Historical Events
- Mar 2 15th Grand National: Tom Oliver aboard Peter Simple wins his third GN Steeplechase and the stallion's second; oldest horse to win event at 15
- Mar 2 Territory of Washington organized after separating from Oregon Territory
- Mar 3 Transcontinental railroad survey is authorized by US Congress
- Mar 3 US Assay Office in NYC authorized
- Mar 4 Pope Pius IX recovers Catholic hierarchy in Netherlands
- Mar 4 William Rufus de Vane King (D) sworn in as 13th US vice-president
Steinway & Sons Piano
Mar 5 Piano company Steinway & Sons founded by Heinrich Steinweg (later Henry Steinway) in New York City
La Traviata
Mar 6 Giuseppe Verdi's opera "La Traviata" premieres at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Italy
The Provincial Freeman
Mar 24 Anti-slavery newspaper "The Provincial Freeman" first published in Windsor, Ontario, edited by Samuel Ringgold Ward and Mary Ann Shadd Cary, first black woman publisher in North America
Famous Birthdays
- Mar 5 Arthur Foote, American classical composer, and a member of the "Boston Six" (Suite for Strings in E), born in Salem, Massachusetts (d. 1937)
- Mar 5 Howard Pyle, American illustrator, painter and author (King Stork), born in Wilmington, Delaware (d. 1911)
- Mar 8 Edward Hubertus Joannes Keurvels, Flemish composer (Parisina), born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1916)
- Mar 14 Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter, born in Bern, Switzerland (d. 1918)
- Mar 20 George Godfrey, Canadian Black heavyweight boxer known as Old Chocolate, born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (d. 1901)
- Mar 28 Rudolf Kittel, German theologist (Psalms), born in Eningen, Württemberg, Germany (d. 1929)
- Mar 29 Elihu Thomson, English-born American engineer who co-founded General Electric Company and inventor with 696 patents, born in Manchester, England (d. 1937) [1]
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Mar 30 Dutch artist, painter and pioneer of Expressionism (The Potato Eaters, Irises, Sunflowers), born in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands
Famous Deaths
- Mar 4 Christian Leopold von Buch, German geologist and paleontologist, dies at 78
- Mar 5 August Kestner, German art collector and diplomat, dies at 75
- Mar 8 Edward John Dent, British clockmaker to Queen Victoria and commissioned to make Big Ben, London (completed after his death by his son Frederick Dent), dies at 62
