What Happened in March 1855

Historical Events

  • Mar 2 Aleksandr Romanov becomes tsar of Russia
  • Mar 3 US Congress approves $30,000 to test camels for military use
  • Mar 3 US Congress authorizes registered mail
  • Mar 6 Gustave Flaubert writes goodbye to Louise Colet
  • Mar 7 17th Grand National: John Hanlon wins aboard Irish horse Wanderer at 25/1
  • Mar 8 1st train crosses 1st US railway suspension bridge, Niagara Falls

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Mar 11 Bowery Boys gang leader William Poole aka "Bill the Butcher" is buried in Brooklyn with 155 carriages and 6,000 mourners

Gang Leader Bill the Butcher
Gang Leader
Bill the Butcher
  • Mar 15 Louisiana establishes 1st health board to regulate quarantine
  • Mar 24 Manhattan Kansas founded as New Boston Kansas

InventionHistoric Invention

Mar 27 Abraham Gesner patents kerosene

Physician and Geologist Abraham Gesner
Physician and Geologist
Abraham Gesner

Famous Birthdays

  • Mar 1 Paul Hines, American MLB outfielder (Triple Crown 1878, Providence Grays), born in Virginia (d. 1935)
  • Mar 12 John White, American composer (d. 1902)
  • Mar 13 Percival "Percy" Lowell, American astronomer (predicted discovery of Pluto), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1916)

Person of interestAndrew Mellon

Mar 24 Andrew Mellon, American banker (Mellon Bank), industrialist and Secretary of the Treasury (1921-32), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1947)

Banker, Industrialist and US Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon
Banker, Industrialist and US Secretary of the Treasury
Andrew Mellon
  • Mar 24 Olive Schreiner, South African writer (Portrait of a South African Woman)
  • Mar 27 Alfred Ewing, Scottish Physicist (magnetic properties of metals, hysteresis), born in Dundee, Angus, Scotland (d. 1935)
  • Mar 31 Alfred E. Hunt, founder of Alcoa (d. 1899)

Famous Deaths

  • Mar 2 Nicholas I Pavlovitch, tsar of Russia (1825-55), dies at 58

Person of interestBill the Butcher

Mar 8 William Poole, Infamous member of New York City's Bowery Boys gang, dies of a gunshot wound at 33

Gang Leader Bill the Butcher
Gang Leader
Bill the Butcher
  • Mar 17 Ramon Carnicer y Batlle, Spanish composer, dies at 65
  • Mar 20 Joseph Aspdin, English mason and inventor (b. 1788)
  • Mar 29 Henri Druey, Swiss politician and a founding father of constitutional democracy in Switzerland, dies at 55

Person of interestCharlotte Brontë

Mar 31 Charlotte Brontë, English novelist (Jane Eyre), dies at 38

Novelist Charlotte Brontë
Novelist
Charlotte Brontë