- Mar 1 Commonwealth Trade Union Council established
- Mar 1 American poet-singer Patti Smith (32) weds MC5 guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith (31) in Detroit, Michigan
- Mar 1 Snow falls in Florida
- Mar 1 The US enacts the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act as part of a compromise between the Carter Administration and the Congress over the decontrol of crude oil prices
- Mar 1 27th ACC Men's Basketball Tournament, Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, NC: Duke beats Maryland, 73-72
- Mar 1 21st SEC Men's Basketball Tournament, BJCC Coliseum, Birmingham, AL: LSU beats Kentucky, 80-78
- Mar 2 Phoenix point guard Mike Bratz ends NBA free throw streak of 57 games with a miss in the Suns' 123-115 home win over the LA Lakers
- Mar 3 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
- Mar 3 1st nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus is decommissioned
Historic Event
Mar 3 Pierre Trudeau sworn in, for the second time, as the 17th Prime Minister of Canada
Sports History
Mar 4 40th hat trick in Islander history-Mike Bossy
Election of Interest
Mar 4 Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) comes to power, winning the parliamentary election in Zimbabwe, making Mugabe Zimbabwe's first black prime minister
- Mar 5 Earth satellites record gamma rays from remnants of supernova N-49
Daytime Emmy Awards
Mar 6 Emmy 7th Daytime Award presentation - Susan Lucci loses for 1st time
- Mar 6 Princess Theater (Latin Quarter, Cotton Club) opens at 200 W 48th NYC
- Mar 6 French Academy, founded in 1635, elects it 1st woman novelist (Marguerita Youcenar)
- Mar 8 Greg Chappell 235 & Yallop 172, for 217 stand at Faisalabad
- Mar 8 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Mar 8 The first festival of rock music kicks off in the Soviet Union
Film and TV Awards
Mar 8 6th People's Choice Awards: Burt Reynolds & Jane Fonda win (Motion Picture) and Alan Alda & Carol Burnett win (TV)
Murder of Interest
Mar 12 Jury finds John Wayne Gacy guilty of murdering 33 in Chicago
- Mar 12 NY Islanders 3rd scoreless tie, vs Pittsburgh Penguin
Music History
Mar 12 Columbia Records releases "Glass Houses", singer-songwriter Billy Joel's seventh studio album; it features his 1st No.1 single - "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me"
World Record
Mar 13 Eric Heiden skates world record 1000m (1:13.60)
- Mar 13 Ford Motor Co found innocent in death of 3 women in a fiery Pinto
- Mar 13 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Dortmund won by Jan Hoffmann GDR
- Mar 13 American John Wayne Gacy receives the death sentence in Illinois for the murder of 12 people
- Mar 14 Ice Dance Championship at Dortmund West Germany won by Regoczy & Sallay
- Mar 14 Ice Pairs Championship at Dortmund won by Cherkasova & Shakhrai (USSR)
- Mar 14 Polish airliner crash kills all 87 aboard (22 are US amateur boxers)
- Mar 14 Worlds Ladies' Figure Skating Champ in Dortmund won by Anett Potzsch
- Mar 15 England beats Scotland, 30-18 at Murrayfield, Edinburgh to claim it's 18th outright Five Nations Rugby Championship, 8th Grand Slam and 15th Triple Crown
- Mar 18 Vostok rocket explodes on the launch pad while being refueled, killing 50
- Mar 20 The Mi Amigo ship containing England's pirate radio Caroline sinks
- Mar 20 US appeals to International Court on hostages in Iran
Television Finale
Mar 21 On season finale cliffhanger of TV show "Dallas", villain J.R. Ewing is shot by unknown assailant
Sports History
Mar 23 Australian cricketer Allan Border becomes the first and only batsman to reach 150 in each innings of a test, in the 3rd test vs Pakistan in Lahore
- Mar 23 France performs nuclear test
Historic Event
Mar 23 Deposed Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi arrives in Egypt
- Mar 23 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Old Dominion beat Tennessee 68-53 at Mount Pleasant
Sports History
Mar 23 18-year old American tennis star Tracy Austin wins her only WTA Tour Championship; upsets Martina Navratilova in the final 6–2, 2–6, 6–2 in NYC
- Mar 23 PGA Tournament Players Championship, Sawgrass Country Club (Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida): Lee Trevino wins by 1 stroke ahead of runner-up Ben Crenshaw
- Mar 23 Nicaraguan National Literary Crusade begins: crusade teachers swear in plazas across the country to exterminate ignorance five months (will successfully reduce illiteracy from 50% to 12%) [1]
- Mar 24 42nd NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Louisville beats UCLA, 59-54; Cardinals' first title in first title game
Iran Hostage Crisis
Mar 24 ABC's nightly Iran Hostage crisis program renamed "Nightline"
- Mar 24 Capitol Records releases some rare Beatles tracks on the LP "Rarites"
- Mar 26 Bombay gets its 1st rock concert in 10 years (The Police)
- Mar 27 "Happy New Year" opens at Morosco Theater NYC for 17 performances
- Mar 27 "Reggae" opens at Biltmore Theater NYC for 21 performances
- Mar 27 Elevator in Vaal Reefs gold mine, South Africa plunges more than 1900m killing all 23 miners aboard
Mount St. Helens Erupts
Mar 27 Mount St Helens becomes active after 123 years
- Mar 27 Norwegian oil platform Alexander Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212
- Mar 29 134th Grand National: American amateur rider Charlie Fenwick wins aboard 40/1 outsider Ben Nevis; only 4 from 30 starters finish race
- Mar 30 Mark Medoff's "Children of a Lesser God" premieres in NYC
Boxing Title Fight
Mar 31 Almost concurrent heavyweight boxing championship fights: Larry Holmes TKOs Leroy Jones in 8 for WBC title in Las Vegas, NV whilst Mike Weaver KOs John Tate in 15 for WBA belt in Knoxville, TN
Historic Event
Mar 31 President Jimmy Carter deregulates banking industry
- Mar 31 The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad operates its final train after being ordered to liquidate its assets due to bankruptcy and debt owed to creditors.