On This Day

March 1912 in History

Events in History

  • 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

Electoral defeatElection of Interest

Mar 11 Eleftherios Venizelos, leader of the Liberal Party, wins the Greek elections again.

Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos
Greek Prime Minister
Eleftherios Venizelos

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
  • 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
  • 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 30 French protectorate in Morocco established

Birthdays in History

  • Mar 1 Gerald Emmett Cardinal Carter, archbishop of Toronto (d. 2003)
  • 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 11 Robert Clifford Latham, pepys Scholar
  • Mar 12 James McKay, lord provost of Edinburgh
  • Mar 12 Kylie Tennant, novelist (Battlers, Lost Haven)
  • Mar 12 Irving Layton, Canadian poet (d. 2006)
  • Mar 13 James Friell, Scottish political cartoonist (Daily Worker), born in Glasgow (d. 1997)
  • Mar 15 Duncan Stuart Wilson-MacDonald, fighter pilot
  • 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 22 Henri Rousselot, admiral
  • Mar 22 Lord Alport [Cuthbert Alport], politician, cabinet minister, and life peer

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

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 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 31 Wilhelmus Berkelmans, civil servant/resistance fighter

Deaths in History

  • Mar 1 Ludvig Holstein-Ledreborg, Danish politician (Council President of Denmark), dies at 72
  • Mar 6 August Toepler, German physicist, dies at 75
  • 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