March 1946 in History

Events in History

Election of Interest

Mar 2 Ho Chi Minh elected President of North Vietnam

Mar 2 Kingman Douglass becomes deputy director of CIA
Mar 3 US Ladies' Figure Skating championship won by Gretchen Merrill
Mar 3 US Men's Figure Skating championship won by Richard Button
Mar 5 Hungarian Communists and Social Democrats co-found the Left Bloc.

Event of Interest

Mar 5 Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech in Fulton, Missouri, popularizes the term and draws attention to the division of Europe

Mar 6 France recognizes Vietnam statehood within Indo-Chinese federation

Bikini Atoll is Evacuated

Mar 7 Bikini Atoll islanders are evacuated by the US government to make way for a nuclear testing site

Residents of Bikini Atoll are evacuated to make way for nuclear testing

Mar 7 Max Frisch' play "Santa Cruz" premieres in Zurich
Mar 8 1st helicopter licensed for commercial use (NYC)
Mar 9 Dutch troops land at Batavia/Semarang
Mar 10 Train derailment kills 185 near Aracaju, northeast Brazil
Mar 13 Paul-Henri Spaak (Belgium Socialist Party) forms Belgian government - then shortest Belgian government (ends 31 March)

Agreement of Interest

Mar 15 British Prime Minister Clement Attlee agrees with India's right to independence

Mar 19 French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique & Reunion become overseas "departments" of France
Mar 19 Nikolai Mikhailovich Schwernik succeeds Kalinin as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
Mar 21 UN set up temporary HQ at Hunter (now Lehman) College (Bronx)
Mar 22 1st US rocket to leave the Earth's atmosphere (50 miles up)
Mar 22 Britain signs treaty granting independence to Jordan
Mar 28 Cold War: The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.
Mar 31 Belgian government of Acker forms
Mar 31 Belgian government of Spaak resigns - shortest ever Belgian government
Mar 31 First election is held in Greece after World War II

Birthdays in History

Mar 1 Lana Wood [Svetlana Gurdin], (Diamonds are Forever), born in Santa Rosa, California
Mar 2 Brian J. Donnelly, American politician (Rep-D-MA, 1979-93), born in Boston, Massachusetts
Mar 3 James C Adamson, Lt Col USA/astronaut (STS 28, STS 43), born in Warsaw, New York
Mar 4 Haile Gerima, Ethiopian film director (Ashes & Embers), born in Gondor, Ethiopia
Mar 4 Harvey Goldsmith, English impresario (Live Aid, Prince's Trust), born in Edgeware, England
Mar 4 Michael Ashcroft, English entrepreneur (Hawley-ADT)
Mar 6 Patrick Pierre Roger Baudry, Cameroon, astronaut (STS 18)
Mar 6 Richard Noble, Scottish businessman (land speed record 1983-97), born in Edinburgh
Mar 6 Tony Klatka, rocker (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
Mar 8 Jean Pagé, Canadian sports journalist (host: 'La Soirée du hockey' and '110%'), born in Chicoutimi, Quebec (d. 2019)
Mar 9 Gherman Semyonovich Arzamazov, Russian cosmonaut (backup TM-6), born in Shubino, Russia
Mar 13 Yann Arthus-Bertrand, French director and environmentalist, born in Paris, France
Mar 13 Yonatan Netanyahu, Israeli soldier who died leading rescue operation Entebbe in Uganda, born in NYC, New York (d. 1976)
Mar 15 Masaharu Satō, Japanese seiyū
Mar 18 Michael Reagan, talk show host, and son of Ronald and Nancy Reagan
Mar 22 Rudy Rucker, American sci-fi author (Wetware) and one of the founders of cyberpunk, born in Louisville, Kentucky
Mar 23 Alan Bleasdale, English author, playwright and scriptwriter (Are You Lonesome Tonight), born in Liverpool
Mar 24 Kitty O'Neil, American stuntwoman (The Bionic Woman) & racer (female land speed record), born in Corpus Christi, Texas (d. 2018)
Mar 25 Daniel Bensaïd, French philosopher and a leader of the Trotskyist movement in France, born in Toulouse, France (d. 2010)
Mar 25 Gerard John Schaefer, American serial killer (d. 1995)
Mar 25 Maurice Krafft, French vulcanologist who pioneered filming volcanic eruptions, born in Mulhouse, France (d. 1991)
Mar 28 Alejandro Toledo, 63rd President of Peru (2001-06), born in Cabana, Peru
Mar 28 Wubbo Ockels, Dutch physicist and astronaut, born in Almelo Netherlands, (d. 2014)
Mar 29 Ronald Farrow, radio producer and priest (d. 1995)

Weddings in History

Ernest Hemingway

Mar 14 American "For Whom The Bell Tolls" novelist Ernest Hemingway (46) weds for fourth and final time to American journalist Mary Welsh (37), until his death in 1961

Deaths in History

Mar 2 Fidél Pálffy, Hungarian National socialist (leading supporter of Nazism in Hungary), dies at 50
Mar 2 George E. Stewart, American army officer and Medal of Honor recipient, dies at 73
Mar 4 Bror von Blixen-Finecke, Danish big-game hunter (b. 1886)
Mar 8 Frederick Lanchester, English Engineer who built the first British petrol automobile (1896), dies at 77
Mar 13 Abraham Bredius, Dutch art historian (Rembrandt), dies at 90
Mar 13 Karl Haushofer, German soldier and geographer, dies at 76
Mar 13 Werner von Blomberg, German minister of Reichswehr, dies at 67
Mar 16 Marius HLW "Max" Blokzijl, Dutch Nazi propagandist, executed at 61
Mar 17 Dai Li, Chinese spymaster (b. 1897)
Mar 19 Amir Hamzah, Indonesian poet (Buah Rindu), dies killed by a communist extremists at 35
Mar 22 Clemens August von Galen, German Catholic Bishop of Münster (led opposition to Nazism, especially T4 extermination program), dies at 68
Mar 23 Gilbert N. Lewis, American Chemist (theory of covalent bonding), dies at 70
Mar 30 John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, British soldier, Field Marshal during WW II, dies at 59