- Mar 10 Ina Coolbrith, American poet laureate of California (1st poet laureate of any US state), born in Nauvoo, Illinois (d. 1928)
- Mar 18 Stéphane Mallarmé, French poet (d. 1898)
- Mar 22 Carl Rosa, German-born violinist and composer (founder of the Rosa opera company that toured UK and US), born in Hamburg (d. 1889)
- Mar 22 Mykola Lysenko, Ukrainian composer (Taras Bulba), conductor and ethno-musicologist, born in Hrynky, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) (d. 1912)
- Mar 30 John Fiske [Edmund Fisk Green], American historian and philosopher, born in Hartford, Connecticut (d. 1901)