Events in History
Catholic Encyclical
Mar 4 Pope John Paul II publishes his first encyclical "Redemptor Hominis"
- Mar 4 US Voyager I photo reveals Jupiter's rings
- Mar 5 Iran resumes petroleum exports
- Mar 5 Voyager I's closest approach to Jupiter (172,000 miles)
- Mar 8 1st extraterrestrial volcano discovered on Jupiter's satellite Io
- Mar 8 China withdraws invasion troops from Vietnam
- Mar 8 Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) transported 38 miles overland from Palmdale
- Mar 9 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
- Mar 13 European Monetary System is established, ECU created
- Mar 13 Gairy dictatorship in Grenada overthrown by New Jewel Movement
- Mar 14 Hawker Siddeley Trident plane crashes into a factory near Beijing, China, killing at least 200
- Mar 15 Apparat releases Newdos + 2.1 for Radio Shack's TRS-80
- Mar 15 Sarfraz takes 9-86 at MCG as Australia lose 7-5 to lose the Test
- Mar 17 Ice Pairs Championship at Vienna won by Tai Babilonia & R Gardner USA
- Mar 17 Men's Figure Skating Champ in Vienna won by Vladimir Kovalev (USSR)
- Mar 17 The Penmanshiel Tunnel in Berwickshire, Scotland, collapses during engineering works, killing two workers
- Mar 17 Worlds Ladies' Figure Skating Champ in Vienna won by Linda Fratianne
- Mar 18 Battles between Kurds & Iranians break in Sananday, Iran
- Mar 21 Egyptian Parliament unanimously approve peace treaty with Israel
- Mar 22 Israeli parliament approves peace treaty with Egypt
- Mar 22 Provisional Irish Republican Army assassinates Richard Sykes, the British ambassador to the Netherlands, in The Hague
- Mar 22 The Provisional Irish Republican Army explode 24 bombs in various locations across Northern Ireland
- Mar 24 Columbia flown on carrier aircraft lands at Kennedy Space Center
- Mar 25 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Old Dominion beat Louisiana Tech 75-65 in Greensboro
- Mar 25 Major riot at Bourda prevents day's play in WSC Supertest
- Mar 25 Space Shuttle Columbia arrives at Kennedy Space Centre to prepare for its first launch, which would eventually happen in 1981
Treaty of Interest
Mar 26 Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat sign the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in Washington, D.C.
- Mar 26 Michigan State Spartans snaps Indiana State's 33-game winning streak
- Mar 26 OPEC makes full 14.5% oil price increase for 1979 effective on April 1
- Mar 27 US Supreme Court rules 8-1 that cops can't randomly stop cars
- Mar 28 A partial meltdown at Three Mile Island nuclear plant in the US results in the release of radioactive gas and iodine into the atmosphere but no deaths
- Mar 28 British government of Prime Minister Jim Callaghan (Labour Party) falls
- Mar 29 Andrew Hilditch given out handled the ball v Pakistan at WACA
- Mar 29 Caryl Churchill's "Cloud Nine" premieres in London
Palace of Westminster
Mar 30 Airey Neave, a British politician, is killed by a car bomb as he exits the Palace of Westminster. The Irish National Liberation Army claims responsibility.
- Mar 31 The last British soldier leaves the Maltese Islands. Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien).
Birthdays in History
Deaths in History
- Mar 1 Mustafa al-Barzani, Kurdish leader (KDP), dies at 75
- Mar 2 Christy Ring, Irish hurler (Cork 65 games, scoring tally [33-208], 8 x All-Ireland medals), dies at 58
- Mar 4 Willi Unsoeld, American mountaineer (First ascent of the West Ridge of Mount Everest), dies at 52
- Mar 16 Jean Monnet, French political economist and diplomat, dies at 90
- Mar 20 Mino Pecorelli, Italian journalist, shot dead in Rome at 50
- Mar 21 Evald Ilyenkov, Soviet philosopher (Dialectical Logic), dies at 55
- Mar 22 Richard Sykes, British ambassador to the Netherlands, assassinated at 58 by the IRA in The Hague
- Mar 24 Yvonne Mitchell, writer, dies at 53
- Mar 26 Jean Stafford, American writer (Pulitzer Prize 1970-The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford), dies at 63
- Mar 28 Emmett Kelly, American circus clown (Weary Willy), dies at 80
- Mar 29 Sultan Yahya Petra, 6th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia (1975-79), dies at 61
- Mar 30 Airey Neave, British MP (Conservative), killed in a car bomb by the Irish National Liberation Army at 63
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists