Ace This Quiz on Famous Events That Happened in March

On the 40th anniversary of the Paris Commune, the first International Women’s Day was held in France on March 19, 1911, with a celebration that drew over a million people. For much of the 20th century, Women’s Day was primarily celebrated by socialist countries, until the United Nations adopted March 8 as International Women’s Day in 1975.

With an invention that could quickly remove seeds from cotton fibers, Eli Whitney was granted a patent for the cotton gin in March 1794. By the middle of the next century, cotton was America’s top export. Partially due to the fame he gained from the cotton gin, Whitney was later hired by the U.S. government to build muskets.

The first-ever presidential impeachment trial began on March 5, 1868, when the Republican-controlled Congress moved to oust President Andrew Johnson. Johnson took office when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, and repeatedly vetoed legislation passed to protect the rights of people who were freed from slavery. Ultimately, Johnson was acquitted in May 1868, but he was so unpopular that he lost the Democratic primary when he attempted to run for reelection.

Juliette Gordon Low met with Boy Scouts founder Robert Baden-Powell in 1911, and by March of the next year, she had a gathering of the first 18 Girl Scouts in Savannah, Georgia. In 1913, the first Girl Scouts Handbook was published, emphasizing inclusiveness, self-reliance, the outdoors, and service.

The presidential election of 1876 dragged on for months into the following year, finally coming to a conclusion that gave Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency on March 2, 1977. Officially, Hayes, the Republican candidate, won by a single electoral vote, 185-184. Democrats agreed to concede 20 necessary votes to Hayes in exchange for Republicans removing troops from the South, ending the period of Reconstruction.

Barbara Millicent Roberts — more commonly known as “Barbie” — was presented by Mattel, Inc. at the American International Toy Fair on March 9, 1959. Hailing from the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin, Barbie was billed as a toy more sophisticated than baby dolls and paper dolls.

March 7 is designated as Alexander Graham Bell day, marking the day when, in 1876, Bell was granted a patent for “transmitting vocal or other sounds telepathically.” Three days later, he spoke the first official words into a telephone. That famous call was to his assistant, Thomas Watson, and Bell reportedly said, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.”

President Ulysses S. Grant made Yellowstone America’s first national park on March 1, 1872. An 1871 expedition to the land led by government geologist Ferdinand Hayden helped build momentum for the act, as photographer William Henry Jackson and landscape artist Thomas Moran displayed the beauty of the area to Congress. Around 2 million acres of public land were set aside in the Yellowstone Act of 1872.

According to an official count, 189 Texans fought to the end during the Battle of the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, part of Texas' fight for independence from Mexico. Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna led a 13-day siege in which Mexican forces suffered 600 casualties before retaking the encampment on March 6, 1836. Famous pioneers Davy Crockett and James Bowie both fought their last battle at the Alamo.

On March 5, 1770, a conflict that began between Boston colonists and a British soldier named Hugh White ended with five colonists dead, including Crispus Attucks, a formerly enslaved dockworker considered by many to be the first official casualty of the American Revolution.

Madonna scored a $5 million endorsement deal for Pepsi in 1989, and her first big move was to debut a two-minute segment of “Like a Prayer” in a televised commercial in March of that year. The ad itself was titled “Make a Wish,” featuring home video of Madonna on her eighth birthday, intercut with an adult Madonna dancing in the street and in a church. Her controversial official music video dropped the following day on MTV.

On March 2, 1983, electronics companies Sony, Phillips, and Polygram released the first compact discs to the public. The first CDs contained up to one hour of music, with a standard resolution of 16 bit/44.1khz. The first U.S. plant to produce CDs was opened that year in Terre Haute, Indiana, which was also the home of the Columbia House record club.

The American Film Institute established the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1973, and gave the first award to director John Ford. Four years later, in March 1977, Bette Davis became the first woman to receive AFI’s highest honor. In 2022, Julie Andrews became the 48th and most recent honoree.

The iconic image of Wilt Chamberlain holding up a sign that reads “100” came after the basketball great led the Philadelphia Warriors over the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962. The Warriors won 169-147, and Chamberlain broke his own NBA record for points in a game, which was previously set at 78.

Signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on March 2, 1917, the Jones Act officially gave U.S. citizenship to residents of Puerto Rico. The act also separated the three branches of Puerto Rico’s government, and provided a locally elected legislature. The U.S. maintained control over the territory’s economy, and held authority over mail, immigration, and defense.

Elvis Presley joined the U.S. Army in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 24, 1958, and remained on active duty until March 5, 1960. Though the 2022 movie “Elvis” suggests he entered the Army to get out of possible jail time, he was actually drafted into service. The rock star served with two armor battalions, and served overseas in Germany.

Aviator Charles Lindbergh and his family lived on a 390-acre estate in Hopewell, New Jersey, and were the victims of one of the most high-profile kidnapping cases in U.S. history. On March 1, 1932, Lindbergh’s son was taken from the second floor of the home, leading to an FBI investigation led by J. Edgar Hoover. In 1934, the kidnapper, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, was apprehended.

Journalist Maureen Cleave was personal friends with John Lennon, but her profile of the famous Beatle in March 1966 didn’t do him any favors. “Christianity will go,” Lennon told Cleave for the “London Evening Standard.” “It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that. I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now.” The remark was republished around the world, sparking a major controversy.

March 15, 44 BCE, is the day that Julius Caesar was assassinated, and “beware the Ides of March” was a warning delivered to the Roman leader by a fortuneteller in Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar.” “Ides” originally referred to the first new moon of a month, which usually takes place between the 13th and the 15th, but after Shakespeare’s retelling of Caesar’s death, the phrase “Ides of March” took on an ominous meaning.

Muhammad Ali is one of the most famous names in American sports history, but the boxing great was actually born Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1942. In the 1960s, he became close with Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam, and renounced Cassius Clay as a slave name. With a suggestion from his spiritual adviser Elijah Muhammad, the heavyweight champ became Muhammad Ali on March 6, 1964.