Historical Events
Yalta Conference
Mar 1 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces success of Yalta Conference
Meeting of Interest
Mar 3 Winston Churchill visits Field Marshal Montgomery's headquarters
Historic Event
Mar 4 United Kingdom's Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II), joins the British Auxiliary Transport Service as a driver
- Mar 5 Allies bombs The Hague, Netherlands
Meeting of Interest
Mar 5 Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton and Alexander Patch meet in Lunéville, France
- 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 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
Historic Invention
Mar 6 George Nissen of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, receives a patent for the first modern trampoline
- Mar 6 Dutch resistance fighters kill two, and injure one Nazi officer in an attempt to hijack food supplies at de Woeste Hoeve, Netherlands
- 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 Nazi Sicherheitsdienst (SD) intelligence agency executes 116 prisoners, and one reluctant police official, at de Woeste Hoeve, Netherlands in response to raid by resistance forces two days earlier
- 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
Firebombing of Tokyo
Mar 9 334 US B-29 Superfortresses attack Tokyo with 120,000 fire bombs
- Mar 9 Japanese proclaim "independence" of Indo-China
Historic Event
Mar 10 Fieldmarshal Albert Kesselring succeeds Gerd von Rundstedt as commander of German Army Command in the West
- 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 and creed in employment
- Mar 12 USSR returns Transylvania to Romania
Historic Event
Mar 13 Queen Wilhelmina returns to Netherlands
Academy Awards
Mar 15 17th Academy Awards: "Going My Way", Bing Crosby & Ingrid Bergman win
- Mar 15 As a symbol of wartime baseball, Bert Shepard (one-legged WWII veteran) begins a successful tryout as a pitcher for the Washington Senators
- Mar 15 Billboard publishes its 1st album chart (King Cole Trio is #1)
- Mar 15 Catholic University of Nijmegen reopens
- 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 US Army Air Force completes largest bombing raid on Berlin Germany: Over 1200 bombers drop 3,000 tons of explosives [1]
Sports History
Mar 18 Montreal Canadien Maurice "Rocket" Richard becomes the 1st NHLer to score 50 goals
Historic Event
Mar 19 Adolf Hitler issues "Nero Decree" to destroy all German factories
- 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 captures Saarbrucken, immediately prior the invasion of Germany by the western Allies
- Mar 21 1st Japanese kamikaze "flying bombs" (MXY-7 Ohka) 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
Battle of Okinawa
Mar 23 Battle of Okinawa: US Navy ships bomb the Japanese island of Okinawa in preparation for the Allied invasion; it would become the largest battle of the Pacific War in World War II
- Mar 23 British Prime Minister Churchill visits Montgomery's headquarter in Straelen
Historic Event
Mar 23 The Swallow Sidecar Company headed by William Lyons agrees to change its name to Jaguar
Historic Event
Mar 23 Lt. Gen. Miles Dempsey becomes the first British commander to cross the Rhine during the Allied invasion of Germany
Historic Event
Mar 24 Allied generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, Bernard Montgomery and Omar Bradley discuss advance in Germany
- 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, Germany after crossing the Rhine
- Mar 25 US 4th Armored div arrives at Hanau & Aschaffenburg
- Mar 25 US Northern Tractor Flotilla departs Ulithi to Okinawa
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
Mar 26 Allies led by US Marine Corps secure island of Iwo Jima from Imperial Japanese Army, after 18,000 Japanese & 6,000 Americans killed
- Mar 26 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill looks over at the Rhine (near Ginsberg)
Sports History
Mar 26 De Paul wins NIT basketball championship, George Mikan scores 34
- 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 Prime Minister Winston Churchill sails to eastern banks of Rhine
- Mar 27 DePaul beats Bowling Green for NIT title
Music Recording
Mar 27 Ella Fitzgerald and Delta Rhythm Boys record the Harold Arlen-Yip Harburg-Billy Rose song "It's Only a Paper Moon"
- 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
Film & TV History
Mar 29 Movie star Jimmy Stewart is promoted to full colonel, one of the few Americans to rise from private to colonel in four years
Famous Birthdays
- Mar 1 Dirk Benedict, American actor (A-Team, Battlestar Galactica), born in Helena, Montana
- Mar 1 Wilfried van Moer, Belgian soccer midfielder (57 caps; Belgian Golden Shoe x 3; Beveren, Antwerp, Standard Liège), born in Beveren, Belgium (d. 2021)
- 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 (Yello - "Oh Yeah"), conceptional artist, and actor, born in Zürich, Switzerland
- 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, born in Chicago, Illinois
- Mar 4 Tommy Svensson, Swedish soccer midfielder (40 caps; Östers IF, Standard Liège) and manager (Östers IF, Sweden), born in Växjö, Sweden
- Mar 5 Randy Matson, American field athlete (Olympic gold shot putt 1968), born in Pampa, Texas
- Mar 6 Anna Maria Horsford, American actress (Thelma Frye-Amen), born in NYC, New York
- Mar 6 Hugh Grundy, British rock drummer (The Zombies - "She's Not There"; "Time Of The Season"), born in Winchester, Hampshire, England
- Mar 7 Arthur Lee, American rock singer-songwriter (Love - "Forever Changes"; "Vindicator"), born in Memphis, Tennessee (d. 2006)
- Mar 7 John Heard, American actor (Home Alone, Cat People, Big), born in Washington, D.C. (d. 2017)
- Mar 8 Graeme Watson, Australian cricket all-rounder (5 Tests, 1 x 50, 6 wickets; 2 ODIs; Victoria CA, WA CA, NSW CA), born in Melbourne, Australia (d. 2020)
- Mar 8 Jim Chapman, American politician (Rep-D-TX, 1985-1997), born in Washington, District of Columbia
- Mar 8 Micky Dolenz, American singer (The Monkees - "I'm A Believer"), and actor (Circus Boy), 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, British rock guitarist (Procol Harum, 1967-71 - "Conquistador"; solo - Bridge Of Sighs), 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, American 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 10 Pete Nelson [Lipscomb], British pop singer (The Flower Pot Men - "Let's Go To San Francisco"), born in Uxbridge, London, England (d. 2005)
- Mar 10 HO de Villiers, South African rugby union fullback (14 caps; Villager FC, Western Province), born in Johannesburg, South Africa (d. 2022)
- Mar 11 Harvey Mandel, American rock guitarist (The Snake), born in Morton, Illinois
- 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 rock guitarist (Les Baroques - "Such A Cad")
- Mar 12 George Jackson, American rhythm & blues, rock, and southern soul songwriter (One Bad Apple; Old Time Rock and Roll), and singer, born in Indianola, Mississippi (d. 2013)
- Mar 13 Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko, Russian mathematician, born in Stalino, USSR
- Mar 14 Herman van Veen, Dutch cabaretier, singer, composer and writer, born in Utrecht, Netherlands
- Mar 14 Michael Martin Murphey, American country singer (Wildfire), born in Dallas, Texas
- Mar 14 Walt Parazaider, American rock saxophonist (Chicago), born in Chicago, Illinois
- Mar 15 Jörgen Sundelin, Swedish yachtsmen (Olympic gold 5.5m class 1968; World C'ship gold Dragon class 1971), born in Stockholm, Sweden
- Mar 15 Mark J Green, American lawyer/author (Closed Enterprise System), born in Brooklyn, New York
- Mar 15 A. K. Faezul Huq, Bengali lawyer and politician (d. 2007)
- Mar 17 Elis Regina (Costa), Brazilian pop-samba-bossa nova singer ("Arrastão" - "Pull the Trawling Net"), born in Porto Alegre, Brazil (d. 1982)
- Mar 17 Michael Hayden, American general and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- 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 (Asakusa Portraits) , born in Daigo, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan (d. 2020)
- Mar 18 Eric Woolfson, Scottish singer and producer (The Alan Parsons Project), born in Glasgow (d. 2009)
- Mar 18 John Jacobs, American golfer (PGA Senior C’ship 2003), born in Los Angeles, California
- Mar 18 Chuck E. Weiss, American blues and rock songwriter, vocalist, and muse (Rickie Lee Jones; Tom Waits), born in Denver, Colorado (d. 2021)
- 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 Pat Riley, American 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, American funk and rock vocalist, and pianist (Sly & Family Stone - "Everyday People"; "Dance to The Music"), born in Dallas, Texas
- Mar 21 Vernon Guy, American R&B and gospel singer (Cool Sounds, Sharpees), born in St. Louis Missouri (d. 1998)
- Mar 22 Alan Opie, British Grammy Award-winning baritone (Boughton - Bethlehem; Britten's Peter Grimes "Balstrode"), born in Redruth, Cornwall, England
- Mar 22 Chuck Jackson, American R&B singer (The Independents - "Leaving Me"), songwriter and record producer (Natalie Cole; Phyllis Hyman), born in Greenville, South Carolina
- Mar 23 Franco Battiato, Italian pop, rock, and new wave singer, songwriter (“La Voce del Padrone” (“The Master’s Voice”), and filmmaker ("Lost Love"), born in Jonia, Sicily. Italy (d. 2021)
- Mar 23 Krasnodar Rora, Croatian soccer midfielder (5 caps Yugoslavia; Dinamo Zagreb, Standard Liège) and manager (Šibenik), born in Vis, Croatia (d. 2020)
- Mar 23 David Grisman, American folk-bluegrass-jazz fusion mandolin player (Old And In The Way; Jerry Garcia), born in Hackensack, New Jersey
- 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 24 Patrick Malahide [Duggan], British actor (Inspector Alleyn Mysteries; Minder; Game Of Thrones), born in in Reading, England
- 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
Rodrigo Duterte
Mar 28 Rodrigo Duterte, Philippines politician, President of the Philippines (2016-), born in Maasin, Leyte, Philippines
- Mar 28 Johnny Famechon, Australian boxer (WBC featherweight champion), born in Paris, France
- Mar 28 Sally Carr, Scottish pop singer (Middle of the Road - "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep"), born in Muirhead, Scotland
- Mar 28 Boudewijn Buckinx, Belgian contemporary classical composer and musicologist, born in Lommel, Belgium
Walt Frazier
Mar 29 Walt "Clyde" Frazier, NBA guard (NY Knicks), born in Atlanta, Georgia
- 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)
Eric Clapton
Mar 30 Eric Clapton, English singer and guitarist (Cream - "Sunshine Of Your Love; Derek & The Dominos - "Layla"; solo -"Tears in Heaven"), born in Ripley, Surrey, England
Famous Weddings
Humphrey Bogart
Mar 21 Actor Humphrey Bogart (44) marries actress Lauren Bacall (20)
Famous Deaths
- Mar 2 Emily Carr, Canadian painter, dies at 73
- Mar 3 Arthur Vanderpoorten, Flemish Internal minister (1940), dies at 61
- Mar 3 Jacobus H "Koos" Speenhoff, Dutch cabaret singer, killed in the RAF's bombing of the Bezuidenhout at 75
- Mar 4 Lucille La Verne, American actress (b. 1872)
- Mar 4 Mark Sandrich [Goldstein], American film director, writer and producer (The Gay Divorcee; Top Hat; Holiday Inn), dies of a heart attack at 44
- 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 Rudolf Karel, Czech composer (Three Hairs of the Wise Old Man), dies of dysentery and pneumonia while in Theresienstadt concentration camp at 64
- Mar 7 Adolf Bartels, German journalist and poet, 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, English author and 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 19 Clyde Hart, American swing and bebop jazz piano player and arranger (Stuff Smith; Lionel Hampton; Roy Eldridge), dies of tuberculosis at 35
- 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 (Jevon) "Jeff" Nicklin, Canadian CFL football player,1934-40 (Winnipeg Blue Bombers), and Army paratrooper officer killed in action at 30
- Mar 24 Thomas Rennie, Gen-Maj (Dutch command 51st Highland Division), dies
David Lloyd George
Mar 26 David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister (Liberal: 1916-22), dies of cancer at 82
- 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
Hans Fischer
Mar 31 Hans Fischer, German organic chemist (Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1930), commits suicide at 63
