On This Day

What Happened in March 1847

Historical Events

  • Mar 1 Michigan becomes 1st English-speaking jurisdiction to abolish the death penalty (except for treason against the state)
  • Mar 3 US Post Office Department is authorized to issue postage stamps
  • Mar 3 9th Grand National: Denny Wynne wins aboard 10/1 Mathew; regarded as the first Irish-trained horse to win the race
  • Mar 7 US General Scott occupies Vera Cruz, Mexico
  • Mar 10 1st money minted in Hawaii

Music Premiere

Mar 14 Premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Macbeth" at the Teatro della Pergola, Florence

Giuseppe Verdi
Composer Giuseppe Verdi
  • Mar 18 1st Dutch public telegram
  • Mar 25 Pope Pius issues IX encyclical "On aid for Ireland"
  • Mar 29 12,000 US troops capture Vera Cruz, Mexico

Famous Birthdays

Alexander Graham Bell

Mar 3 Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-born British-American inventor (telephone), born in Edinburgh, Scotland (d. 1922)

Alexander Graham Bell
Inventor Alexander Graham Bell
  • Mar 4 Carl Josef Bayer, Austrian chemist (invented Beyer Process to produce aluminium), born in the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia (now Poland) (d. 1904)
  • Mar 8 Carl von Bach, German mechanical engineer, born in Stollberg / Erzgeb (d. 1931)

Kate Sheppard

Mar 10 Kate Sheppard, New Zealand suffragette and the most prominent member of New Zealand's women's suffrage movement, born in Liverpool, England (d. 1934)

Kate Sheppard
Suffragette Kate Sheppard
  • Mar 14 Antonio de Castro Alves, Brazilian poet (Espumas Flutuantes), born in Muritiba, Brazil (d. 1871)
  • Mar 19 Constantin Dimitrescu, Romanian composer (Dans ţănănesc), born in Blejoi, Romania (d. 1928)
  • Mar 20 Gavriil Musicescu, Romainian composer, born in Izmail, Bessarabia Governorate, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) (d. 1903)
  • Mar 23 Alexandru D Xenopol, Romania, historian
  • Mar 27 Otto Wallach, German chemist (Nobel 1910), born in Königsberg, Germany (d. 1931)
  • Mar 31 Jarolslaw Zielinski, composer
  • Mar 31 Yegor Ivanovich Zolotarev, Russian mathematician (d. 1878)

Famous Deaths

  • Mar 9 Mary Anning, British fossil collector, dealer, and palaeontologist (Jurassic marine fossil beds of Lyme Regis in Dorset), dies of breast cancer at 47
  • Mar 28 Mariano Rodríguez de Ledesma, Spanish composer, dies at 67
  • Mar 29 Auguste De Polignac, Premier of France, dies at 66


What Happened in 1847

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