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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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
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.
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
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.
Robert Koch publishes his findings on Tuberculosis, stating that the disease was infectious and caused by a bacterium. The believe at the time was that tuberculosis was an inherited disease. He presented his findings before the German Physiological Society at Berlin, 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.
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.
The train services stopped, stranding thousands, closing the New York Exchange for two days. More than 400 people were killed, about half of them in New York. The destruction prompted the authorities to pursue the development of the first underground subway systems in Boston and New York. More
The main structural work of the Eiffel Tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France.is completed in time for the opening of the 1889 world's fair (Exposition Universelle), Gustave Eiffel celebrated by leading a group of government officials, accompanied by representatives of the press, to the top of the tower. More
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.
This indicated the emission of radiation independent of sunlight or external stimulation; an event he later termed "radioactivity". His accidental discovery led to further investigations by the Curies and others, eventually earning Becquerel the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for his work on natural radioactivity.
