What Happened in March 1945

Events 1 - 100 of 103

• Mar 1 British 43rd Division under General Hubert Essame occupies Xanten
• Mar 1 Chinese 30th division occupies Hsenwi
• Mar 1 US infantry regiment captures Mönchengladbach

• Mar 2 King Michael of Romania gives in to Communist government
• Mar 2 US 8th Air Force bombs Dresden
• Mar 3 RAF bombing error hits The Hague killing 511
• Mar 3 Roermond & Venlo, Netherlands, liberated
• Mar 3 US & Philippine forces recaptures Corregidor
• Mar 3 US 7th Army occupies last part of Westwall

• Mar 4 Finland declares war on Nazi Germany

• Mar 5 Allies bombs The Hague, Netherlands
• Mar 5 Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton and Alexander Patch meet in Lunéville, France
• Mar 5 US 7th Army Corps captures Cologne
• Mar 5 US Ladies Figure Skating championship won by Gretchen Merrill
• Mar 5 World War II: The Battle of the Ruhr begins.
• Mar 6 Chinese 38th division occupies Lashio
• Mar 6 Dutch resistance fighters kill two, and injure one Nazi officer in an attempt to hijack food supplies at de Woeste Hoeve, Netherlands
• Mar 6 Erich Honnecker & Erich Hanke flee Nazis
• Mar 6 Federico Garcia Lorca's "La Casa" premieres in Buenos Aires

• Mar 7 Attack on car of Netherlands SS Police Chief Hans Rauter by Dutch resistance, Rauter injured
• Mar 7 Cologne taken by allied armies
• Mar 7 US 9th Armoured Division attacks Remagen Germany, crosses Rhine

• Mar 8 "Kiss Me Kate" opens in Britain
• Mar 8 53 Amsterdammers executed by nazi occupiers
• Mar 8 International Women's Day is 1st observed
• Mar 8 Nazi Sicherheitsdienst (SD) intelligence agency executes 116 prisoners, and one reluctant police official, at de Woeste Hoeve, Netherlands in response to raid by resistance forces two days earlier
• Mar 8 Phyllis M Daley is 1st black nurse sworn in as US Navy ensign

• Mar 9 Japanese proclaim "independence" of Indo-China
• Mar 10 Deadliest air raid of World War II sets Tokyo on fire after night time B-29 bombings, more than 100,000 people die, mostly civilians

• Mar 10 Germany blows up Wessel Bridge on Rhine
• Mar 10 Japan grants occupied Vietnam independence
• Mar 10 US troops land in western Mindanao, Philippines in Operation VICTOR IV
• Mar 11 1,000 allied bombers harass Essen, 4,662 ton bombs
• Mar 11 Flemish nazi collaborator Maria Huygens sentenced to death
• Mar 12 30 Amsterdammers executed by nazi occupiers
• Mar 12 Italy's Communist Party (CPI) calls for armed uprising in Italy
• Mar 12 NY is 1st to prohibit discrimination by race and creed in employment
• Mar 12 USSR returns Transylvania to Romania

• Mar 13 Nazi Sicherheitsdienst arrests Dutch resistance fighter Henry Werkman
• Mar 14 RAF bomb cuts railway link Hannover-Hamm

• Mar 15 As a symbol of wartime baseball, Bert Shepard (one-legged WWII veteran) begins a successful tryout as a pitcher for the Washington Senators
• Mar 15 Billboard publishes its 1st album chart (King Cole Trio is #1)
• Mar 15 Catholic University of Nijmegen reopens
• Mar 16 Würzburg, Germany is 90% destroyed, with 5,000 dead, in only 20 minutes by British bombers
• Mar 17 Allied ships bomb North-Sumatra

• Mar 18 US Army Air Force completes largest bombing raid on Berlin Germany: Over 1200 bombers drop 3,000 tons of explosives [1]
• Mar 18 US Task Force 58 attacks targets on Kyushu, Japan
• Mar 19 800 killed as Kamikaze attacked USS Franklin off Japan

• Mar 19 British 36th division conquers Mogok (ruby mine)
• Mar 19 US Task Force 58 attacks ships near Kobe/Kure
• Mar 20 US 70th Infantry Division captures Saarbrucken, immediately prior the invasion of Germany by the western Allies
• Mar 21 1st Japanese kamikaze "flying bombs" (MXY-7 Ohka) attack Okinawa
• Mar 21 During WW II Allied bombers begin 4-day raid over Germany
• Mar 21 Dutch Resistance fighter Hannie Schaft arrested by Nazi police
• Mar 22 Arab League forms with adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt
• Mar 22 US 3rd Army crosses Rhine at Nierstein

• Mar 23 British 7th Black Watch crosses the Rhine into Germany
• Mar 23 British Prime Minister Churchill visits Montgomery's headquarter in Straelen

• Mar 24 Operation Varsity: In the largest one-day airborne operation of all time, British, US & Canadian paratroopers land east of the Rhine in Northern Germany
• Mar 24 US minesweepers reach Kerama Retto, South coast of Okinawa
• Mar 25 US 1st army breaks out bridgehead near Remagen, Germany after crossing the Rhine
• Mar 25 US 4th Armored div arrives at Hanau & Aschaffenburg
• Mar 25 US Northern Tractor Flotilla departs Ulithi to Okinawa
• Mar 26 Allied generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and George S. Patton launch attack at Remagen on the Rhine

• Mar 26 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill looks over at the Rhine (near Ginsberg)

• Mar 26 Kamikaze attack on US battle fleet near Kerama Retto
• Mar 26 US 7th Army crosses Rhine at Worms
• Mar 26 Venray soccer team forms
• Mar 27 7th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Oklahoma State beats NYU, 49-44; Cowboys' center Bob Kurland is named tournament Most Outstanding Player
• Mar 27 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill sails to eastern banks of Rhine
• Mar 27 DePaul beats Bowling Green for NIT title

• Mar 27 US 20th Army corps captures Wiesbaden
• Mar 27 World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins.
• Mar 28 Last German V-1 (buzz bomb) attack on London

• Mar 29 World War II: Last day of V-1 flying bomb attacks on England
• Mar 30 289 anti-fascists murdered by Nazis in Rombergpark Dortmund
• Mar 30 USSR invades Austria
• Mar 30 World War II: a defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1 to Americans
• Mar 31 3rd Algerian division crosses the Rhine

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• Mar 1 Burning Spear [Winston Rodney], Jamaican reggae singer, born in Saint Ann's Bay, Jamaica
• Mar 1 Dirk Benedict, American actor (A-Team, Battlestar Galactica), born in Helena, Montana
• Mar 1 Wilfried van Moer, Belgian soccer midfielder (57 caps; Belgian Golden Shoe x 3; Beveren, Antwerp, Standard Liège), born in Beveren, Belgium (d. 2021)
• Mar 2 Derek Watkins, British trumpet player and composer ("The Spy Who Loved Me"; "Skyfall"), born in Reading, England (d. 2013)
• Mar 2 Gordon Thompson, Canadian actor (Dynaasty - "Adam Carrington"), born in Ottawa, Ontario
• Mar 2 Joy Garrett, American actress (Jo Johnson-Days of Our Lives), born in Fort Worth, Texas (d. 1993)
• Mar 3 Farooq Hamid, cricketer (1-107 in Test, Pakistan v Australia 1964)
• Mar 3 Hattie Winston, actress (Nurse, Electric Company), born in Greenville, Mississippi
• Mar 4 Andrew Stein [Finkelstein], American politician (President of NYC Council 1986-94; New York State Assembly, 1969-77), born in New York City
• Mar 4 Dieter Meier, Swiss singer (Yello - "Oh Yeah"), conceptional artist, and actor, born in Zürich, Switzerland
• Mar 4 Frank Novak, American actor, born in Chicago, Illinois
• Mar 4 Jaime Tirelli, American actor (Orlando Lopez-Ball Four), born in New York City
• Mar 4 Tara Browne, British socialite (d. 1966)
• Mar 4 Tommy Svensson, Swedish soccer midfielder (40 caps; Östers IF, Standard Liège) and manager (Östers IF, Sweden), born in Växjö, Sweden
• Mar 5 Randy Matson, American field athlete (Olympic gold shot putt 1968), born in Pampa, Texas
• Mar 6 Anna Maria Horsford, American actress (Thelma Frye-Amen), born in New York City

• Mar 6 Don Reinhoudt, American powerlifter (IPF World Powerlifting C'ship +110kg 1973, 74, 74, 76; World's Strongest Man 1979), born in Brocton, New York (d. 2023)
• Mar 6 Hugh Grundy, British rock drummer (The Zombies - "She's Not There"; "Time Of The Season"), born in Winchester, Hampshire, England
• Mar 7 Arthur Lee, American rock singer-songwriter (Love - "Forever Changes"; "Vindicator"), born in Memphis, Tennessee (d. 2006)
• Mar 7 John Heard, American actor (Home Alone, Cat People, Big), born in Washington, D.C. (d. 2017)
• Mar 8 Anselm Kiefer, German painter
• Mar 8 Bruce Broughton, American Emmy Award-winning television and film score composer (Hawaii Five-0; Dallas), born in Los Angeles, California
• Mar 8 Graeme Watson, Australian cricket all-rounder (5 Tests, 1 x 50, 6 wickets; 2 ODIs; Victoria CA, WA CA, NSW CA), born in Melbourne, Australia (d. 2020)
• Mar 8 Jim Chapman, American politician (Rep-D-TX, 1985-1997), born in Washington, District of Columbia

• Mar 9 Dennis Rader, American serial killer who murdered ten people in Sedgwick County, Kansas, born in Pittsburg, Kansas
• Mar 9 Laura Lee, American soul and gospel singer (Dirty Man, Women's Love Rights), born in Chicago, Illinois
• Mar 9 Robert Calvert, South African-British writer and musician (Hawkwind), born in Pretoria (d. 1988)
• Mar 9 Robin Trower, British rock guitarist (Procol Harum, 1967-71 - "Conquistador"; solo - Bridge Of Sighs), born in London, England
• Mar 10 Birgitta Sellén, Swedish politician
• Mar 10 Elizabeth Brumfiel [Elizabeth Stern], American feminist archaeologist, former president of the American Anthropological Association
• Mar 10 HO de Villiers, South African rugby union fullback (14 caps; Villager FC, Western Province), born in Johannesburg, South Africa (d. 2022)
• Mar 10 Katharine Houghton, American actress (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner), born in Hartford, Connecticut
• Mar 10 Pete Nelson [Lipscomb], British pop singer (The Flower Pot Men - "Let's Go To San Francisco"), born in Uxbridge, London, England (d. 2005)
• Mar 11 Dock Ellis, American baseball pitcher (MLB All-Star, World Series 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates; pitched no-hitter 1971), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2008)
• Mar 11 Harvey Mandel, American rock guitarist (The Snake), born in Morton, Illinois
• Mar 11 Timothy Mason, consultant (British Arts Council)
• Mar 11 Tricia O'Neal, actress (Piranha Part II), born in Shreveport, Louisiana
• Mar 12 George Jackson, American rhythm & blues, rock, and southern soul songwriter ("One Bad Apple"; "Old Time Rock and Roll"), and singer, born in Indianola, Mississippi (d. 2013)
• Mar 12 Hans van Emden, Dutch rock guitarist (Les Baroques - "Such A Cad"), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Mar 12 Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, American mobster who testified against John Gotti, born in Brooklyn, New York
• Mar 13 Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko, Russian mathematician, born in Stalino, USSR
• Mar 14 Herman van Veen, Dutch cabaretier, singer, composer and writer, born in Utrecht, Netherlands
• Mar 14 Michael Martin Murphey, American country singer (Wildfire), born in Dallas, Texas
• Mar 14 Walt Parazaider, American rock saxophonist (Chicago), born in Chicago, Illinois
• Mar 15 A. K. Faezul Huq, Bengali lawyer and politician (d. 2007)
• Mar 15 Jörgen Sundelin, Swedish yachtsmen (Olympic gold 5.5m class 1968; World C'ship gold Dragon class 1971), born in Stockholm, Sweden
• Mar 15 Mark J Green, American lawyer/author (Closed Enterprise System), born in Brooklyn, New York
• Mar 17 Elis Regina (Costa), Brazilian pop-samba-bossa nova singer ("Arrastão" - "Pull the Trawling Net"), born in Porto Alegre, Brazil (d. 1982)
• Mar 17 Michael Hayden, American general and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Mar 18 Aleksey Vakhonin, USSR, bantam weight (Olympic gold 1964)
• Mar 18 Chuck E. Weiss, American blues and rock songwriter, vocalist, and muse (Rickie Lee Jones; Tom Waits), born in Denver, Colorado (d. 2021)
• Mar 18 Eric Woolfson, Scottish singer and producer (The Alan Parsons Project), born in Glasgow (d. 2009)
• Mar 18 Hiroh Kikai, Japanese photographer (Asakusa Portraits), born in Daigo, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan (d. 2020)
• Mar 18 John Jacobs, American golfer (PGA Senior C’ship 2003), born in Los Angeles, California
• Mar 18 Joy Fielding, Canadian novelist and actress, born in Toronto, Ontario
• Mar 19 Lisa Nicole Baker, American Playboy playmate (Nov 1966, Playmate of the Year 1967), born in Detroit, Texas
• Mar 19 Stefanos Kiriakidis, Greek actor
• Mar 20 Henry Bartholomay, American fighter pilot
• Mar 20 Jay Ingram, Canadian television host and author
• Mar 20 Julien Rascagnères, French rugby league referee (10 Tests), born in Perpignan, France (d. 2022)
• Mar 20 Pat Riley, American NBA coach (Lakers, Knicks, Heat), born in Schenectady, New York
• Mar 20 Tim Yeo, British MP/under-sect (State of Environment)
• Mar 21 Rosemary Stone, American funk and rock vocalist, and pianist (Sly & Family Stone - "Everyday People"; "Dance to The Music"), born in Dallas, Texas
• Mar 21 Vernon Guy, American R&B and gospel singer (Cool Sounds, Sharpees), born in St. Louis Missouri (d. 1998)
• Mar 22 Alan Opie, British Grammy Award-winning baritone (Boughton - Bethlehem; Britten's Peter Grimes "Balstrode"), born in Redruth, Cornwall, England
• Mar 22 Chuck Jackson, American R&B singer (The Independents - "Leaving Me"), songwriter and record producer (Natalie Cole; Phyllis Hyman), born in Greenville, South Carolina
• Mar 23 David Grisman, American folk-bluegrass-jazz fusion mandolin player (Old And In The Way; Jerry Garcia), born in Hackensack, New Jersey
• Mar 23 Franco Battiato, Italian pop, rock, and new wave singer, songwriter (“La Voce del Padrone” (“The Master’s Voice”), and filmmaker ("Lost Love"), born in Jonia, Sicily. Italy (d. 2021)
• Mar 23 Krasnodar Rora, Croatian soccer midfielder (5 caps Yugoslavia; Dinamo Zagreb, Standard Liège) and manager (Šibenik), born in Vis, Croatia (d. 2020)
• Mar 24 Curtis Hanson, American film director and screenwriter (LA Confidential, 8 Mile), born in Reno, Nevada (d. 2016)
• Mar 24 Lew Perkins, American sports executive (athletic director USC–Aiken, Wichita State U, U of Maryland, U of Connecticut, U of Kansas), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 2023)
• Mar 24 Patrick Malahide [Duggan], British actor (Inspector Alleyn Mysteries; Minder; Game Of Thrones), born in Reading, England
• Mar 24 Robert T. Bakker, American paleontologist
• Mar 26 Mikhail Voronin, Russian gymnast who won Olympic gold USSR vault, horizontal bar 1968; World C'ship gold all-round, rings 1966, born in Moscow (d. 2004)
• Mar 27 Briton Selby, Canadian NHL player, born in Kingston, Ontario
• Mar 27 Tony Kreft, New Zealand rugby union prop (1 Test; Otago RFU 60 games), born in Milton, New Zealand (d. 2023)
• Mar 28 Boudewijn Buckinx, Belgian contemporary classical composer and musicologist, born in Lommel, Belgium
• Mar 28 Chuck Portz, American bassist (Turtles - "Happy Together"), born in Santa Monica, California
• Mar 28 Count Björn Hamilton, Swedish politician, count and engineer, born in Gothenburg, Sweden
• Mar 28 Hans Brunhart, Leader of Liechtenstein (1978-93), born in Balzers, Liechtenstein
• Mar 28 Johnny Famechon, Australian boxer (WBC featherweight champion 1969-70), born in Paris, France (d. 2022)

• Mar 28 Sally Carr, Scottish pop singer (Middle of the Road - "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep"), born in Muirhead, Scotland
• Mar 29 Eddie Colquhoun, Scottish soccer centre back (11 caps; Sheffield United 363 games), born in Prestonpans, Scotland (d. 2023)
• Mar 29 Hardy Fox, American member of avant-garde band The Residents, born in Longview, Texas (d. 2018)
• Mar 29 John "Speedy" Keen, British musician, songwriter, producer (Thunderclap Newman - "Something In The Air"), born in Ealing, London (d. 2002)

• Mar 29 Willem Ruis, Dutch TV host (Willem Ruis Show), born in Haarlem, Netherlands (d. 1986)

• Mar 30 Johnnie Walker [Peter Dingley], British radio DJ, born in Birmingham, England
• Mar 30 Richard Evans, British graphic designer, album cover designer (The Who; The Doors; Pink Floyd; Louis Armstrong), born in Wilmslow, Cheshire
• Mar 31 Valerie Curtin, American actress, writer, and producer

• Mar 2 Emily Carr, Canadian painter, dies at 73
• Mar 3 Arthur Vanderpoorten, Belgian politician (Minister of Internal Affairs 1940), dies at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at 61
• Mar 3 Jacobus H "Koos" Speenhoff, Dutch cabaret singer, killed in the RAF's bombing of the Bezuidenhout at 75
• Mar 4 Lucille La Verne, American actress (b. 1872)
• Mar 4 Mark Sandrich [Goldstein], American film director, writer and producer (The Gay Divorcee; Top Hat; Holiday Inn), dies of a heart attack at 44
• Mar 5 Lena Baker, American murderer, convicted of capital murder of her employer, Ernest Knight, dies at 44
• Mar 6 Jan Thijssen, Dutch resistance fighter, executed at Savage Farm
• Mar 6 Rudolf Karel, Czech composer (Three Hairs of the Wise Old Man), dies of dysentery and pneumonia while in Theresienstadt concentration camp at 64
• Mar 7 Adolf Bartels, German journalist and poet, dies at 82
• Mar 8 H J Jamin, Dutch resistance fighter, dies in Buchenwald
• Mar 8 Jan Beekes, resistance fighter, executed at 26
• Mar 13 Herbert Bedford, English author and composer, dies at 78
• Mar 15 Herman Bernard Wiardi Beckman, Dutch resistance fighter and politician (SDAP), dies at Dachau concentration camp at 41
• Mar 16 Börries von Münchhausen, German poet and Nazi activist, dies from an intentional overdose of sleeping pills at 70
• Mar 16 Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, French writer and poet (Gilles), commits suicide at 52
• Mar 18 William Grover-Williams, British racing driver

• Mar 19 Clyde Hart, American swing and bebop jazz piano player and arranger (Stuff Smith; Lionel Hampton; Roy Eldridge), dies of tuberculosis at 35
• Mar 19 Fritz Fromm, German supreme commander of Reserve army, executed
• Mar 21 Arthur Nebe, German SS officer and Holocaust perpetrator who took part in assassination plot against of Adolf Hitler, executed by hanging at 50
• Mar 21 J Woortman, Dutch resistance fighter, dies in Bergen-Belsen at 39
• Mar 22 J Postuma, Dutch resistance fighter, dies
• Mar 24 Jeff Nicklin, Canadian CFL football player (Winnipeg Blue Bombers), Army officer and paratrooper, killed in action during Operation Varsity at 30 [1]
• Mar 24 Thomas Rennie, Gen-Maj (Dutch command 51st Highland Division), dies
• Mar 26 Boris Shaposhnikov, Russian military commander, dies at 62

• Mar 26 Isaack Stouten, Dutch resistance fighter, shot to death at 29
• Mar 27 Jorgen Nielsen, Danish writer (romance), dies at 42
• Mar 29 Ferenc Csik, Hungarian swimmer (Olympics gold medal 100m freestyle 1936), dies of war wounds at 31
• Mar 29 Karl T Sapper, German geographer/geologist (Vulkankunde), dies at 79
• Mar 30 Karel Moor, Czech composer and conductor, dies at 71

• Mar 31 Hans Riegel Sr., German confectioner and inventor of the 'gummy bear' (founder of Haribo), dies at 51
• Mar 31 Maurice Donnay, French playwright (Lovers), dies at 85
• Mar 31 Maurice Rose, 1st US general in Nazi Germany, killed in action at 45