What Happened in March?

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.

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

Grover Cleveland is inaugurated as the 22nd President of the United States.

The Great Blizzard of 1888, one of the most severe snowstorms in U.S. history reaches the East Coast of the United States. 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.

William McKinley is inaugurated as the 25th President of the United States.

President William McKinley signs a bill authorizing the U.S. flag to have 45 stars for Utah's admission to the Union.

Aspirin, probably the best known brand in medicine is entered in the trademark register of the Kaiserliches Patentamt (Imperial Patent Office) in Berlin by the German company Bayer, after being first successfully synthesized. Salicin, which is converted into salicylic acid in the body, is found in the bark of willows. Its therapeutic effect has been known since time immemorial. The progenitor of all physicians, Hippocrates of Kos, described it around 400 B.C. as a medicine against fever and pain; Teutons and Celts cooked a broth from willow bark as medicine. More

Gold is discovered in Nome, Alaska, leading to a gold rush.

China becomes a republic after the abdication of the last Emperor, Puyi.

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. The two first trees were planted on the northern bank of the Potomac River Tidal Basin. The ceremonial event is now commemorated at the annual Washington’s National Cherry Blossom Festival. After the end of the 2024 spring’s National Cherry Blossom Festival, the National Park Service will cut down 158 cherry trees from the nearly 3,700 total to reconstruct a seawall around the Tidal Basin, fortifying the area against sea level rise and extreme precipitation events. More

Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated as the 28th President of the United States.

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the throne 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. It was carrying 309 people including officers crew and passengers and a heavy cargo of Manganese ore, which was heavier and denser than coal. The ship was never seen again and its wreck has never been found. It remains the largest non-combat loss of life in U.S. Navy history.

The United States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time, preventing U.S. entry into the League of Nations.

Warren G. Harding is inaugurated as the 29th President of the United States.

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 +