March 15, 1985: The first Internet domain name is registered (symbolics.com).
March 15, 1937: H.P. Lovecraft dies at age 46.
March 16, 1995: Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery.
March 17, 1958: The United States launches the Vanguard 1 satellite. It was the first satellite to be solar powered. Although communication with it was lost in 1964, it remains the oldest manmade satellite still in orbit.
March 18, 1925: The Tri-state Tornado kills officially 695 across Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. It probably killed many more. This F5 tornado amazingly travelled over 200 miles and is the United States’ deadliest single tornado ever.
March 18, 1990: Germans in the German Democratic Republic vote in the first democratic elections in the former communist dictatorship.
March 19, 1945: Adolf Hitler issues his “Nero Decree” ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed, to prevent their use by Allied forces. The decree is deliberately disobeyed by Albert Speer.
March 20, 1987: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the anti-AIDS drug, AZT.
March 23, 1775: Patrick Henry delivers his speech – “Give me liberty, or give me death!” – at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia.
March 24, 1989: The Exxon Valdez spills 10.4 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound, resulting in a horrific environmental catastrophe.
March 24, 1944: 76 Allied prisoners of war begin breaking out of the German camp Stalag Luft III… later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape.
March 25, 1965: Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King Jr. successfully complete their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.
March 26, 1942: The first female prisoners arrive at Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.
March 27, 1977: Two Boeing 747 airliners collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 (all 248 on KLM and 335 on Pan Am). Sixty-one survived on the Pan Am flight. This is the worst aviation accident in history.
March 28, 1920: The original Palm Sunday tornado outbreak kills an estimated 380+ and injures over 1200.
March 28, 1842: First concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, founded by Otto Nicolai.
March 29, 1886: John Pemberton brews the first batch of Coca-Cola in a backyard in Atlanta.
March 30, 1981: Ronald Reagan is shot by John Hinkley Jr.
March 30, 1867: Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about 2¢/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward.
March 31, 1492: Queen Isabella of Castile issues the Alhambra Decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish and Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.