On This Day

March 1988 in History

Events in History

  • Mar 1 Iraq says it launched 16 missiles into Tehran
  • Mar 1 Pontiac announces the end of the Fiero automobile
  • Mar 5 Constitution of Turks and Caicos Islands is restored and revised.
  • Mar 6 18th Easter Seal Telethon raises $35,200,000
  • Mar 6 3 IRA suspects shot dead in Gibraltar by SAS officers
  • Mar 7 Colombia becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty

Event of Interest

Mar 9 US President Ronald Reagan presides at unveiling of Knute Rockne stamp

Ronald Reagan
US President & Actor Ronald Reagan

Event of Interest

Mar 10 Avalanche at Swiss Ski resort Klosters nearly kills Prince Charles

Charles III
King of the United Kingdom Charles III
  • Mar 11 British pound note ceases to be legal tender, replaced by one pound coin
  • Mar 11 Utrecht conservatory destroyed by fire
  • Mar 15 Eugene Marino of Atlanta appointed 1st African American archbishop
  • Mar 15 NASA reports accelerated breakdown of ozone layer by CFK
  • Mar 16 Chemical attack on Kurdish town of Halabja by Iraqi forces kills 5000 civilians - largest ever chemical weapons attack
  • Mar 16 Federal grand jury indicts North & Poindexter in Iran-Contra affair
  • Mar 16 North Ireland Protestant fires on Catholic funeral, 3 killed
  • Mar 16 US sends 3,000 soldiers to Nicaragua's neighbor Honduras
  • Mar 17 Iran says Iraq uses poison gas
  • Mar 19 Two British Army corporals are attacked during a funeral procession, beaten and shot dead by the Provisional IRA in Belfast, North Ireland
  • Mar 20 David Henry Hwang's "M. Butterfly," premieres in NYC
  • Mar 20 Eritrean War of Independence: Having defeated the Nadew Command, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front enters the town of Afabet, victoriously concluding the Battle of Afabet.
  • Mar 22 US Congress overrides President Reagan's veto of sweeping civil rights bill
  • Mar 25 NASA launches space vehicle S-206
  • Mar 26 American Janet Evans swims 1,500m freestyle female world record 15:52.10 in the USA Spring Nationals in Orlando, Florida
  • Mar 27 Ice Pairs Championship at Budapest won by E Valova & O Vasiliev (URS)
  • Mar 29 US Congress discontinues aid to Nicaraguan contras
  • Mar 30 Tamil Nadu beat Railways by inns & 144 to win Ranji Trophy
  • Mar 31 Last East Limburg coal mine closes in Gent Belgium

Event of Interest

Mar 31 Pulitzer prize awarded to Toni Morrison for her novel "Beloved"

Toni Morrison
Writer Toni Morrison

Deaths in History

  • Mar 8 Werner Hartmann, German physicist (b. 1912)
  • Mar 9 Kurt Georg Kiesinger, German politician and author (Chancellor of West Germany 1966-69), dies at 83
  • Mar 11 Pham Hung, premier of Vietnam, dies at about 74

Dmitri PolyakovDmitri Polyakov (1921-1988)

Mar 15 Soviet Major General and spy for the CIA, executed at 66

Dmitri Polyakov
  • Mar 15 Wilson Ferreira Aldunate, Uruguayan politician ad human rights activist, dies of cancer at 69
  • Mar 25 James J. Howard, American educator and Democratic Party politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey), dies at 60
  • Mar 25 Robert Joffrey [Abdullah Jaffa Anver Bey Khan], American dancer, teacher, and choreographer (co-founder of Joffrey Ballet), dies of AIDS at 59
  • Mar 27 Jan van den Weghe, Flemish writer, dies at about 67
  • Mar 29 Dulcie September, South African teacher and anti-apartheid political activist, assassinated in Paris, France at 62
  • Mar 30 Edgar Faure, Prime Minister of France (1952, 52-56) and writer, dies at 79
  • Mar 31 William McMahon, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (Liberal: 1971-72), dies in his sleep at 80

Historical Figures

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