- Mar 1 Israeli assault on Gaza, kills 48
- Mar 1 KFAR (now KATN) TV channel 2 in Fairbanks, AK (ABC/NBC) 1st broadcast
- Mar 1 Pakistan and India play out a draw in the 5th cricket Test at the National Stadium in Karachi; 5 Test series drawn 0-0
- Mar 2 King Norodom Sihanukh of Cambodia succeeded by his father
- Mar 2 William Inge's "Bus Stop" premieres in NYC
- Mar 2 William Inge's stage drama "Bus Stop", opens at the Music Box Theater, NYC; runs for 478 performances
- Mar 4 1st radio facsimile transmission sent across the continent
- Mar 5 2nd ACC Men's Basketball Tournament: NC State beats Duke, 87-77
Elvis' 1st TV Appearance
Mar 5 Elvis Presley makes his 1st TV appearance on a local video broadcast of the popular radio program "Louisiana Hayride" from the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana
- Mar 5 WBBJ TV channel 7 in Jackson, TN (ABC) begins broadcasting
Waiting for Godot
Mar 6 Dutch premiere of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot"
Emmy Awards
Mar 7 7th Emmy Awards: "Make Room for Daddy", Danny Thomas & Loretta Young win
- Mar 7 Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick says he favors legalization of spitter
Peter Pan
Mar 7 Musical "Peter Pan", starring Mary Martin broadcast live on NBC as part of "Producers' Showcase" series; attracts a then record 65 million viewers
- Mar 13 Bir BSD Mahendra succeeds Tribhubana as king of Nepal
Golf Tournament
Mar 13 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Patty Berg wins her 6th Titleholders title by 2 strokes from Mary Lena Faulk
Sports History
Mar 16 NHL President Clarence Campbell suspends Montreal Canadiens superstar Maurice "Rocket" Richard for the remainder of the season after he viciously attacked an opponent; Riots ensued in Montreal
Event of Interest
Mar 16 President Eisenhower upholds the use of atomic weapons in case of war
- Mar 17 After Maurice Richard is suspended for the remainder of the season, riots break out in Montreal. 37 people are injured and over 100 are arrested. The following morning, Richard goes on the radio to ask citizens to stop vandalizing the city.
- Mar 18 Ichirō Hatojama recognized as premier of Japan
Sports History
Mar 19 17th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: San Francisco beats La Salle, 77-63; Dons' future Hall of Fame center Bill Russell is named tournament Most Outstanding Player
- Mar 20 KXTV TV channel 10 in Sacramento, CA (CBS) begins broadcasting
- Mar 21 Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus advocates for Cyprus to join Greece
- Mar 21 Brooklyn Bulletin ask Dodger fans not to call their team "Bums"
- Mar 24 1st seagoing oil drill rig placed in service
- Mar 24 British Army patrols withdraw from Belfast after 20 years
Film & TV History
Mar 24 Tennessee Williams' stage drama "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", starring Ben Gazzarra, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Burl Ives, and directed by Elia Kazan, opens at the Morosco Theater, NYC; runs for 694 performances and wins a Pulitzer Prize
- Mar 25 East Germany granted full sovereignty by occupying power, USSR
Event of Interest
Mar 25 United States Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" as obscene.
- Mar 26 "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" version recorded by Bill Hayes becomes the #1 record in US
- Mar 26 109th Grand National: Pat Taaffe wins aboard Quare Times at 100/9; third consecutive GN victory for trainer Vincent O'Brien
- Mar 26 France misses out on a maiden Grand Slam after losing, 16-11 to Wales at Stade Colombes; share Five Nations Rugby Championship with Wales with 3-1 record
- Mar 27 9th Tony Awards: "The Desperate Hours" (play) & "The Pajama Game" (musical) win
The Chivington Raid
Mar 27 Steve McQueen makes his network TV debut (Goodyear Playhouse, episode "The Chivington Raid")
- Mar 27 WPRI TV channel 12 in Providence, Rhode Island (ABC) begins broadcasting
- Mar 28 NZ cricket all out for 26 v England at Eden Park
- Mar 29 Linguist Yuri Knorosov defends his master's thesis in Moscow, expanding on his new phonetic method to decipher the Mayan script (first announced in article Soviet Ethnology 1952) [1]
Academy Awards
Mar 30 27th Academy Awards: "On the Waterfront", Marlon Brando & Grace Kelly win
- Mar 31 Merger of Chase National Bank (3rd largest bank) and Bank of the Manhattan Company (15th largest bank) forms Chase Manhattan
- Mar 31 West Indies cricket all-rounder Collie Smith scores 104 in his Test debut in a 9 wicket 1st Test defeat to Australia in Kingston, Jamaica
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists