March Calendar

March Calendar of Famous Inventions and Birthdays

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Discover what famous event happened on the March calendar concerning patents, trademarks or copyrights, and see which famous inventor has the same March birthday as you or what invention was created on that March calendar day.

March Calendar of Inventions, Trademarks, and Patents

March 1

March 2

  • 1861—The Patent Act of 1861 increased the term of a patent grant from 14 to 17 years; now it is 20 years.

March 3

  • 1821—Thomas Jennings received a patent for "dry scouring of clothes." He was the first African-American inventor to receive a US patent.

March 4

  • 1955—The first radio facsimile, or fax transmission, was sent across the continent.
  • 1997—Leonard Kasday received a patent for a way to handle telephone prize opportunities.

March 5

  • 1872—George Westinghouse Jr. patented the steam-air brake.
  • 1963—Arthur K. Melin received U.S. Patent Number 3,079,728 on March 5, 1963, for a Hoop Toy, aka the Hula-Hoop.

March 6

  • 1899—Felix Hoffmann patented aspirin. He discovered that the compound called salicin found in willow plants provided pain relief.
  • 1990—Mel Evenson received a design patent for the ornamental design for a paperclip holder.

March 7

March 8

  • 1994—Don Ku was granted a patent for a wheeled suitcase with a collapsible towing handle.

March 9

  • 1954—Gladys Geissman was granted a patent for a baby's garment.

March 10

  • 1862—The first U.S. paper money was issued. The denominations were $5, $10 and $20. The paper bills became legal tender by an act of government on March 17, 1862.
  • 1891—Almon Strowger was issued a patent for the automatic telephone exchange.

March 11

  • 1791—Samuel Mullikin became the first inventor to hold multiple patents.

March 12

  • 1935—England established the first 30 mph speed limit for town and village roads.
  • 1996—Michael Vost patented a mailbox signaling device.

March 13

  • 1877—Chester Greenwood received a patent for earmuffs.
  • 1944—Abbott and Costello's baseball routine "Who's On First" was copyrighted.

March 14

March 15

  • 1950—New York City hired Dr. Wallace E. Howell as the city's official "rainmaker."
  • 1994—William Hartman was issued a patent for a method and apparatus for painting highway markings (stripes, etc.).

March 16

March 17

  • 1845—The first rubber band was patented by Stephen Perry of London.
  • 1885—The Blast Furnace Charger was patented by Fayette Brown.

March 18

  • 1910—Rose O'Neill's Kewpie doll was copyrighted.

March 19

  • 1850—Phineas Quimby was issued a patent for a steering mechanism.
  • 1994—The largest omelet (1,383² ft) in the world was made with 160,000 eggs in Yokohama, Japan.

March 20

  • 1883—Jan Matzeliger was issued patent #274,207 for a "lasting device for shoes." Matzeliger's invention made the mass production of inexpensive shoes possible.

March 21

  • 1861—The Constitution of the Confederate States of America established a Patent Office.

March 22

  • 1841—Orlando Jones patented cornstarch.
  • 1960—Arthur L. Schawlow and Charles H. Townes were issued a patent for the laser.

March 23

  • 1836—The coin press was invented by Franklin Beale.
  • 1956—"West Side Story," a musical play by Leonard Bernstein, was copyrighted.

March 24

  • 1959—Charles Townes was granted a patent for the maser, the precursor to the laser. The maser was a big hit, being used to amplify radio signals and as an ultrasensitive detector for space research.

March 25

  • 1902—Irving W. Colburn patented the sheet glass drawing machine, making the mass production of glass for windows possible.
  • 1975—Cayetano Aguas was issued patent #3,873,284 for a smoke stack washer.

March 26

  • 1895—Charles Jenkins patented a motion picture machine.
  • 1895—Louis Lumiere patented a motion picture machine. What Lumiere invented was a portable motion-picture camera, a film-processing unit and a projector called the cinematographe — three functions covered in one invention.

March 27

  • 1790—The first shoelaces were invented.
  • 1990—Harold Osrow and Zvi Bleier received a patent for a portable ice cream machine.

March 28

  • 1899—William Fleming received a patent for a player piano using electricity.

March 29

  • 1933—"42nd Street," the movie, was copyrighted.
  • 2000—The Patent and Trademark Office became the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and began operations as a performance-based organization.

March 30

  • 1956—Woody Guthrie's song "This Land Is Your Land" was copyrighted.

March 31

  • 1981—Ananda Chakrabarty patented a new single-cell life form.

March Birthdays

March 1

  • 1864—Rebecca Lee was the first Black woman to get a medical degree.

March 2

  • 1876—Gosta Forsell was a noted Swedish radiologist.
  • 1902—Nuclear physicist and atomic scientist Edward Uhler Condon worked on the Manhattan Project.

March 3

  • 1831—George Pullman invented the railway sleeping car.
  • 1838—American astronomer George W. Hill plotted the moon's orbit.
  • 1841—Canadian oceanographer John Murray discovered the depths of the ocean.
  • 1845—German mathematician Georg Cantor discovered transfinite numbers.
  • 1847—Alexander Graham Bell invented the first working telephone.
  • 1877—African-American inventor Garrett Morgan invented an improved traffic light and improved gas mask.
  • 1895—Economist Ragnar Frisch of Norway won the first Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1969.
  • 1909—Jay Morris Arena was a noted inventor and pediatrician.
  • 1918—American biochemist Arthur Kornberg won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1959.

March 4

  • 1754—Physician Benjamin Waterhouse invented a smallpox vaccine.
  • 1835—Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli discovered the canals of Mars.
  • 1909—American builder Harry B. Helmsley designed the Empire State Building.
  • 1934—Ethologist Jane van Lawick-Goodall was a chimp expert who won the 1974 Walker Prize.
  • 1939—James Aubrey Turner was a noted scientist.

March 5

  • 1574—English mathematician William Oughtred invented the slide rule.
  • 1637—Dutch painter John van der Heyden invented the fire extinguisher.
  • 1794—French physicist Jacques Babinet was a noted mathematician and astronomer.
  • 1824—American physician Elisha Harris founded the American Public Health Association.
  • 1825—German photographer Joseph Albert invented the Albertotype.
  • 1893—Emmett J. Culligan founded a water treatment organization.
  • 1932—Scientist Walter Charles Marshall was a leading theoretician in the atomic properties of matter.

March 6

  • 1812—Aaron Lufkin Dennison was considered the father of American watchmaking.
  • 1939—Computer inventor Adam Osborne is the founder of the Osborne Computer Corporation.

March 7

  • 1765—French inventor Joseph Niepce made the first photographic image with a camera obscura.
  • 1837—Henry Draper was an astro-spectro photographer who photographed the moon and Jupiter.
  • 1938—American scientist David Baltimore made key contributions in cancer research and is a 1975 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine.

March 8

  • 1787—Karl Ferdinand von Grafe was the father of modern plastic surgery.
  • 1862—Joseph Lee developed playgrounds.
  • 1879—German physicist and chemist Otto Hahn won the Nobel Prize in 1944 for his discovery of radiothorium and actinium.
  • 1886—Chemist Edward Kendall isolated cortisone and won the Nobel Prize in 1950.

March 9

  • 1791—American surgeon George Hayward was the first to use ether anesthesia. 
  • 1900—American scientist Howard Aiken invented the Mark I computer.
  • 1923—French fashion designer Andre Courreges invented the miniskirt.
  • 1943—American Jef Raskin was a pioneering computer scientist.

March 10

  • 1940—Psychologist Wayne Dyer wrote "The Universe Within You."

March 11

  • 1811—Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier codiscovered Neptune.
  • 1832—German physicist Franz Melde invented the Melde test.
  • 1879—Danish chemist Niels Bjerrum invented pH tests.
  • 1890—American scientist Vannevar Bush first proposed the basics of hypertext in 1945 that laid the foundation for the internet.

March 12

  • 1824—Prussian physicist Gustav R. Kirchoff invented spectral analysis.
  • 1831—Clement Studebaker invented the Studebaker car.
  • 1838—William Perkin invented the first artificial dye.
  • 1862—Jane Delano founded the Red Cross.

March 13

  • 1733—English clergyman and scientist Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen and invented a method of making carbonated water.
  • 1911—L. Ron Hubbard was a noted sci-fi writer and the first Scientologist who invented Dianetics.

March 14

  • 1692—Physicist Pieter van Musschenbroek invented the Leyden Jar — the first electrical capacitor.
  • 1800—American builder James Bogardus invented ways of making cast-iron buildings.
  • 1833—Lucy Hobbs Taylor was the first woman to become a dentist in the United States in 1866.
  • 1837—American librarian Charles Ammi Cutter invented expansive classification.
  • 1854—German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1908.
  • 1879—German physicist Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his theory of relativity.

March 15

  • 1801—Coenraad J. van Houten was a Dutch chemist and chocolate maker.
  • 1858—American botanist Liberty Hyde Bailey is considered the father of plant-breeding.
  • 1938—English composer Dick Higgins invented the term "intermedia" and founded Something Else Press.

March 16

  • 1806—Norbert Rillieux invented the sugar refiner.
  • 1836—Andrew Smith Hallidie patented the first cable car.
  • 1910—Andrew Miller-Jones was a British television pioneer.
  • 1918—American physicist Frederick Reines was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics.
  • 1951—Scientist Richard Stallman is an American software freedom activist and programmer.

March 17

  • 1787—Physicist George Simon Ohm discovered Ohm's Law.
  • 1834—German car manufacturer Gottlieb Daimler invented the first motorcycle.
  • 1925—G.M. Hughes was a renowned British zoologist.
  • 1925—Physiologist Jerome Lejeune was a geneticist best-known for discovering links of diseases to chromosome abnormalities.

March 18

  • 1690—German mathematician Christian Goldbach wrote the Goldbach position.
  • 1858—German engineer Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel motor.
  • 1886—German psychologist Kurt Koffka invented Gestalt therapy.

March 19

  • 1892—Neurobiologist Siegfried T. Bok wrote "Cybernetica."
  • 1900—French physicist Frederic Joliot-Curie won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935.

March 20

  • 1856—American inventor and engineer Frederick W. Taylor is best-known as the father of scientific management.
  • 1904—American psychologist B.F. Skinner was an author, inventor, behaviorist and social philosopher.
  • 1920—Douglas G. Chapman was a biomathematical statistician.

March 21

  • 1869—Architect Albert Kahn invented modern factory design.
  • 1884—American mathematician George D. Birkhoff discovered aesthetic measure.
  • 1932—American scientist Walter Gilbert was a molecular biology pioneer and Nobel laureate.

March 22

  • 1868—American physicist Robert A. Millikan discovered the photoelectric effect and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923.
  • 1907—American scientist James M. Gavin was a military theorist.
  • 1924—Al Neuharth founded the newspaper USA Today.
  • 1926—American Julius Marmur was a noted biochemist and geneticist.
  • 1931—American scientist Burton Richter was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist.
  • 1946—American mathematician and computer scientist Rudy Rucker is a popular author in science fiction and science.

March 23

  • 1881—German chemist Hermann Staudinger was a noted plastics researcher who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1953.
  • 1907—Swiss pharmacologist Daniel Bovet won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1957.
  • 1912—German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun was a space architect and aerospace engineer.

March 24

  • 1809—French math whiz Joseph Liouville discovered transcendental numbers.
  • 1814—American naturalist Galen Clark discovered Mariposa Grove.
  • 1835—Austrian physicist Josef Stefan wrote the Stefan-Boltzmann law.
  • 1871—British nuclear physicist Ernest Rutherford is considered the father of nuclear physics and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908.
  • 1874—Hungarian magician and escape artist Harry Houdini invented a diver's suit.
  • 1884—Dutch physical chemist Peter Debye won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1936.
  • 1903—German biochemist Adolph F.J. Butenandt won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1939.
  • 1911—Joseph Barbera was a noted animator and one-half of Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.
  • 1936—Canadian scientist David Suzuki is a noted television host and narrator.
  • 1947—English computer manufacturer Alan Sugar founded Amstrad Computers.

March 25

  • 1786—Giovanni B. Amia was an Italian astronomer, physicist, and botanist.
  • 1867—Gutzon Borglum was the Mount Rushmore sculptor.
  • 1914—Italian humanitarian and agronomist Norman Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for inventing methods to increase food supply and was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

March 26

  • 1773—Mathematician and astronomer Nathaniel Bowditch invented the marine sextant.
  • 1821—Ernst Engel was a German economist.
  • 1821—German statistician Earnest Angel wrote the Law of Angel.
  • 1885—Robert Blackburn was a pioneer in British aviation.
  • 1893—Scientist James Bryant Conant was known for his lasting influence on American science.
  • 1908—Robert William Paine was a noted architect.
  • 1908—Zoologist Kenneth Mellanby of England was a noted entomologist and ecologist.
  • 1911—German-born Bernard Katz was a noted biophysicist noted for his work on nerve physiology.
  • 1913—Paul Erdos was a noted Hungarian mathematician known for his work in number theory.
  • 1916—American chemist Christian B. Anfinsen researched cell physiology and won the Nobel Prize in 1972.
  • 1930—Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice in 1981.
  • 1941—English scientist Richard Dawkins is a noted evolutionary biologist.

March 27

  • 1780—German inventor and mathematician August L. Crelle built the first Prussian Railway.
  • 1844—Adolphus Washington Greely was an American Arctic explorer.
  • 1845—Physicist Wilhelm Conrad von Rontgen discovered X-rays and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.
  • 1847—German chemist Otto Wallach won the Nobel Prize in 1910.
  • 1863—Henry Royce invented the Rolls-Royce.
  • 1905—Hungarian mathematician Laszlo Kalmar discovered mathematical logic and was the founder of theoretical computer science in Hungary.
  • 1922—Margaret Stacey was a noted sociologist.

March 28

  • 1942—American philosopher Daniel Dennett is a researcher of cognitive science and evolutionary biology.

March 29

  • 1883—American chemist Van Slyke invented micromanometric analysis.

March 30

  • 1842—Dr. Crawford Long was the first physician to use ether as an anesthetic.
  • 1865—German physicist Heinrich Rubens was known for his measurements of the energy of black-body radiation, which led Max Planck to the discovery of his radiation law.  
  • 1876—Clifford Whittingham Beers was a mental hygiene pioneer.
  • 1892—Polish mathematician Stefan Banach is considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century mathematicians.
  • 1894—Sergei Ilyushin was a noted builder of Russian airplanes.
  • 1912—Andrew Rodger Waterson was a noted naturalist.

March 31

  • 1811—German chemist Robert Wilhelm Eberhard von Bunsen invented the Bunsen burner.
  • 1854—Dugald Clerk invented a 2-stroke motorcycle engine.
  • 1878—Jack Johnson was the first Black heavyweight boxing champ (1908-1915) and invented a wrench.
  • 1950—Pathologist Alison McCartney is a noted breast cancer campaigner.
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Bellis, Mary. "March Calendar." ThoughtCo, Jul. 31, 2021, thoughtco.com/today-in-history-march-calendar-1992504. Bellis, Mary. (2021, July 31). March Calendar. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/today-in-history-march-calendar-1992504 Bellis, Mary. "March Calendar." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/today-in-history-march-calendar-1992504 (accessed March 28, 2024).