March 3
Anne Sullivan begins teaching six-year-old Helen Keller, who lost her sight and hearing after a severe illness at the age of 19 months. Under Sullivan’s tutelage, including her pioneering “touch teaching” techniques, the previously uncontrollable Keller flourished, and eventually was graduated from college to become an international lecturer and activist. Sullivan, later dubbed “the miracle worker,” remained Keller’s interpreter and constant companion until the older woman’s death in 1936. – 1887.
U.S. president Herbert Hoover signs a congressional act making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the official national anthem of the United States. – 1931.
March 4
U.S. president William Howard Taft signs legislation to create the Department of Labor. – 1913.
UAW workers win sit-down strike in Flint, Mich., to force General Motors to recognize the union. In the 40-day action, the strikers were protected by 5,000 armed workers circling the Fisher Body plant. – 1937.
March 5
A mob of American colonists gather at the Customs House in Boston and begin taunting the British soldiers guarding the building. The protesters, who called themselves Patriots, were protesting the occupation of their city by British troops. The colonists threw snowballs and other objects at the British and a British soldier who was hit had his gun discharged into the crowd. The other soldiers began firing a moment later, and when the smoke cleared, five colonists were dead and three more were injured. The deaths of the five men are regarded by some historians as the first fatalities in the American Revolutionary War. – 1770.
In one of the most famous orations of the Cold War period, former British prime minister Winston Churchill condemns the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe and declares, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” Churchill’s speech is considered one of the opening volleys announcing the beginning of the Cold War. – 1946.
March 6
The Imperial Patent Office in Berlin, Germany registers Aspirin, the brand name for acetylsalicylic acid, on behalf of the German pharmaceutical company, Friedrich Bayer & Co. – 1899.
With the Great Depression under way, hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers demonstrate in 30 cities and towns; close to 100,000 filled Union Square in New York City and were attacked by mounted police. – 1930.
March 7
Twenty-nine-year-old Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his revolutionary new invention, the telephone. – 1876.
More than 3,000 unemployed auto workers, led by the Communist Party of America, brave the cold in Dearborn, Mich. to demand jobs and relief from Henry Ford. The marchers got too close to the gate and were gassed. After re-grouping, they were sprayed with water and shot at. Four men die immediately, 60 are wounded. – 1932.
March 8
Mount Etna, on the island of Sicily in modern-day Italy, starts to rumble. Multiple eruptions over the next few weeks kill more than 20,000 residents and leave thousands more homeless. Most of the victims could have saved themselves by fleeing, but stayed, in a vain attempt to save their city. – 1669.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members disappears after taking off from Kuala Lumpur. Four months after Flight 370 vanished, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, en route to Kuala Lumpur is shot down over eastern Ukraine near the Russian border. All 298 passengers aboard the aircraft perished. Officials said both aircraft were brought down by a surface-to-air missile fired from territory controlled by Russian-backed separatists battling the Ukrainian government. – 2014.
March 9
U.S. warplanes launch a new bombing offensive against Japan and drop 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs on Tokyo over the course of the next 48 hours. Almost 16 square miles in and around the Japanese capital were incinerated, and between 80,000 and 130,000 Japanese civilians were killed in the worst single firestorm in recorded history. The majority of the 100,000 who perished, died from carbon monoxide poisoning and the sudden lack of oxygen. As a result of the attack more than 250,000 buildings were destroyed. – 1945.
The first Barbie doll goes on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City. The doll was created by Ruth Handler, who co-founded Mattel, Inc. in 1945. – 1959.
Work begins on the $8 billion, 800-mile-long Alaska Oil pipeline to connect oil fields in northern Alaska to the sea port at Valdez. – 1974.