Historical Events
- Mar 5 Parma, Tuscany, Modena and Romagna vote in referendums to join the Kingdom of Sardinia
- Mar 7 22nd Grand National: Tommy Pickernell wins aboard Irish horse Anatis at 5/1
- Mar 9 1st Japanese ambassador arrives in San Francisco en route to Washington
Treaty of Interest
Mar 17 Six years after the forcible ending of Japan's isolationist policy by US Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry, the Japanese Embassy arrives in San Francisco to sign a Treaty of Friendship
- Mar 21 US extradition treaty with Sweden
Historic Event
Mar 21 English novelist George Eliot finishes her novel "The Mill on the Floss" in Wandsworth, London
Theater Premiere
Mar 29 Dion Boucicault's play "Colleen Bawn" premieres in NYC
Famous Birthdays
- Mar 2 Susanna M. Salter, 1st American female mayor and temperance leader (d. 1961)
- Mar 3 John M. Ward, American Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher (perfect game 1880; Providence Grays, New York Gothams / Giants), born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania (d. 1925)
- Mar 11 Thomas Hastings, American architect (NY Public Library), born in NYC, New York
- Mar 12 Salvatore Di Giacomo, Italian poet and songwriter during "Golden Age of Neapolitan Song", born in Naples (d. 1934)
- Mar 13 Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer, born in Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia (d. 1903)
- Mar 15 Waldemar Haffkine, Ukrainian bacteriologist (1st to develop and use vaccines against cholera and bubonic plague), born in Odessa, Russian Empire (d. 1930)
William Jennings Bryan
Mar 19 William Jennings Bryan, American orator and statesman known as "The Great Commoner", born in Salem, Illinois (d. 1925)
Famous Deaths
- Mar 6 (Justus Johann) Friedrich Dotzauer, German cellist (Dresden Court Orchestra, 1821-50), composer, and teacher, dies at 77
- Mar 14 Louis-Antoine Jullien, French conductor, dies at 47
- Mar 17 Anna Brownell Jameson, Anglo-Irish historian and writer (Loves of the Poets), dies at 65
- Mar 25 James Braid, Scottish surgeon (b. 1795)
- Mar 28 Johann Ludwig Bohner, composer, dies at 73
