the First World War but neither France or Britain took any direct military action.
Hitler argue that it was done in response to France and the USSR signing a treaty of friendship and mutual support, saying it was a hostile move against Germany, and the area of the Rhineland could in turn be used by France to invade Germany. More
Danish seismologist, Inge Lehmann sends a letter on March 29, 1936, to Harold Jeffreys, a leading authority in geophysics, describing her hypothesis that that Earth’s center consisted of two parts: a solid inner core surrounded by a liquid outer core, separated by what has come to be called the Lehmann Discontinuity.
At the time, geophysicists believed Earth to be made up of a liquid core surrounded by a solid mantle, itself surrounded by a crust, all separated by abrupt density changes in the Earth called “discontinuities.” She had arrived at het hypothesis by analyzing multiple records of earthquake shock wave data results which consisted of P and S waves, one of them the large, June,1929, New Zealand earthquake. She went on to publish a paper in September 1936. succinctly called “P′,” arguing for what now is taken for granted: That buried inside the Earth’s molten layer is a solid core. Lehmann’s hypothesis was confirmed in 1970 when more advanced seismographs detected waves deflecting off this solid core. More
The invasion of Austria begins on March 12, 1938 as German soldiers in tanks and armored vehicles crossed the border into Austria, encountering no resistance.
Hitler joined the invaded forces as they rushed towards Vienna and in Linz, where he had attended school, he called for an immediate Anschluss (Annexation). The Austrian parliament formally approved the annexation the next day on March 13, 1938 and Austria, became a province of Germany. More
The three year Spanish Civil War comes to an end as the Republican defenders of Madrid surrender and the victorious Nationalists entered the capital city on March 28, 1939. It is estimated that up million lives were lost in the most devastating conflict in Spanish history. General Francisco Franco went on to rule Spain as a ruthless dictator until his death in 1975 when Spain finally became a democracy. More
Hermann Goring, a senior member of Adolf Hitler’s regime, issues an official decree on March 15, 1940, for the reclamation of church bells to secure raw materials such as bronze and for the armaments industry. Approximately 175,000 church bells were confiscated across Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe and about 150,000 of them were melted down .
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act , on March 11, 1941, to provide military aid to Allied nations during World War II.
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., officially opens to the public on March 17, 1941 with Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt giving a dedication speech to about 6,000 guests.
It was Founded with a massive collection donated by Andrew W. Mellon. It now holds over 150,000 works of art. The museum's original neoclassical West Building was designed by John Russell Pope. the East Building was added l in 1978, designed by I.M. Pei. It is situated on the National Mall,.
On March 7, 1945, U.S. troops capture the strategic German bridge of Remagen (also known as the Ludendorff Bridge), establishing a crucial crossing point during World War II. The bridge remained in use for 10 days before collapsing due to heavy use, but after allowing for the rapid transport of over five divisions across the Rhine barrier.
More than three hundred American bombers drop incendiary bombs on Tokyo on March 9, 1945, during a three-hour raid . Causing a firestorm greater than that in Dresden, killing 130,000 and displacing a million people. The raid was one of over a hundred such raids that eventually laid waste to sixty percent of the city's total area. More
The Soviet Union announces on March 24, 1946, it will withdraw its troops from Iran within six weeks, after failing to meet the March 2 deadline.
The Soviet Union finally withdrew its troops from Iran on May 6, 1946. British and Soviet troops had entered Iran in 1941 to protect oil supplies, agreeing to leave within six months after the end of the war. British forces left by March 2, 1946. The UN played an important role in pressuring the Soviets to withdraw and for Iran to regain its territorial integrity.
President Harry S. Truman outlines the U.S. policy to contain Soviet expansion in a speech to a joint session of Congress on March 12,1947. The announcement is referred to as the "Truman Doctrine" and is considered to be the official start of the Cold War. More
Nationalist Chinese forces launch a surprise attack on the mainland of the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC) mainland, on March, 15, 1950, capturing the town of Sungmen. The short-lived but significant attack was an attempt to reclaim territory.
The PRC Communist leadership, blamed the United States for assisting the attack, heightening tensions between the U.S. and the PRC.Nationalist forces launched further unsuccessful attacks into Yunnan between 1950 and 1952. These actions were part of the ongoing Chinese Civil War after Chiang Kai-shek's government moved to Taiwan in 1949.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (née Greenglass) are convicted on March 29, 1951, of spying and passing secret information about the atomic bomb and other military information to the Soviet Union during and after World War II.
The husband and wife were sentenced to death and were executed in 1953 at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York.President Eisenhower had declined to grant executive clemency to the Rosenbergs, stating: "The nature of the crime for which they have been found guilty and sentenced far exceeds that of the taking of the life of another citizen; it involves the deliberate betrayal of the entire nation and could very well result in the death of many, many thousands of innocent citizens…" More
The United States Senate ratifies the peace treaty with Japan on March 20, 1952, by a vote of 60 to 10, officially ending World War II.
Dr. Jonas Salk announces on a U.S. national radio show on March 26, 1953, that he has successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio which is known as “infant paralysis” because it mainly affects children.
The first Polio epidemic in the U.S, took place in Vermont in the summer of 1894 and thousands being affected annually by the 20th century. The number of cases is 1952 were 58,000. A massive Polio Vaccine Trial Begins in U.S. More
Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana and formerly known as the Gold Coast, declares its independence from Britain on March 6, 1957, Ghana was the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve independence from European colonial rule. Ghana's Independence is celebrated yearly on March 6 as its National day.
Ghana is a country in West Africa, with over 35 million inhabitants. It shares a border with Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to the east and it is situated with the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. I. Ghana's territory offers diverse ecologies, from tropical rainforests to coastal savannas. Ghana is the thirteenth-most populous country in Africa, and the second-most populous country in West Africa specifically. The capital and largest city is Accra.