What Happened in March 1945

Historical Events

Events 1 - 100 of 103

• Mar 1 British 43rd Division under General Hubert Essame occupies Xanten
• Mar 1 Chinese 30th division occupies Hsenwi

• Mar 1 US infantry regiment captures Mönchengladbach
• Mar 2 US 8th Air Force bombs Dresden
• Mar 2 King Michael of Romania gives in to Communist government

• Mar 3 RAF bombing error hits The Hague killing 511
• Mar 3 Roermond & Venlo, Netherlands, liberated
• Mar 3 US & Philippine forces recaptures Corregidor
• Mar 3 US 7th Army occupies last part of Westwall
• Mar 4 Finland declares war on Nazi Germany

• Mar 5 Allies bombs The Hague, Netherlands

• Mar 5 US 7th Army Corps captures Cologne


• Mar 5 US Ladies Figure Skating championship won by Gretchen Merrill
• Mar 5 World War II: The Battle of the Ruhr begins.
• Mar 6 117 SD-prisoners executed at Savage Farm
• Mar 6 Chinese 38th division occupies Lashio
• Mar 6 Erich Honnecker & Erich Hanke flee nazis
• Mar 6 Federico Garcia Lorca's "La Casa" premieres in Buenos Aires

• Mar 7 Attack on car of Netherlands SS Police Chief Hans Rauter by Dutch resistance, Rauter injured
• Mar 7 Cologne taken by allied armies
• Mar 7 US 9th Armoured Division attacks Remagen Germany, crosses Rhine

• Mar 8 "Kiss Me Kate" opens in Britain
• Mar 8 53 Amsterdammers executed by nazi occupiers
• Mar 8 International Women's Day is 1st observed
• Mar 8 Phyllis M Daley is 1st black nurse sworn in as US Navy ensign

• Mar 9 Japanese proclaim "independence" of Indo-China

• Mar 10 Germany blows up Wessel Bridge on Rhine
• Mar 10 Japan grants occupied Vietnam independence

• Mar 10 Tokyo in fire after night time B-29 bombings, more than 100,000 people die, mostly civilians.
• Mar 10 US troops land in western Mindanao, Philippines in Operation VICTOR IV
• Mar 11 1,000 allied bombers harass Essen, 4,662 ton bombs
• Mar 11 Flemish nazi collaborator Maria Huygens sentenced to death


• Mar 12 30 Amsterdammers executed by nazi occupiers
• Mar 12 Italy's Communist Party (CPI) calls for armed uprising in Italy
• Mar 12 NY is 1st to prohibit discrimination by race & creed in employment
• Mar 12 USSR returns Transylvania to Romania
• Mar 13 Queen Wilhelmina returns to Netherlands
• Mar 13 Nazi Sicherheitsdienst arrests Dutch resistance fighter Henry Werkman
• Mar 14 RAF bomb cuts railway link Hannover-Hamm

• Mar 15 Bert Shepard (1 legged WW II vet) tries out as a pitcher for Senators
• Mar 15 Billboard publishes its 1st album chart (King Cole Trio is #1)
• Mar 15 Catholic University of Nijmegen reopens
• Mar 15 Dodgers open spring training at Bear Mountain NY
• Mar 16 Würzburg, Germany is 90% destroyed, with 5,000 dead, in only 20 minutes by British bombers
• Mar 17 Allied ships bomb North-Sumatra
• Mar 18 1,250 US bombers attacks Berlin

• Mar 18 US Task Force 58 attacks targets on Kiushu
• Mar 19 800 killed as Kamikaze attacked USS Franklin off Japan

• Mar 19 British 36th division conquers Mogok (ruby mine)
• Mar 19 US Task Force 58 attacks ships near Kobe/Kure
• Mar 20 US 70th Infantry division and 7th Armour division attack Saar
• Mar 21 1st Japanese flying bombs (ochas) attack Okinawa
• Mar 21 During WW II Allied bombers begin 4-day raid over Germany
• Mar 21 Dutch Resistance fighter Hannie Schaft arrested by Nazi police
• Mar 22 Arab League forms with adoption of a charter in Cairo Egypt
• Mar 22 US 3rd Army crosses Rhine at Nierstein
• Mar 23 British 7th Black Watch crosses the Rhine into Germany

• Mar 23 Premier Churchill visits Montgomery's headquarter in Straelen

• Mar 24 Operation Varsity: In the largest one-day airborne operation of all time, British, US & Canadian paratroopers land east of the Rhine in Northern Germany
• Mar 24 US minesweepers reach Kerama Retto, South coast of Okinawa
• Mar 25 US 1st army breaks out bridgehead near Remagen
• Mar 25 US 4th Armored div arrives at Hanau & Aschaffenburg
• Mar 25 US Northern Tractor Flotilla departs Ulithi to Okinawa

• Mar 26 British premier Winston Churchill looks over at the Rhine (near Ginsberg)

• Mar 26 Allied generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and George S. Patton launch attack at Remagen on the Rhine
• Mar 26 Kamikaze attack on US battle fleet near Kerama Retto
• Mar 26 US 7th Army crosses Rhine at Worms
• Mar 26 Venray soccer team forms
• Mar 27 7th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Oklahoma State beats NYU, 49-44; Cowboys' center Bob Kurland is named tournament Most Outstanding Player
• Mar 27 British premier Winston Churchill sails to eastern banks of Rhine
• Mar 27 DePaul beats Bowling Green for NIT title

• Mar 27 General Eisenhower declares German defenses on Western Front broken
• Mar 27 US 20th Army corps captures Wiesbaden
• Mar 27 World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins.
• Mar 28 Last German V-1 (buzz bomb) attack on London
• Mar 29 World War II: Last day of V-1 flying bomb attacks on England

• Mar 30 289 anti-fascists murdered by nazis in Rombergpark Dortmund
• Mar 30 USSR invades Austria
• Mar 30 World War II: a defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1 to Americans
• Mar 31 3rd Algerian division crosses the Rhine

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Famous Birthdays

• Mar 1 Dirk Benedict, American actor (A-Team, Battlestar Galactica), born in Helena, Montana
• Mar 2 Gordon Thompson, Canadian actor (Adam Carrington in Dynasty), born in Ottawa
• Mar 2 Joy Garrett, American actress (Jo Johnson-Days of Our Lives), born in Fort Worth, Texas (d. 1993)
• Mar 2 Derek Watkins, British trumpet player and composer (The Spy Who Loved Me, Skyfall), born in Reading, England (d. 2013)
• Mar 3 Farooq Hamid, cricketer (1-107 in Test, Pakistan v Australia 1964)
• Mar 3 Hattie Winston, actress (Nurse, Electric Company), born in Greenville, Mississippi
• Mar 4 Dieter Meier, Swiss singer/children book writer (Yello)
• Mar 4 Jaime Tirelli, American actor (Orlando Lopez-Ball Four), born in NYC, New York
• Mar 4 Tara Browne, British socialite (d. 1966)
• Mar 4 Frank Novak, American actor
• Mar 4 Tommy Svensson, Swedish football manager
• Mar 5 Randy Matson, American shot putter (Olympic gold 1968)
• Mar 6 Anna Maria Horsford, American actress (Thelma Frye-Amen), born in NYC, New York
• Mar 6 Hugh Grundy, Winchester England, drummer (Zombies-She's Not There)
• Mar 7 Arthur Lee, rocker (Vindicator)
• Mar 7 John Heard, American actor (Home Alone, Cat People, Big), born in Washington D.C. (d. 2017)
• Mar 8 Graeme Watson, cricketer (Australian opening batsman 5 Tests 1966-72)
• Mar 8 Jim Chapman, American politician (Rep-D-TX, 1985-1997), born in Washington, District of Columbia
• Mar 8 Micky Dolenz, American singer and actor (Circus Boy, The Monkees), born in Los Angeles, California
• Mar 8 Bruce Broughton, American composer
• Mar 8 Anselm Kiefer, German painter
• Mar 9 Laura Lee, American soul and gospel singer (Dirty Man, Women's Love Rights), born in Chicago, Illinois
• Mar 9 Robin Trower, guitarist (Procol Harum-Whiter Shade of Pale), born in London, England
• Mar 9 Dennis Rader, American serial killer who murdered ten people in Sedgwick County, Kansas, born in Pittsburg, Kansas
• Mar 9 Robert Calvert, South African-British writer and musician (Hawkwind), born in Pretoria (d. 1988)
• Mar 10 Katharine Houghton, actress (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner), born in Hartford, Connecticut
• Mar 10 Birgitta Sellén, Swedish politician
• Mar 10 Elizabeth Brumfiel, [Elizabeth Stern], American feminist archaeologist, former president of the American Anthropological Association
• Mar 11 Harvey Mandel, rock guitarist (Drei Amerikanische LP's)
• Mar 11 Timothy Mason, consultant (British Arts Council)
• Mar 11 Tricia O'Neal, actress (Piranha Part II), born in Shreveport, Louisiana
• Mar 11 Dock Ellis, American baseball player
• Mar 12 Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, American mobster who testified against John Gotti, born in Brooklyn, New York
• Mar 12 Hans van Emden, Dutch guitarist (Les Baroques)
• Mar 13 Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko, Russian mathematician, born in Stalino, USSR
• Mar 14 Herman[us J] van Veen, Neth, cabaretier/singer/composer/writer
• Mar 14 Michael Martin Murphey, country singer (Wildfire), born in Dallas, Texas
• Mar 14 Walt Parazaider, rock saxophonist (Chicago), born in Chicago, Illinois
• Mar 15 Jorgen Sundelin, Swedish yachtsmen (Olympic gold 1968)
• Mar 15 Mark J Green, American lawyer/author (Closed Enterprise System), born in Brooklyn, New York
• Mar 15 Tracy Smith, long-distance runner, born in Altadena, California)
• Mar 15 A. K. Faezul Huq, Bengali lawyer and politician (d. 2007)
• Mar 17 Elis Regina, Brazilian singer (d. 1982)
• Mar 17 Michael Hayden, General USAF, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
• Mar 18 Aleksey Vakhonin, USSR, bantam weight (Olympic gold 1964)
• Mar 18 Joy Fielding, Canadian novelist and actress, born in Toronto, Ontario
• Mar 18 Hiroh Kikai, Japanese photographer
• Mar 18 Eric Woolfson, Scottish singer and producer (The Alan Parsons Project), born in Glasgow (d. 2009)
• Mar 19 Lisa Nicole Baker, American Playboy playmate (Nov 1966, Playmate of the Year 1967), born in Detroit, Texas
• Mar 19 Stefanos Kiriakidis, Greek actor
• Mar 20 Larry Combest, (Rep-R-TX, 1985- )
• Mar 20 Pat Riley, NBA coach (Lakers, Knicks, Heat), born in Schenectady, New York
• Mar 20 Tim Yeo, British MP/under-sect (State of Environment)
• Mar 20 Henry Bartholomay, American fighter pilot
• Mar 20 Jay Ingram, Canadian television host and author
• Mar 21 Rosemary Stone, vocalist/pianist (Sly & Family Stone-Everyday People)
• Mar 21 Vernon Guy, US gospel singer (Cool Sounds, Sharpees)
• Mar 22 Alan Opie, baritone (Boughton Bethlehem, Britten 5 Canticles)
• Mar 22 Chuck Jackson, American singer (Playboy, Independents), born in Greenville, South Carolina
• Mar 23 Franco Battiato, Italian singer, songwriter and filmmaker
• Mar 24 Robert T. Bakker, American paleontologist
• Mar 24 Curtis Hanson, American film director and screenwriter (LA Confidential, 8 Mile), born in Reno, Nevada (d. 2016)
• Mar 26 Mikhail Voronin, Russian and Soviet gymnast (1968 Olympics: 7 medals including 2 gold, 1972 Olympics: 2 silver medals), born in Moscow (d. 2004)
• Mar 27 Briton Selby, Canadian NHL player, born in Kingston, Ontario
• Mar 28 Chuck Portz, bassist (Turtles-Happy Together), born in Santa Monica, California
• Mar 28 Hans Brunhart, Leader of Liechtenstein (1978-93), born in Balzers, Liechtenstein
• Mar 28 Count Björn Hamilton, Swedish politician, count and engineer, born in Gothenburg, Sweden
• Mar 28 Rodrigo Duterte, Philippines politician, President of the Philippines (2016-), born in Maasin, Leyte
• Mar 28 Johnny Famechon, Australian boxer (WBC featherweight champion), born in Paris, France

• Mar 29 Willem Ruis, Dutch TV host (Willem Ruis Show), born in Haarlem, Netherlands (d. 1986)
• Mar 29 John "Speedy" Keen, British musician, songwriter, producer (Thunderclap Newman - "Something in the Air"), born in Ealing, London (d. 2002)
• Mar 29 Hardy Fox, American member of avant-garde band The Residents, born in Longview, Texas (d. 2018)

• Mar 30 Johnnie Walker [Peter Dingley], British radio DJ, born in Birmingham
• Mar 30 Richard Evans, British graphic designer, album cover designer (The Who; The Doors; Pink Floyd; Louis Armstrong), born in Wilmslow, Cheshire
• Mar 31 Valerie Curtin, American actress, writer, and producer

Famous Weddings

Famous Deaths

• Mar 2 Emily Carr, Canadian painter, dies at 73
• Mar 3 Arthur Vanderpoorten, Flemish Internal minister (1940), dies at 61
• Mar 3 Koos Speenhoff, Dutch singer, killed in bombing raid at 75
• Mar 4 Lucille La Verne, American actress (b. 1872)
• Mar 4 Mark Sandrich, American film director, writer and producer (b. 1900)
• Mar 5 Lena Baker, American murderer, convicted of capital murder of her employer, Ernest Knight, dies at 44
• Mar 6 Jan Thijssen, Dutch resistance fighter, executed at Savage Farm
• Mar 6 Rudolph Karel, Czech composer, dies at 64
• Mar 7 Adolf Bartels, German writer/racist, dies at 82
• Mar 8 H J Jamin, Dutch resistance fighter, dies in Buchenwald
• Mar 8 Jan Beekes, resistance fighter, executed at 26

• Mar 13 Herbert Bedford, composer, dies at 78
• Mar 15 Herman Bernard Wiardi Beckman, Dutch resistance fighter and politician (SDAP), dies at 41
• Mar 16 Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, French writer/poet, commits suicide at 52
• Mar 16 Börries von Münchhausen, German poet (b. 1874)
• Mar 18 William Grover-Williams, British racing driver
• Mar 19 Fritz Fromm, German supreme commander of Reserve army, executed
• Mar 21 J Woortman, Dutch resistance fighter, dies in Bergen-Belsen at 39
• Mar 21 Arthur Nebe, German SS officer, dies at 50
• Mar 22 J Postuma, Dutch resistance fighter, dies
• Mar 24 J S Nicklin, Lt-Col/Canada's 1st parachutist, dies
• Mar 24 Thomas Rennie, Gen-Maj (Dutch command 51st Highland Division), dies

• Mar 26 Isaack Stouten, resistance fighter, shot to death at 29
• Mar 26 Boris Shaposhnikov, Russian military commander, dies at 62
• Mar 27 Jorgen Nielsen, Danish writer (romance), dies at 42
• Mar 29 Karl T Sapper, German geographer/geologist (Vulkankunde), dies at 79
• Mar 29 Ferenc Csik, Hungarian swimmer (Olympics gold medal 100m freestyle 1936), dies of war wounds at 31
• Mar 30 Karel Moor, Czech composer and conductor, dies at 71

• Mar 31 Maurice Rose, 1st US general in Nazi Germany, killed in action at 45
• Mar 31 Maurice Donnay, French playwright (Lovers), dies at 85

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