Events in History
- 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
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
- Mar 4 Finland declares war on Nazi Germany
Event of Interest
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 Dutch resistance fighters kill two, and injure one Nazi officer in an attempt to hijack food supplies at de Woeste Hoeve, Netherlands
- 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 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 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
- Mar 10 Deadliest air raid of World War II sets Tokyo on fire after night time B-29 bombings, more than 100,000 people die, mostly civilians
Event of Interest
Mar 10 Fieldmarshal Albert Kesselring succeeds Gerd von Rundstedt as commander of German Army Command in the West
Event of Interest
Mar 10 George S. Patton's 3rd U.S. Army makes contact with General Courtney Hodge's 1st U.S. Army
- Mar 10 Germany blows up Wessel Bridge on Rhine
- Mar 10 Japan grants occupied Vietnam independence
- 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
- Mar 13 Nazi Sicherheitsdienst arrests Dutch resistance fighter Henry Werkman
Event of Interest
Mar 13 Queen Wilhelmina returns to Netherlands
- Mar 14 RAF bomb cuts railway link Hannover-Hamm
- 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]
- Mar 18 US Task Force 58 attacks targets on Kyushu, Japan
- Mar 19 800 killed as Kamikaze attacked USS Franklin off Japan
Event of Interest
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
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 7th Black Watch crosses the Rhine into Germany
- Mar 23 British Prime Minister Churchill visits Montgomery's headquarter in Straelen
British Cross the Rhine
Mar 23 Lt. Gen. Miles Dempsey becomes the first British commander to cross the Rhine during the Allied invasion of Germany
S. S. Cars Rebranded Jaguar
Mar 23 The Swallow Sidecar Company headed by William Lyons agrees to change its name to Jaguar
Event of Interest
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
- Mar 26 Allied generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and George S. Patton launch attack at Remagen on the Rhine
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)
- Mar 26 Kamikaze attack on US battle fleet near Kerama Retto
- Mar 26 US 7th Army crosses Rhine at Worms
- Mar 27 British Prime Minister 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
- Mar 31 Sicherheitsdienst murders 10 political prisoners in Zutphen
Event of Interest
Mar 31 Tennessee Williams' "Glass Menagerie" premieres in NYC
- Mar 31 US artillery lands on Keise Shima/begins firing on Okinawa
Birthdays in History
- Mar 4 Tara Browne, British socialite (d. 1966)
- Mar 6 Don Reinhoudt, American powerlifter (IPF World Powerlifting C'ship +110kg 1973, 74, 74, 76; World's Strongest Man 1979), born in Brocton, New York (d. 2023)
- Mar 8 Anselm Kiefer, German painter
- Mar 8 Jim Chapman, American politician (Rep-D-TX, 1985-1997), born in Washington, District of Columbia
- Mar 9 Dennis Rader, American serial killer who murdered ten people in Sedgwick County, Kansas, born in Pittsburg, Kansas
- Mar 10 Birgitta Sellén, Swedish politician
- Mar 10 Elizabeth Brumfiel [Elizabeth Stern], American feminist archaeologist, former president of the American Anthropological Association
- Mar 11 Timothy Mason, consultant (British Arts Council)
- Mar 12 Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, American mobster who testified against John Gotti, born in Brooklyn, New York
- Mar 13 Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko, Russian mathematician, born in Stalino, USSR
- Mar 15 A. K. Faezul Huq, Bengali lawyer and politician (d. 2007)
- Mar 15 Mark J Green, American lawyer/author (Closed Enterprise System), born in Brooklyn, New York
- Mar 17 Michael Hayden, American general and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Mar 18 Hiroh Kikai, Japanese photographer (Asakusa Portraits), born in Daigo, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan (d. 2020)
- Mar 20 Henry Bartholomay, American fighter pilot
- Mar 20 Tim Yeo, British MP/under-sect (State of Environment)
- Mar 24 Lew Perkins, American sports executive (athletic director USC–Aiken, Wichita State U, U of Maryland, U of Connecticut, U of Kansas), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 2023)
- Mar 24 Robert T. Bakker, American paleontologist
- Mar 27 Tony Kreft, New Zealand rugby union prop (1 Test; Otago RFU 60 games), born in Milton, New Zealand (d. 2023)
- Mar 28 Count Björn Hamilton, Swedish politician, count and engineer, born in Gothenburg, Sweden
- Mar 28 Hans Brunhart, Leader of Liechtenstein (1978-93), born in Balzers, Liechtenstein
Rodrigo Duterte (78 years old)
Mar 28 Philippines politician, President of the Philippines (2016-22), born in Maasin, Leyte, Philippines
Deaths in History
- Mar 2 Emily Carr, Canadian painter, dies at 73
- Mar 3 Arthur Vanderpoorten, Belgian politician (Minister of Internal Affairs 1940), dies at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at 61
- 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 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 15 Herman Bernard Wiardi Beckman, Dutch resistance fighter and politician (SDAP), dies at Dachau concentration camp at 41
- Mar 16 Börries von Münchhausen, German poet (b. 1874)
- Mar 16 Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, French writer and poet (Gilles), commits suicide at 52
- Mar 19 Fritz Fromm, German supreme commander of Reserve army, executed
- Mar 21 Arthur Nebe, German SS officer, dies at 50
- Mar 21 J Woortman, Dutch resistance fighter, dies in Bergen-Belsen at 39
- Mar 22 J Postuma, Dutch resistance fighter, dies
- Mar 24 Thomas Rennie, Gen-Maj (Dutch command 51st Highland Division), dies
- Mar 26 Boris Shaposhnikov, Russian military commander, dies at 62
David Lloyd George (1863-1945)
Mar 26 British Prime Minister (Liberal: 1916-22), dies of cancer at 82
Hans Fischer (1881-1945)
Mar 31 German organic chemist (Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1930), commits suicide at 63
- Mar 31 Hans Riegel Sr., German sweet inventor (founder of Haribo), dies at 51
- Mar 31 Maurice Donnay, French playwright (Lovers), dies at 85
- Mar 31 Maurice Rose, 1st US general in Nazi Germany, killed in action at 45
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