Historical Events
- Mar 1 10th Grand National: Capt. Josey Little aboard 12/1 Chandler wins; race marred by fatal falls of 3 competitors
- Mar 4 Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will later represent the first constitution of the Regno d'Italia
- Mar 4 Sardinia-Piemonte gets new Constitution
- Mar 5 Louis Antoine Garnier-Pages is named French minister of Finance
- Mar 7 In Hawaii, Great Mahele (division of lands) signed
- Mar 11 Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin become the first Prime Ministers of the Province of Canada to be democratically elected under a system of responsible government
- Mar 12 2nd Republic established in France
- Mar 15 A revolution breaks out in Hungary. The Habsburg rulers are compelled to meet the demands of the Reform party.
- Mar 23 The ship John Wickliffe arrives at Port Chalmers carrying the first Scottish settlers for Dunedin, New Zealand. Otago province is founded.
- Mar 24 State of siege proclaimed in Amsterdam
- Mar 27 John Parker Paynard originates medicated adhesive plaster
Niagara Falls Stops Flowing
Mar 29 Niagara Falls stops flowing for 30 hours due to an ice jam in the river upstream
Famous Birthdays
- Mar 1 Augustus Saint-Gaudens, American sculptor and designer (Saint Gaudens Double Eagle $20 gold piece), born in Dublin, United Kingdom (d. 1907)
- Mar 3 Adelaide Neilson, English stage actress (The Hunchback), born in Leeds, England (d. 1880)
- Mar 8 LaMarcus Thompson 'Father of the American roller coaster', American inventor (Switchback Railway), born in Licking County, Ohio (d. 1919) [1]
- Mar 9 Martin Pierre Joseph Marsick, Belgian composer, born in Jupille-sur-Meuse, Liège, Belgium (d. 1924)
- Mar 17 Horace Nicholl, British composer, born in Tipton, England (d. 1922)
- Mar 18 Nathanael Greene Herreshoff, American yacht designer (6 x undefeated America's Cup campaigns 1893-1920) and naval architect (built first torpedo boat for US Navy), born in Bristol, Rhode Island (d. 1938)
- Mar 18 Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, daughter of Queen Victoria (d. 1939)
Wyatt Earp (1848-1929)
Mar 19 American frontiersman and marshal who participated in the gunfight at the OK Corral, born in Monmouth, Illinois
- Mar 24 Honoré Beaugrand, French Canadian journalist, newspaper publisher (La Patrie), and politician (Mayor of Montreal, 1885-87), born in Saint-Joseph-de-Lanoraie, Quebec, Canada East (d. 1906)
- Mar 25 William Keith Brooks, American marine zoologist (anatomy and embryology of marine animals), born in Cleveland, Ohio (d. 1908)
- Mar 29 Aleksei Kuropatkin, Russian army general and Minister of War (1898-1904), born in Sheshurino, Russia (d. 1925)
- Mar 31 John Henry Roberts, Welsh organist, hymn composer, and pedagogue, born in Pen-rallt, Caernarfonshire, Wales (d. 1924)
Famous Weddings
James Longstreet
Mar 8 Confederate General James Longstreet (27) weds Maria Louisa Garland in Lynchburg, Virginia
- Mar 20 King Louis I of Bayern abdicates to marry dancer Lola Montez
Famous Deaths
John Jacob Astor (1763-1848)
Mar 29 German-American businessman (first multi-millionaire in the United States), dies at 84