Martin Luther King Jr. leads his first anti-war march in Chicago. Reinforcing the connection between war abroad and injustice at home: “The bombs in Vietnam explode at home—they destroy the dream and possibility for a decent America”. 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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Mauritius officially achieves independence from British rule, on March 12, 1968, becoming an independent state with a new constitution within the Commonwealth.
Independence came after 158 years of colonial rule when the British seized control of the Island from the French in 1810 during the Napoleonic wars. Mauritius went on to became a republic, with a president as head of state on March 12, 1992.
Vietnamese villagers including women and children are killed by U.S. soldiers in the village of My Lai by members of an army platoon commanded by Lt. William Calley. On September 5, 1969, he was charged with the premeditated murder in the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians at My Lai.
His court-martial began on November 1970 and he was convicted on March 1971 of the premeditated murder of twenty-two infants, children, women, and old men, and assault with intent to murder a child of about two years. He was sentenced to be dismissed from the Army and to be confined at hard labor for life. On August 1971, Lieutenant General Albert O. Connor, commanding general of Third U.S. Army, reduced Calley’s sentence to twenty years confinement. In April 1974, the Secretary of the Army, Howard H. Callaway, further reduced Calley’s sentence to ten years confinement, making Calley eligible for parole in 6 months. He was pardoned by President Richard Nixon in 1974 after serving about a third of his 10-year sentence and was released in November 1974 having served three years of house arrest for the murders. More
James Earl Ray pleads guilty to the first-degree murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on March 10, 1969, in a Memphis, Tennessee court, on advise from his attorney to avoid a potential death sentence by electric chair. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He quickly recanted his confession, spending the rest of his life claiming he was framed and seeking a new trial.
Lt. William Calley is convicted of murder in the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War. He was sentenced to be dismissed from the Army and to be confined at hard labor for life. On August 1971, Lieutenant General Albert O. Connor, commanding general of Third U.S. Army, reduced Calley’s sentence to twenty years confinement.
In April 1974, the Secretary of the Army, Howard H. Callaway, further reduced Calley’s sentence to ten years confinement, making Calley eligible for parole in 6 months. He was pardoned by President Richard Nixon in 1974 after serving about a third of his 10-year sentence and was released in November 1974 having served three years of house arrest for the murders. Calley More
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Pioneer 10 is launched on March 2, 1972, to study Jupiter. It was NASA's first mission to the outer planets. The mission was a spectacular success and the spacecraft notched a series of firsts unmatched by any other robotic spacecraft to date. More
All 346 occupants of a Turkish Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC 10 were killed after the plane suffered an explosive decompression when an improperly secured hold door detached passing 12000ft in the climb shortly after departing Paris Orly airport.
A similar DC10 explosive decompression in Canada two years earlier, had identified an identical fault in the door closure mechanism which had allowed it to indicate and appear secured. Non-mandated corrective actions promulgated after that investigation had not been completed on the aircraft at the time of the accident. More
The Arab oil ministers agree to end the embargo against the United States, Europe, and Japan on March 18, 1974, on the condition that the United States also promotes Israeli-Syrian disengagement.
Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter's moon Io with its closest approach taking place on March 5, 1979. During this flyby encounter, the probe discovered active volcanoes on Io, the first time active volcanoes were seen on another body in the Solar System.
The closest approach to Io, which is about 5% larger than earth's moon, was at an altitude of 20,570 km (12,780 miles) and the images revealed that Io's surface was heavily dotted with active volcanoes, plumes, and lava lakes, appearing as a "pizza-like" surface. It helped scientists determine that Io's volcanic activity supplies the material that populates the Jovian magnetosphere with sulfur, oxygen, and sodium. Voyager 1 continued to study Jupiter and its moons until April 1979 before heading to Saturn.
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A peace treaty is signed between Israel and Egypt at the White House, ending 31 years of conflict between the two countries. The historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, was agreed to by Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat and was based on the Camp David Accords mediated by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
The Three Mile Island Unit 2 nuclear reactor, near Middletown, Pa., partially melts down. This was the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history. A combination of equipment malfunctions, design-related problems and worker errors led to TMI-2’s partial meltdown and very small off site releases of radioactivity. More
U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States was boycotting the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. Despite Carter's efforts to recruit allies, several key nations, including Britain and France, did not join the boycott. In the end, 65 nations skipped the games.
In retaliation for the American-led boycott, the Soviet Union and 14 of its allies boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. The boycott's effectiveness remains debated among historians. The Soviet Union did not withdraw from Afghanistan until 1989, and some feel the action harmed athletes more than it influenced Soviet policy. In a 2025 AP News article, President Carter reflected on the boycott, stating he considered it "a bad decision".
CBS anchor, Walter Cronkite, known as "the most trusted man in America," concludes his 19-year tenure by saying, "Old anchormen, you see, don't fade away; they just keep coming back for more. And that's the way it is: Friday, March 6, 1981". He was succeeded the following Monday by Dan Rather.
Walter Cronkite retirement was a semi-forced exit despite his legendary status due to CBS's mandatory retirement policy at age 65. He did continued with specials and other projects for CBS. Cronkite, born on November 4, 1916, died at age 92, on July 17, 2009, at his home in New York City..
President Ronald Reagan is shot and wounded in an assassination attempt in Washington, D.C. More
A rare planetary alignment occurred on March 10, 1982, generating significant public interest and anxiety, due to predictions in the book "The Jupiter Effect", claiming the combined gravitational pull would have catastrophic effects on earth. The planetary alignment was a loose grouping rather than a tight lineup. with negligible effect.
The book , "The Jupiter Effect", by John Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann suggested that the alignment of all nine planets on one side of the Sun would create a significant gravitational pull, causing the combined gravitational pull would trigger catastrophic earthquakes, solar flares, and global disasters. However it proved to be harmless, a lesson in distinguishing scientific possibility from sensationalized prediction.
Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, on March 11, 1985, succeeding Konstantin Chernenko.
The Pi Day celebration, of the never-ending mathematical constant pi (π), is started on March 14, 1988, by American physicist Larry Shaw, who worked at the Exploratorium, a science museum in San Francisco. The celebration began on 3/14 at 1:59 pm (for: 3.14159)
Definition:
Pi is the never-ending mathematical constant (pi (π)), which relates the circumference C of a circle to its diameter d; that is,π = C/d. The numerical value of pi to five decimal places is 3.14159.
Formal Recognitions:
On March 12, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives recognized March 14 as National Pi Day.
On November 26, 2019, UNESCO designated Pi Day as the International Day of Mathematics
Coincidences:
Pi Day shares the calendar with two of history's most famous physicists:
~ Albert Einstein’s Birthday: Born on March 14, 1879.
~ Stephen Hawking’s Death: Passed away on March 14, 2018.
~ Super Pi Day: The date 3/14/15 at 9:26:53 AM/PM represents the first ten digits of Pi.
The oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of oil and causing one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history. More
Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first President of the Soviet Union on March 14, 1990. He had served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 and as head of state beginning in 1988 and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989.
He was awarded the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize 1990. Gorbachev resigned form the presidency on December 25, 1991 when the Soviet Union disintegrated. More
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, becomes independent after 106 years of German and South African rule, Namibia is a country in Southern Africa bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the northeast, Zimbabwe lies less than 660 feet (200 meters) away along the Zambezi River near Kazungula, Zambia. Namibia's has a reported 2025 population of over 3 Million, its capital and largest city is Windhoek.