- Mar 1 Landsat 5 & ham satellite Oscar 11 launched into polar orbit
- Mar 1 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- Mar 2 Iran offensive against Iraq fails
- Mar 3 NY Islanders score their most goals (11) vs Tor Maple Leafs (6)
Election of Interest
Mar 3 Peter Ueberroth elected baseball commissioner (Effective Oct 1)
Baseball Hall of Fame
Mar 4 Pee Wee Reese & Rick Ferrell elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame
Sports History
Mar 4 Tennis legend Martina Navratilova retains her WTA Tour Championship in NYC; beats Chris Evert 6–3, 7–5, 6–1 for her 5th overall Championship title
- Mar 5 Supreme Court (5-4): city may use public money for Nativity scene
- Mar 5 US accuse Iraq of using poison gas
- Mar 6 Twelve-month-long strike in British coal industry begins.
- Mar 7 The United States attacks San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua.
- Mar 9 -5°F ties lowest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland, Ohio (first set in 1948)
- Mar 9 Emile Gumbs' Anguilla National Alliance wins elections
Borrowed Time
Mar 9 John Lennon single "Borrowed Time" released posthumously
- Mar 9 Philadelphia 76'ers block 20 Seattle shots tying NBA regulation game record
- Mar 9 The Competitive Enterprise Institute is founded in Washington, D.C.
- Mar 9 Tim Witherspoon beats Greg Page in 12 for heavyweight boxing title
- Mar 10 25th SEC Men's Basketball Tournament: Kentucky beats Auburn, 51-49
- Mar 10 5th Big East Men's Basketball Tournament: Georgetown beats Syracuse, 82-71 (OT)
- Mar 10 Heavyweight Tim Witherspoon KOs Greg Page
- Mar 11 31st ACC Men's Basketball Tournament: Maryland beats Duke, 74-62
- Mar 12 British National Union of Mine Workers headed by Arthur Scargill supports regional strikes, calls for national action; strikes fail to achieve goals
- Mar 13 Last day of 1st-class cricket for G Chappell, R Marsh, B Laird
- Mar 13 WA beat Queensland by four wickets to win the Sheffield Shield
- Mar 14 Challenger moves to Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (Florida), for mating of STS 41-C mission
Assassination Attempt
Mar 14 Gerry Adams, head of Sinn Féin, is seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in central Belfast
People's Choice Awards
Mar 15 10th People's Choice Awards: Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds & Meryl Streep win (Motion Picture) and Tom Selleck, Linda Evans win (TV)
- Mar 15 Tanzania adopts constitution
- Mar 16 Gunmen kidnap William Buckley, CIA station chief in Beirut
- Mar 16 South Africa & Mozambique sign non attack treaty
- Mar 17 Scotland beats France, 21-12 at Murrayfield to win the Five Nations Rugby Championship outright and Triple Crown for first time since 1938; Grand Slam first time since 1925
Kate & Allie
Mar 19 American sitcom "Kate & Allie" premieres on CBS TV starring Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin
- Mar 19 John J O'Connor named 8th archbishop of New York
- Mar 19 KSD-AM in St Louis MO changes call letters to KUSA
- Mar 19 Mobil oil tanker spills 200,000 gallons into Columbia River
- Mar 19 STS 41-C vehicle moves to launch pad
Sports History
Mar 19 Two-time Cy Young Award winner Denny McLain is indicted on charges of drug trafficking, embezzlement and racketeering; 25 year sentence later quashed
- Mar 20 Andy Kaufman and Fred Blassie's film "My Breakfast With Blassie" premieres
- Mar 20 Nigerian Major-General Babatunde Idiagbon launches a campaign on ‘National Consciousness and Enlightenment’
- Mar 20 US Senate rejects amendment to permit spoken prayer in public schools
Cricket History
Mar 21 Australian Allan Border scores 100* vs West Indies in a cricket test at Trinidad after scoring a 98* in his 1st innings
- Mar 21 NFL owners passed the infamous anti-celebrating rule
- Mar 21 Part of Central Park in New York City is named "Strawberry Fields" honoring John Lennon
- Mar 21 Soviet sub crashes into USS aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk off Japan
NHL Record
Mar 22 Islander Bryan Trottier ties NHL record scores 5 seconds into game
- Mar 22 Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges are later dropped as completely unfounded.
- Mar 23 Andrea Schone skates ladies world record 3 km (4:20.91)
- Mar 23 Ice Pairs Championship at Ottawa won by Underhill & Paul Martini (CAN)
- Mar 23 Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Ottawa won by Katarina Witt (GDR)
Sports History
Mar 23 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Ottawa won by Scott Hamilton (USA)
Sports History
Mar 23 World Ice Dancing Championship won by Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean (Great Britain) in Ottawa, Canada
- Mar 24 Andrea Schone skates ladies world record 5 km (7:34.52)
- Mar 24 Igor Malkov skates world record 10 km (14:21.51)
- Mar 24 IOC agrees to 6-team exhibition baseball tournament in Olympics
- Mar 24 Philip Glass' opera "Akhnaten", based on the life and religious convictions of the Egyptian pharaoh, premieres at the Staatstheater, in Stuttgart, Germany
Starlight Express
Mar 27 Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe's rock musical "Starlight Express" opens at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London's West End
- Mar 27 Beginning of "tanker war": over the next 9 months, 44 ships, including Iranian, Iraqi, Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti tankers, are attacked by Iraqi or Iranian warplanes or damaged by mines
- Mar 29 NFL Baltimore Colts move to Indianapolis
- Mar 29 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- Mar 30 US ends participation in multinational Lebanon peace force
- Mar 30 World's most valuable tip - New York police detective Robert Cunningham offers waitress Phyllis Penzo half of $1 lottery ticket, next day they win $6 million
- Mar 31 138th Grand National: Neale Doughty wins aboard 13/1 Hallo Dandy; 23 complete the course, breaking record for most finishers
Sports History
Mar 31 Mike Bossy becomes first player in NHL history to record 7 straight 50 goal seasons; scores 50th and 51st of the year in a 3-1 New York Islanders' win at Washington
- Mar 31 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists