March 1980 in History

Events in History

Event of Interest

Mar 3 Pierre Trudeau sworn in, for the second time, as the 17th Prime Minister of Canada

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
Mar 6 French Academy, founded in 1635, elects it 1st woman novelist (Marguerita Youcenar)
Mar 6 Princess Theater (Latin Quarter, Cotton Club) opens at 200 W 48th NYC
Mar 8 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Mar 9 Flemish and Walloon battle in Belgium, 40 injured
Mar 10 Willard Scott becomes the weather forcaster on the Today Show

Murder of Interest

Mar 12 Jury finds John Wayne Gacy guilty of murdering 33 in Chicago

Mar 13 American John Wayne Gacy receives the death sentence in Illinois for the murder of 12 people
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 14 Ice Pairs Championship at Dortmund won by Cherkasova & Shakhrai (USSR)
Mar 14 Worlds Ladies' Figure Skating Champ in Dortmund won by Anett Potzsch
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
Mar 23 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Old Dominion beat Tennessee 68-53 at Mount Pleasant
Mar 23 France performs nuclear test
Mar 23 Nicaraguan National Literary Crusade begins: crusade teachers swear in plazas across the country to exterminate ignorance in just five months (will successfully reduce illiteracy from 50% to 12%) [1]

Event of Interest

Mar 24 Deposed Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (60) arrives in Egypt for cancer treatment at Maadi Military Hospital, near Cairo

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

Mount St. Helens in Washington state erupts

Mar 27 Norwegian oil platform Alexander Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212
Mar 30 Mark Medoff's "Children of a Lesser God" premieres in NYC
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.

Event of Interest

Mar 31 US President Jimmy Carter deregulates banking industry

Birthdays in History

Mar 1 Rose VBL Windsor, daughter of English prince Richard
Mar 8 Stephen Milne, Australian rules footballer
Mar 19 Don Sparrow, Canadian illustrator
Mar 29 Prince Hamzah bin Al Hussein, of Jordan, fourth son of King Hussein bin Talal, born in Amman, Jordan

Weddings in History

Tony Blair

Mar 29 77th Prime Minister of UK Tony Blair (26) weds barrister and lecturer Cherie Booth

Deaths in History

Mar 1 Wilhelmina Cooper, Dutch-American model and founder of Wilhelmina Models, dies at 40
Mar 5 Winifred Wagner, English-German daughter-in-law of Richard Wagner and friend of Adolf Hitler (ran Bayreuth Festival), dies at 82
Mar 10 Herman Tarnower, American doctor (Scarsdale Diet), shot and killed by girlfriend Jean Harris at 69
Mar 10 Melville Henry Cane, American lawyer and poet (Making a Poem), dies at 100
Mar 14 Mohammad Hatta, Indonesian politician (b. 1902)
Mar 16 Tamara de Lempicka, Polish-born painter (b. 1898)
Mar 18 Erich Fromm, German psychologist and psychoanalyst (Sane Society), dies at 79
Mar 18 Ludwig Guttmann, German-British neurologist, founder of the Stoke Mandeville Games (now the Paralympics), dies at 80
Mar 21 Peter Stoner, American mathematician, astronomer and Christian apologist, dies at 92
Mar 23 Arthur Melvin Okun, American economist (Misery Index), dies of a heart attack at 51
Mar 24 Oscar Romero, El Salvador Roman Catholic priest, murdered during mass at 62
Mar 25 James Wright, American poet (b. 1927)
Mar 25 Milton H. Erickson, American psychiatrist and psychologist, dies at 78
Mar 25 Roland Barthes, French literary critic and writer (The Death of the Author), dies of injuries incurred in an accident at 64
Mar 31 Vladimír Holan, Czech poet, dies at 74