On This Day

What Happened in March 1912

Historical Events

  • Mar 1 U.S. Army Captain Albert Berry performs first (attached-type) parachute jump from an airplane
  • Mar 1 Isabella Goodwin appointed first US woman detective, NYC
  • Mar 5 Spanish steamer "Principe de Asturias" sinks NE of Spain, 500 die
  • Mar 5 Italian forces are the first to use airships for military purposes, using them for reconnaissance behind Turkish lines.

InventionScientific Discovery

Mar 7 Roald Amundsen announces discovery of the South Pole

Polar Explorer Roald Amundsen
Polar Explorer
Roald Amundsen
  • Mar 11 First Stanley Cup challenge game to be played in three 20-minute periods (formerly 30-minute halves), Quebec beats Moncton, 9-3 on way to series sweep
  • Mar 11 Eleftherios Venizelos, leader of the Liberal Party, wins the Greek elections again.

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Mar 12 Girl Guides (Girl Scouts) forms in Savannah, by Juliette Gordon Low

Founder of Girl Scouts of the USA Juliette Gordon Low
Founder of Girl Scouts of the USA
Juliette Gordon Low

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Mar 12 Helen Hayes Theater (Little Theatre) opens at 240W 44th St, NYC

Actress Helen Hayes
Actress
Helen Hayes
  • Mar 12 Establishment of the first football club in Bulgaria - Botev Plovdiv
  • Mar 13 Stanley Cup, Quebec Skating Rink, Quebec City, Quebec: Quebec Bulldogs rout Moncton Victorias (NB), 8-0 for a 2-0 sweep of the challenge series
  • Mar 13 Bulgaria and Serbia conclude an alliance pact ostensibly against Austria, but it secretly provides for a possible war against Turkey
  • Mar 14 King Vittorio Emanuel III of Italy injured in an assassination attempt

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Mar 15 Pitcher Cy Young retires from baseball with 511 wins

MLB Pitcher Cy Young
MLB Pitcher
Cy Young
  • Mar 16 Mrs William Howard Taft plants 1st cherry tree in Washington, D.C.
  • Mar 17 Camp Fire Girls organization announced by Mrs Luther Halsey Gulick
  • Mar 22 Agnes Martin, Macklin Canada, Canadian-American abstract painter
  • Mar 27 1st Japanese cherry blossom trees planted in Washington, D.C.

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Mar 29 Captain Robert Scott, storm-bound in a tent near South Pole, makes last entry in his diary "the end cannot be far"

Polar Explorer Robert Falcon Scott
Polar Explorer
Robert Falcon Scott
  • Mar 29 74th Grand National: Ernie Piggott wins aboard 4/1 co-favourite Jerry M
  • Mar 30 French protectorate in Morocco established

Famous Birthdays

  • Mar 1 Gerald Emmett Cardinal Carter, archbishop of Toronto (d. 2003)
  • Mar 2 Arthur Beaumont C Langton, cricketer (South African pace bowler of 1930's)
  • Mar 3 Joe Stydahar, NFL tackle (Chicago Bears)
  • Mar 4 Afro, [Basaldella], Italian painter
  • Mar 4 Carl Marzani, Italian-born American leftwing political activist, publisher and documentarian, born in Rome, Italy (d. 1994)
  • Mar 6 Madge Adam, astronomer
  • Mar 8 Preston Smith, 40th Governor of Texas, born in Williamson County, Texas (d. 2003)
  • Mar 9 Alan David Melville, polymath
  • Mar 11 Robert Clifford Latham, pepys Scholar
  • Mar 11 Xavier Montsalvatge, Spanish composer (El gato con botas)
  • Mar 12 James McKay, lord provost of Edinburgh
  • Mar 12 Kylie Tennant, novelist (Battlers, Lost Haven)
  • Mar 12 Paul Weston [Wetstein], American pianist and orchestra leader (Jim Nabors Hour, Crescent City Suite), born in Springfield, Massachusetts (d. 1996)
  • Mar 12 Irving Layton, Canadian poet (d. 2006)
  • Mar 13 Ernst Hess, Swiss composer, born in Schaffhausen (d. 1968)
  • Mar 13 Igor Youskevitch, Russian-Ukrainian ballet dancer, born in Pyriatyn, Poltava Oblast, Ukraine (d. 1994)
  • Mar 13 James Friell, Scottish political cartoonist (Daily Worker), born in Glasgow (d. 1997)
  • Mar 14 Les Brown, American big band leader (His Band of Renown - "Sentimental Journey"), born in Reinerton, Pennsylvania (d. 2001)
  • Mar 15 Duncan Stuart Wilson-MacDonald, fighter pilot

Person of interestLightnin Hopkins

Mar 15 Lightnin' [Sam] Hopkins, American blues musician (Ball of Twine), born in Centerville, Texas (d. 1982)

Blues Singer Lightnin Hopkins
Blues Singer
Lightnin Hopkins
  • Mar 15 Louis Paul Boon, Flemish writer (Kapellekensbaan)
  • Mar 16 Patricia Nixon, [Thelma Catherine], Ely Nevada, 1st lady (1968-74)
  • Mar 19 Adolf Galland, fighter Pilot
  • Mar 19 Russ Case, Hamburg Iowa, orchestra leader (Julius La Rosa Show)
  • Mar 21 Peter Bull, British actor and author (The African Queen, Tom Jones, Dr Strangelove), born in London, England (d. 1984)
  • Mar 22 Henri Rousselot, admiral
  • Mar 22 Lord Alport [Cuthbert Alport], politician, cabinet minister, and life peer
  • Mar 22 Wilfrid Brambell, Irish actor (Hard Day's Night, Steptoe and Son), born in Dublin, Ireland (d. 1985)
  • Mar 22 Karl Malden [Mladen George Sekulovich], American actor (Streets of San Francisco, American Express, A Streetcar Named Desire), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2009)
  • Mar 23 Alfred Schwarzmann, German gymnast (Olympic-2 golds-1936)

Person of interestWernher von Braun

Mar 23 Wernher von Braun, German rocket scientist (I Aim at the Stars), born in Wirsitz, Germany (now Wyrzysk, Poland) (d. 1977)

Rocket Scientist Wernher von Braun
Rocket Scientist
Wernher von Braun

Person of interestDorothy Height

Mar 24 Dorothy Height, American civil rights and women's rights activist (National Council of Negro Women), born in Richmond, Virginia (d. 2010)

Women's and Civil Rights Activist Dorothy Height
Women's and Civil Rights Activist
Dorothy Height
  • Mar 25 Jean Vilar, French stage and film actor and director (Théâtre National Populaire), born in Sète, France (d. 1971)

Person of interestJames Callaghan

Mar 27 James Callaghan, British Prime Minister (Labour: 1976-79), born in Portsmouth, England (d. 2005)

British Prime Minister James Callaghan
British Prime Minister
James Callaghan
  • Mar 27 Reuel Lahmer, composer, born in Maple, Ontario
  • Mar 27 Robert Watson Hughes, Scottish-Australian composer, born in Levan, Inverclyde, Scotland (d. 2007)
  • Mar 28 A. Bertram Chandler, Anglo-Australian mariner and sci-fi author (Empress of Outer Space), born in Aldershot, England (d. 1984)
  • Mar 28 Marina Raskova, Russian navigator, born in Moscow (d. 1943)
  • Mar 29 Hanna Reitsch, German aviator and test pilot, born in Hirschberg, Silesia (d. 1979)
  • Mar 30 Andrew Rodger Waterson, scholar/naturalist
  • Mar 30 Jack Cowie, cricketer (successful NZ fast bowler either side of WWII)
  • Mar 31 Wilhelmus Berkelmans, civil servant/resistance fighter

Famous Deaths

  • Mar 1 George Grossmith, British actor, comedian and writer (The Diary of a Nobody, A Society Clown), dies at 64
  • Mar 1 Ludvig Holstein-Ledreborg, Danish politician (Council President of Denmark), dies at 72
  • Mar 6 August Toepler, German physicist, dies at 75
  • Mar 15 Louis van Westerhoven, Dutch actor, singer and opera director (Youth), dies at 58
  • Mar 17 Lawrence "Titus" Oates, British explorer (Antarctica), sacrifices himself during the Terra Nova Expedition at 32
  • Mar 22 Henry Harrison Walker, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 79

Person of interestRobert Falcon Scott

Mar 29 Robert Falcon Scott, British pole explorer, dies in Antarctica at 43

Polar Explorer Robert Falcon Scott
Polar Explorer
Robert Falcon Scott
  • Mar 30 Karl May, German writer (Winnetou/Kara Ben Nemsi), dies at 70

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