187 Fun Facts About March

How many days are there in March?

31: March was once the first month of the Roman year, which is why September to December, now months nine to twelve, still carry the Latin numbers seven to ten.

March is named after the Roman god of what?

War: Mars, who was also a guardian of Roman farming, gave his name to the month whose festivals opened the season for military campaigns.

Tradition says Rome's first calendar ran ten months from March; which two were added?

January and February are traditionally credited to Numa Pompilius, Rome's second king, who is said to have filled a winter gap that the old ten-month year had simply left uncounted.

March is the first month of which season in the Northern Hemisphere?

Spring: meteorologists count March, April and May as Northern Hemisphere spring, while in the Southern Hemisphere, from Australia to Brazil, March opens autumn.

What is the birth flower of March?

Daffodil: because it is among the first flowers to bloom after winter, it stands for rebirth and new beginnings; the jonquil, a close relative, is sometimes listed with it.

Which pale blue gemstone is one of March's two birthstones?

Aquamarine, a blue variety of beryl named from the Latin for 'sea water', was carried by sailors as a charm they believed would keep them safe at sea.

In the old weather saying, March comes in like a lion and goes out like what?

Lamb: the proverb says March opens with lion-like winter storms and closes with mild, lamb-like weather, a nod to how sharply the month can swing.

On what date is Saint Patrick's Day?

March 17 is the traditional date of Saint Patrick's death in the fifth century, so the feast marks the day he died rather than his birthday.

Legend says Saint Patrick drove which creatures out of Ireland and into the sea?

Snakes: the legend has Patrick chase them into the sea, but there were none to banish, because the island never had any snakes in the first place.

Which colour was linked with Saint Patrick before green took over?

Blue: the Order of St Patrick, an order of knights founded in 1783, took sky blue as its colour, and the shade became known as St Patrick's blue.

Which American city has dyed its river green for Saint Patrick's Day since 1962?

Chicago first dyed its river in 1962 after plumbers tracing sewage leaks with fluorescent dye noticed how vividly green it stained the water.

Which plant is the traditional emblem of Ireland, worn on Saint Patrick's Day?

The shamrock: Saint Patrick is said to have used its three leaves to explain the Christian Trinity, which is why it is worn on his feast day.

According to Irish folklore, a leprechaun hides a pot of gold where?

At the end of the rainbow: the leprechaun, a solitary fairy shoemaker, is said to hide his pot of gold there, though the gold is a late addition to much older tales.

Irish raiders seized the teenage Saint Patrick as a slave from his home in which land?

Britain: Patrick's own Confessio says raiders took him at sixteen from his family's villa in Roman Britain, and that he herded animals in Ireland for six years before escaping.

March 14 is celebrated as the day of which mathematical constant, from its first three digits?

Pi, about 3.14159, gives the date 3/14; physicist Larry Shaw launched the first Pi Day at San Francisco's Exploratorium in 1988, with staff marching in circles and eating pie.

Which famous physicist was born in Ulm, Germany, on March 14, 1879?

Albert Einstein gave up his German citizenship at 16 and was stateless for five years, until Switzerland made him a citizen in 1901.

In March, the day when day and night are about equal usually falls on which date?

The 20th is the usual date, though the calendar's leap-year cycle lets the moment slip to the 19th or the 21st in some years.

Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebrated for over 3,000 years, is timed to which event?

The equinox: the new year starts at the exact moment it occurs, and families set out a haft-sin table of seven symbolic items to welcome it.

Holi, the Hindu festival that usually falls in March, is famous for people throwing what at each other?

Coloured powder, called gulal, is thrown along with coloured water on Holi, which marks spring and the burning of the demoness Holika the night before.

In the United States, clocks go forward for daylight saving time on which day of March?

Second Sunday: the Energy Policy Act of 2005 moved the change forward from April's first Sunday, starting in 2007, and pushed the autumn change back to November's first Sunday.

Which president proclaimed the first National Women's History Week, held in March 1980?

Jimmy Carter's proclamation built on a 1978 school celebration in Sonoma County, California, and by 1987 Congress had turned the week into a full Women's History Month.

International Women's Day is celebrated on which date?

March 8 became the fixed date after the 1917 Petrograd women's strike fell on that day in the Gregorian calendar; Clara Zetkin had proposed the day in Copenhagen in 1910.

Read Across America Day, on March 2, marks the birthday of which children's author?

Dr. Seuss, born Theodor Seuss Geisel on March 2, 1904, wrote Green Eggs and Ham after his publisher bet him he couldn't write a book using only 50 different words.

'The Ides of March' is famous as the date in 44 BC when which Roman leader was assassinated?

Julius Caesar was stabbed by a group of senators led by Brutus and Cassius, who meant to save the Republic; the civil wars that followed finished it off instead.

March Madness is the nickname of the national championship tournament in which college sport?

Basketball: the nickname was coined in 1939 for Illinois high school tournaments, and broadcaster Brent Musburger later carried it over to the NCAA's college games.

Which park, created on March 1, 1872, is widely regarded as the world's first national park?

Yellowstone was so overrun by poachers and souvenir hunters in its first years that the US Army was sent in to protect it in 1886 and stayed for three decades.

Which planet did William Herschel discover on March 13, 1781, the first found with a telescope?

Uranus: Herschel spotted it from his garden in Bath, England, and first reported it as a comet; it was the first planet discovered since antiquity.

Alexander Graham Bell received the first U.S. patent for which invention on March 7, 1876?

The telephone: Bell's patent, granted on March 7, 1876, was titled 'Improvement in Telegraphy'; three days later he made the first call, summoning his assistant with 'Mr. Watson, come here.'

Which toy company launched the Barbie doll at the New York Toy Fair on March 9, 1959?

Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler created Barbie after watching her daughter Barbara give her paper dolls grown-up roles, and named the doll after her.

Which cookie was first sold on March 6, 1912, to a grocer in Hoboken, New Jersey?

Oreo: Nabisco launched it as an imitation of Hydrox, a sandwich cookie from 1908, yet Oreo sold so much better that many people took Hydrox for the copy.

In which city did Juliette Gordon Low hold the first Girl Scout troop meeting on March 12, 1912?

Savannah was Low's home town: back from England, where she had met Scouting's founder Robert Baden-Powell, she phoned a cousin to say she had 'something for the girls of Savannah'.

Which volunteer programme did President Kennedy create by executive order in March 1961?

The Peace Corps began with a campaign stop at the University of Michigan in 1960, where Kennedy, arriving at 2 a.m., challenged thousands of waiting students to serve abroad.

The Battle of the Alamo ended on March 6, 1836, during which fight for independence?

The Texas Revolution: after a 13-day siege, Santa Anna's army overran the Alamo's defenders, among them James Bowie and William Travis; Texas won its independence at San Jacinto the following month.

Which future president defended the British soldiers tried for the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770?

John Adams took the case and largely won it: six of the eight soldiers were acquitted, and the two convicted of manslaughter were branded on the thumb rather than hanged.

Which invention did Tim Berners-Lee first propose in a memo to his boss at CERN in March 1989?

The World Wide Web: his manager, Mike Sendall, called the March 1989 proposal 'vague, but exciting' and encouraged him to start building it.

In a March 1946 speech in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill said what had descended across Europe?

An iron curtain: Churchill, voted out as prime minister the year before, gave the speech at Westminster College with President Truman beside him on the platform.

Which Dutch painter was born on March 30, 1853?

Vincent van Gogh was born in Zundert in the Netherlands and named after a brother who had been stillborn exactly a year earlier.

Which magician was born Erik Weisz in Budapest on March 24, 1874?

Harry Houdini, born Erik Weisz, took his stage name from the French magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin and emigrated with his family to the United States in 1878.

People born in late March, from about the 21st onward, have which zodiac sign?

Aries, the ram, is the first sign of the zodiac; in Greek myth it is the ram with the golden fleece that carried Phrixus to safety on its back.

People born in the first weeks of March fall under which zodiac sign?

Pisces, the twelfth and last sign, shows two fish; in one Greek telling they are Aphrodite and Eros, who turned into fish to escape the monster Typhon.

Which Paris landmark, inaugurated on March 31, 1889, was a World's Fair centrepiece?

The Eiffel Tower: Gustave Eiffel climbed the stairs to raise a French flag at the top that day; due to come down after 20 years, the tower was saved by its value as a radio antenna.

Ash Wednesday, which can fall in early March, uses ashes traditionally made by burning what?

Palm Sunday branches blessed the year before are burned to make the ashes, which are then marked on worshippers' foreheads in the shape of a cross.

Which gem is one of the two birthstones for March?

Bloodstone is a dark green chalcedony flecked with red; a Christian legend says the spots are blood that fell on the stone at the Crucifixion.

On the Roman calendar, the Ides of March fell on which date?

The 15th: the Ides were meant to coincide with the full moon, falling on the 15th in March, May, July and October and on the 13th in every other month.

Mothering Sunday, the UK's Mother's Day, always falls three weeks before which festival?

Easter: Mothering Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Lent, three weeks before Easter Sunday, so the UK's Mother's Day comes weeks before America's, which waits until May.

Saint David's Day on 1 March honours the patron saint of which nation?

Wales: Saint David was a sixth-century bishop, and leeks are worn on his day because, legend says, Welsh soldiers once wore them in battle to tell friend from foe.

In Spain, Italy and Portugal, Father's Day falls on March 19, the feast of which saint?

Saint Joseph, husband of Mary and earthly father to Jesus, made his feast the natural day to honour fathers, while the United States settled on a Sunday in June instead.

Hinamatsuri, Japan's 3 March festival for girls, is also known as what?

Doll's Day, also called Girls' Day: families display tiered sets of ornamental dolls dressed as the Heian-period imperial court to wish their daughters health and happiness.

On White Day, 14 March, who gives gifts in Japan?

Men to women: in Japan it is women who do the giving on Valentine's Day, so a month later the men are expected to answer with gifts of their own.

Japan's White Day, on 14 March, was launched by which industry?

Confectioners: a Fukuoka sweet-maker began selling marshmallows for 14 March, and Japan's national confectionery association then promoted the date as White Day.

The Jewish festival of Purim celebrates the foiling of which villain's plot in the Book of Esther?

Haman, the Persian king's chief minister, plotted to kill the Jews until Queen Esther exposed him; at Purim readings, listeners drown out his name with rattles, stamping and shouts.

Which organisation's annual day, held each March, grew out of Empire Day?

The Commonwealth: Empire Day was tied to 24 May, Queen Victoria's birthday, and was renamed in 1958 as the empire gave way to an association of independent nations.

In which country did police shoot dead pass-law protesters at Sharpeville on 21 March 1960?

South Africa: the Sharpeville killings are why the UN marks 21 March as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and why South Africa keeps it as Human Rights Day.

Gandhi's 240-mile march to the sea at Dandi, begun on 12 March 1930, defied a British tax on what?

Salt: British law barred Indians from making or selling their own, so Gandhi walked 24 days to the coast and picked up a handful from the shore, and Indians in their thousands followed his lead.

President Reagan's missile-defence plan, announced on March 23, 1983, was soon nicknamed after which film?

Star Wars: parts of the shield were to be based in space, so pundits borrowed the film's name at once; Reagan himself said it might not be ready before the end of the century.

The 1965 Selma voting rights marchers walked 54 miles to which state capital?

Montgomery: the third attempt, escorted by federalised National Guard troops, reached Alabama's capitol on March 25, and the Voting Rights Act became law that August.

Nazi Germany annexed which country on 12 March 1938 in the Anschluss?

Austria: German troops crossed the border on 12 March 1938 and Hitler proclaimed the union in Vienna; the 1919 treaties of Versailles and Saint-Germain had expressly forbidden it.

Which Soviet leader died on 5 March 1953 after a stroke?

Stalin died at his dacha near Moscow four days after the stroke; within three years his successor Nikita Khrushchev had denounced him in the 'secret speech' of 1956.

The Exxon Valdez ran aground on 24 March 1989 in which body of water?

Prince William Sound: the tanker struck Bligh Reef just after midnight and spilled about 11 million gallons of crude, and the outcry led Congress to pass the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

The Three Mile Island nuclear accident of 28 March 1979 happened in which US state?

Pennsylvania: a relief valve at Unit 2 near Harrisburg stuck open, and with no gauge showing its true position, operators cut back the emergency cooling that would have protected the core.

The magnitude 9.2 Alaska earthquake of 27 March 1964 is also known by what name?

The Good Friday earthquake struck at 5:36 pm on the holiday and shook for about four and a half minutes; its deadly waves led the United States to set up a tsunami warning centre in Alaska.

Japan's Fukushima disaster of 11 March 2011 was the worst nuclear accident since which earlier one?

Chernobyl: the 2011 tsunami knocked out Fukushima Daiichi's backup generators, three reactor cores melted without cooling, and it became only the second accident rated at the top level, 7.

The Madrid train bombings of 11 March 2004 came three days before which event in Spain?

A general election: the bombings came three days before Spain's 14 March 2004 vote, which the opposition Socialists under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero unexpectedly won.

Who made the first spacewalk on 18 March 1965?

Alexei Leonov floated outside Voskhod 2 on a tether, but his suit ballooned so badly in the vacuum that he had to bleed off air to squeeze back into the airlock.

Twitter, created in March 2006, capped posts at 140 characters to fit what?

Text messages: SMS allowed 160 characters, so Twitter kept 140 for the post and left 20 for the username; the cap doubled to 280 in 2017.

Which Pink Floyd album was released in March 1973?

The Dark Side of the Moon: session singer Clare Torry was paid a flat £30 for her improvised vocal on 'The Great Gig in the Sky', and won a co-writing credit only after suing in 2004.

The Beatles' debut album, released on 22 March 1963, was called what?

Please Please Me: the Beatles taped ten of its fourteen tracks in a single day, ending with 'Twist and Shout', which John Lennon, hoarse from a cold, nailed on the first take.

Which Renaissance artist was born on 6 March 1475 in the Tuscan village of Caprese?

Michelangelo was born in Caprese only because his father was briefly its administrator; within months the family was back in Florence, where he grew up.

Which composer, whose birthday is celebrated on 1 March, left Warsaw at 20 and made his home in Paris?

Chopin died in Paris at 39, but at his own wish his sister carried his heart home to Warsaw, where it rests in a pillar of Holy Cross Church.

Antonio Vivaldi, born in Venice on 4 March 1678, is best known for which set of concertos?

The Four Seasons: Vivaldi paired each of the four violin concertos with a sonnet, which he may have written himself, so the music follows a poem about its season.

Which singer, born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947, grew up in Pinner?

Elton John, born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in Pinner, Middlesex, won a Royal Academy of Music junior scholarship at 11 and took his stage name from bandmates Elton Dean and Long John Baldry.

The Iditarod sled dog race, held each March, runs from Anchorage to which town?

Nome: the roughly 1,000-mile race was first run in 1973, after snowmobiles and aircraft had all but replaced Alaska's working dog teams; mushers take eight days or more to finish.

Which university's 'Tall Firs' won the first NCAA men's basketball tournament in 1939?

Oregon beat Ohio State 46-33 in the first final on 27 March 1939; a newspaper editor had named its unusually tall line-up the 'Tall Firs'.

Which nation joined rugby's Five Nations in 2000, creating the Six Nations that ends each March?

Italy won its first Six Nations match on 5 February 2000, beating reigning champions Scotland 34-20, with Diego Domínguez kicking 29 points.

Which race is the highlight of March's Cheltenham Festival?

The Gold Cup, run on the festival's final day, was won five years running by Golden Miller from 1932, and in 1934 he added the Grand National, the only horse to win both in one year.

Texas declared independence on 2 March 1836, the 43rd birthday of which general, later its president?

Sam Houston turned 43 the day delegates at Washington-on-the-Brazos declared independence; seven weeks later his army beat Santa Anna at San Jacinto, and he was elected president that year.

Maine became the 23rd state on 15 March 1820 under which agreement?

The Missouri Compromise admitted Maine as a free state to balance Missouri's entry as a slave state; Maine had been a district of Massachusetts until then.

Which president, who succeeded William Henry Harrison, saw Florida become a state on his last full day, 3 March 1845?

John Tyler saw Florida admitted on his last full day in office; that same day Congress overrode a presidential veto for the first time, and the veto was his.

Nebraska became the 37th state on 1 March 1867 and moved its capital to which city?

Lincoln: the village of Lancaster was chosen as the new capital in 1867 and renamed for the recently assassinated president; the old territorial capital had been Omaha.

Which state joined the Union on 4 March 1791 as the 14th?

Vermont declared itself an independent republic in 1777 and ran its own affairs for 14 years, unrecognised by Congress, before it joined the Union.

Greece celebrates its Independence Day on 25 March, the feast of what?

The Annunciation: the Greek War of Independence is dated from 25 March 1821, when Bishop Germanos of Patras is said to have raised the banner of revolt at Agia Lavra monastery.

Which UN body declared 21 March World Poetry Day in 1999?

UNESCO adopted 21 March as World Poetry Day at its 30th General Conference in Paris in 1999, to support linguistic diversity and endangered languages through poetry.

Why is World Down Syndrome Day held on 21 March?

3/21 echoes trisomy 21: Down syndrome is caused by a third copy of chromosome 21, so the 21st day of the third month was chosen; the UN recognised the day in 2011.

World Wildlife Day, 3 March, commemorates the 1973 signing of which convention?

CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, was agreed by 80 countries in Washington on 3 March 1973 and now shields more than 40,000 species from over-trading.

In the UK and Ireland, which annual celebration of reading falls on the first Thursday of March?

World Book Day is marked on 23 April in most countries, but organisers in the UK and Ireland moved it to the first Thursday of March to avoid the Easter school holidays.

The March Hare, proverbially mad, appears at a famous tea party in which 1865 book?

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Lewis Carroll drew on the old saying 'mad as a March hare', which comes from the way hares box and leap about in their breeding season.

In Through the Looking-Glass, the March Hare's new name, Haigha, rhymes with what?

Mayor: said that way, Haigha sounds like 'hare', a hint that he is the March Hare under another name; his fellow messenger Hatta is the Hatter.

In Roman myth, Mars fathered which famous pair of twins?

Romulus and Remus, born to the Vestal Rhea Silvia, were set adrift on the Tiber and suckled by a she-wolf before Romulus founded Rome, by tradition in 753 BC.

Which Greek god did the Romans identify with Mars?

Ares was among the least loved of the Greek gods, feared for his temper, but the Romans ranked his counterpart Mars second only to Jupiter and honoured him as a father of their people.

Who emerged from China's Long March of 1934-35 as Communist leader?

Mao Zedong regained his influence at a party meeting in Zunyi in January 1935; of the roughly 86,000 troops who set out, only a fraction reached Shaanxi a year later.

The March of Dimes, named in 1938 as a pun on a newsreel series, was founded to fight which disease?

Polio: comedian Eddie Cantor punned on 'The March of Time' newsreels and asked radio listeners to send dimes to the White House for President Roosevelt, who had been stricken with the disease.

The March sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy appear in which novel?

Little Women was written at the urging of Louisa May Alcott's publisher; she resisted, found the early chapters dull, and based the March sisters on herself and her own three sisters.

Which composer is known as 'The March King'?

John Philip Sousa led the US Marine Band from 1880 to 1892 before touring with his own band, and the sousaphone, a marching tuba first built at his request in 1893, carries his name.

Which piece has been the official National March of the United States since 1987?

The Stars and Stripes Forever came to its composer on Christmas Day 1896, on a ship home from Europe after he learned his band manager had died; Congress made it the national march in 1987.

Which comedy series used the 1893 march The Liberty Bell as its theme tune?

Monty Python's Flying Circus opened with The Liberty Bell from its 1969 debut; Terry Gilliam is said to have picked the march because it was out of copyright and free to use.

The 2005 documentary March of the Penguins follows which species in Antarctica?

Emperor penguins: Luc Jacquet's film follows their winter trek inland to breed, with males incubating a single egg on their feet; it won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Sherman's March to the Sea set out from which Georgia city on 15 November 1864?

Atlanta: Sherman's roughly 60,000 troops left the burning city on 15 November 1864 and cut a path of destruction nearly 300 miles to the Atlantic coast.

The 1936 Jarrow March protested the closure of which industry in the town?

A shipyard: the closure of Palmer's yard, the town's main employer, left Jarrow with mass unemployment; in October 1936 about 200 men walked to London with a petition that Parliament received but never debated.

Actor Fredric March won his first Oscar for which 1931 film?

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: March polled one vote more than Wallace Beery of The Champ, but Academy rules then treated a margin that small as a tie, so both men were named Best Actor.

MLB spring training is split between Florida and which other state?

Arizona's Cactus League began in 1947, when Cleveland owner Bill Veeck moved his team from Florida to Tucson, near his own ranch, and got the Giants to train in Phoenix.

How many teams did the men's March Madness bracket hold after its 2011 expansion?

68: the field grew from 64 to 65 in 2001 with a play-in game, then to 68 in 2011 with the 'First Four' in Dayton; the women's field matched 68 in 2022.

Tsar Alexander II, killed by a bomb on 13 March 1881, had freed which group in 1861?

The serfs: his 1861 edict freed millions of them, yet revolutionaries of the People's Will (Narodnaya Volya) made several attempts on his life before killing him in the streets of St Petersburg.

Which Canadian pop star was born on 1 March 1994?

Justin Bieber grew up in Stratford, Ontario, posting song covers on YouTube; manager Scooter Braun found the videos and flew him south to meet Usher, who signed the 14-year-old.

Stefani Germanotta, born 28 March 1986 in Manhattan, performs under what name?

Lady Gaga, born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, took her stage name from the Queen song 'Radio Ga Ga' before her first album came out in 2008.

Bruce Willis, born 19 March 1955, was born in which country?

West Germany: Willis was born in Idar-Oberstein, where his American father was stationed as a soldier, and the family moved to the United States in 1957.

What is the birth name of actor Michael Caine, born 14 March 1933?

Maurice Micklewhite took the name Michael Caine in 1954, reportedly from a cinema poster for The Caine Mutiny; he was born in Rotherhithe, south-east London.

Wyatt Earp, born 19 March 1848, fought an 1881 gunfight in which frontier town?

Tombstone: the shootout near the O.K. Corral lasted about 30 seconds and left three men dead; Wyatt was the only fighter on his side to walk away unhurt.

Quincy Jones, born 14 March 1933, produced which 1982 Michael Jackson album?

Thriller: three years later Jones produced the charity single We Are the World, recording dozens of stars in a single night straight after the American Music Awards.

Composer Maurice Ravel, born 7 March 1875, is best known for which repetitive 1928 work?

Boléro: Ravel wrote it as a ballet score for the dancer Ida Rubinstein and called it an experiment, its themes repeated over an unchanging snare-drum rhythm while the orchestra grows steadily louder.

Reese Witherspoon, born 22 March 1976, won her Oscar for playing whom?

June Carter Cash: Witherspoon won Best Actress at the 2006 Academy Awards for Walk the Line, opposite Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash, and did her own singing.

Steve McQueen, born 24 March 1930, drove a Mustang through San Francisco in which film?

Bullitt: McQueen, a keen racing driver, drove in the chase's close-up shots himself, while stunt drivers handled the fastest stretches.

Bangladesh celebrates its independence from which country on 26 March?

Pakistan: after its army's crackdown in Dhaka on the night of 25 March 1971, independence was declared in Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's name early on the 26th, opening a nine-month struggle.

Which country was the first sub-Saharan colony to win independence from European rule, on 6 March 1957?

Ghana: at midnight Kwame Nkrumah told a vast crowd in Accra that the former Gold Coast, 'your beloved country', was 'free forever'.

Which phrase described the US air strikes on Baghdad at the start of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq?

Shock and awe: the phrase came from a 1990s doctrine of overwhelming force; before the heavy bombing began, a first strike on Dora Farms had tried and failed to kill Saddam Hussein.

Long before clocks sprang forward each March, which American joked in 1784 that Parisians should rise earlier?

Benjamin Franklin's essay was satire and never mentioned changing clocks; the first serious proposal came in 1895 from George Hudson, a New Zealand postal worker who wanted evening light to collect insects.

Which two US states skip daylight saving time and keep standard time all year?

Hawaii and Arizona: neither changes its clocks, though the Navajo Nation in north-eastern Arizona does observe daylight saving time.

Which 8th-century monk recorded Hrethmonath as the Anglo-Saxon name for March?

Bede, the Northumbrian monk, listed the Anglo-Saxon months in The Reckoning of Time and wrote that Hrethmonath honoured a goddess, Hretha, to whom sacrifices were made in that month.

The Persian new year Nowruz has its roots in which religion?

Zoroastrianism: Nowruz has roots going back some 3,000 years in ancient Persia, outlasted the arrival of Islam there, and is now marked by more than 300 million people.

The word 'Lent' comes from Old English lencten, a season probably named for what?

The lengthening of days: lencten was the Old English name for the season when daylight grows, probably built on a Germanic root for 'long', and the fast held in those weeks took its name.

The blizzard of 11-14 March 1888 that paralysed the north-eastern US was nicknamed what?

The Great White Hurricane killed more than 400 people and crippled above-ground telegraph lines and railways; afterwards north-eastern cities began burying their wires and moving their trains underground.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 25 March 1911 killed 146 garment workers in which city?

New York: the workers, mostly young immigrant women, were trapped high in the Asch Building, where a stairway door was locked; the outcry led to a wave of new workplace-safety laws.

Until 1752 England's legal year began on 25 March, a quarter day known by what name?

Lady Day: when eleven days were dropped in the calendar change of 1752, the financial year kept its full length, which is why the UK tax year still turns over in early April instead of late March.

Saint Piran's Day, 5 March, is the national day of which region?

Cornwall: Saint Piran, patron saint of tin miners, also gives Cornwall its flag, a white cross on a black field, said to show white tin flowing from black ore.

Casimir Pulaski Day, on the first Monday of March, is an official holiday in which state?

Illinois passed a law honouring Pulaski in 1977, reflecting the state's large Polish community; the Polish-born cavalry commander died of wounds from a battle in Georgia in 1779.

Which country led the campaign for the UN's International Day of Happiness on 20 March?

Bhutan, which has pursued Gross National Happiness over national income since the 1970s, initiated the UN General Assembly resolution of 2012 that created the 20 March observance.

Which UN agency, founded on 23 March 1950, has its founding date marked every year?

The World Meteorological Organization: its convention came into force on 23 March 1950, and it became a UN specialised agency in 1951; the first World Meteorological Day was held in 1961.

World Tuberculosis Day, 24 March, marks whose 1882 announcement of the TB bacillus?

Robert Koch announced on 24 March 1882 that he had found the bacterium behind tuberculosis, which opened the way to diagnosing and curing the disease; he won the 1905 Nobel Prize.

Earth Hour, held each March, began in 2007 as a lights-off event in which city?

Sydney: WWF-Australia staged the first switch-off there on 31 March 2007 as a public stand on climate change, and a year later the idea had spread to 35 countries.

The Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, often held in late March, runs between which two points on the Thames?

Putney and Mortlake: the 4.2-mile Championship Course is rowed upstream but timed to start on the incoming tide, so the crews have the current behind them.

At the March equinox, the Sun is directly overhead at noon on which line?

The Equator: on the equinox the Sun passes straight overhead there at noon, and at the North Pole it rises for the first time in six months.

Which Julie Andrews film, which opened on 2 March 1965, went on to win Best Picture?

The Sound of Music won five Oscars, but it bent the true story: the real von Trapp family did not hike over the Alps to escape, they simply left by train.

Which Spanish city's Fallas festival, peaking from 15 to 19 March, ends with giant monuments being burned?

Valencia: the Fallas are traced to the city's carpenters, who burned workshop scraps and old lamp stands in the street as winter ended; today whole neighbourhoods build satirical monuments to burn.

At Spain's Fallas bonfires each March, what is the ninot indultat?

The figure spared from burning: 'indultat' means pardoned, and since 1934 a public vote has saved one ninot each year for the Fallas Museum while all the others are set alight.

Pakistan Day on 23 March marks the 1940 Lahore Resolution and the 1956 adoption of what?

The first constitution turned the country from a dominion into a republic in 1956; the day is marked with a military parade.

On Nyepi, Bali's Day of Silence, usually in March, what happens to the island's only airport?

It closes for 24 hours; even tourists must stay off beaches and streets, and only the pecalang, traditional security men, patrol outdoors.

Which Australian city, named at a ceremony on 12 March 1913, marks the occasion with a public holiday each March?

Canberra: Lady Denman, the governor-general's wife, announced the name at the 1913 ceremony, after suggestions that had included Olympus, Paradise and Shakespeare.

Tibetan Uprising Day on 10 March commemorates the 1959 revolt in which city?

Lhasa: the uprising began on 10 March 1959 when crowds surrounded the Norbulingka palace to protect the Dalai Lama, who slipped away a week later and reached India on 31 March.

Because the early Roman year began in March, the name September originally marked which month of the year?

Seventh is what September's Latin root septem means, and October, November and December are still two places out as well, named for eight, nine and ten.

Which fairy-tale name do March Madness fans give a low-seeded team that keeps knocking out the favourites?

Cinderella caught on in 1950, when City College of New York unexpectedly won the title in the same month that Disney's animated film reached American cinemas.

Washington's National Cherry Blossom Festival marks a March 1912 gift of trees from the mayor of which city?

Tokyo's mayor Yukio Ozaki was trying again: a first shipment in 1910 arrived infested with insects, and President Taft ordered the trees burned.

Crufts, held over four days each March near Birmingham, is recognised as the world's largest show of which animals?

Dogs were Charles Cruft's business long before the show: he was general manager of a dog biscuit maker, and his first event in 1886 was a terrier show.

Which weekday, mardi in French and martes in Spanish, is named after the same Roman god as March?

Tuesday reaches Mars at one remove in English: it honours Tiw, the Germanic god matched with the Roman deity when the Latin day names were translated.

Which Canadian province, whose sugar shacks are busiest from March, makes about 70 percent of the world's maple syrup?

Quebec even keeps a strategic reserve of syrup, and thieves drained nearly 3,000 tonnes from it in 2011 and 2012 in the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist.

On the March day when day and night are nearly equal, the Sun rises in which direction almost everywhere on Earth?

Due east is where the Sun comes up that day at almost every spot on Earth, and at Angkor Wat in Cambodia it rises in perfect alignment over the temple.

The 'boxing' of hares in March was once blamed on rival males, but who is often throwing the punches?

A female rejecting a suitor is often the boxer: she hits the male to show she is not ready to mate, or to test how determined he is.

Research published in 2017 places the first St Patrick's Day parade in 1601 in which Spanish colonial town?

St. Augustine in Spanish Florida staged the procession, organised by the colony's vicar Ricardo Artur, known in English as Richard Arthur.

Which singer, mocked at Columbia Records as 'Hammond's Folly', released a self-titled debut album on 19 March 1962?

Bob Dylan's first album sold only about 2,500 copies in the US at first, a poor return for John Hammond, the Columbia talent scout who had signed him on the spot.

Which US state legalised wide-open casino gambling on 19 March 1931, in the depths of the Great Depression?

Nevada had outlawed gambling in 1909; in 1931 Governor Fred Balzar's signature also gave the state the most liberal divorce laws in the country.

Which annual showbusiness ceremony was first televised on 19 March 1953, staged in Hollywood and New York at once?

The Academy Awards had long resisted television; the New York half that night was held in the NBC International Theatre, which was demolished shortly afterwards.

Which California mission is best known for the 'Return of the Swallows', traditionally observed every 19 March?

San Juan Capistrano's cliff swallows winter some 6,000 miles away in Goya, Argentina; in legend they first took refuge at the mission when an innkeeper destroyed their mud nests.

Sudan, who died at a Kenyan conservancy on 19 March 2018, was the last known male of which animal?

Northern white rhino numbers fell to just two, both female, when Sudan was euthanised, though his genetic material was preserved in the hope of saving the subspecies.

Which Scottish missionary, born on 19 March 1813, was found in Africa by the journalist Henry Morton Stanley?

David Livingstone was born in a tenement for cotton-mill workers in Blantyre and went to the village school despite a 14-hour working day.

Which future vice president gave the first televised House speech when C-SPAN launched on 19 March 1979?

Al Gore, then a Tennessee congressman, opened the coverage on a network that at first leased satellite time from the USA Network and aired about nine hours a day.

Hitler's order of 19 March 1945 to destroy Germany's own infrastructure is nicknamed after which Roman emperor?

Nero was blamed in legend for the Great Fire of Rome; Hitler's version barely happened, because armaments minister Albert Speer deliberately failed to carry it out.

Which system, used by America's railroads since 1883, did the US Congress first write into federal law on 19 March 1918?

Time zones became law in the Standard Time Act, which also brought in daylight saving time; Congress soon repealed that part over President Wilson's veto.

Which science-fiction author, who died on 19 March 2008, had lived in Sri Lanka since 1956 to pursue scuba diving?

Arthur C. Clarke moved to what was then Ceylon for the diving and stayed for life, receiving Sri Lanka's highest civil honour, Sri Lankabhimanya, in 2005.

Which state's legislature finally voted on 16 March 1995 to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery?

Mississippi's vote was not even certified until 2013, and only then had every state that existed at the amendment's adoption in 1865 ratified it.

US soldiers murdered hundreds of unarmed villagers on 16 March 1968 in a massacre named after which Vietnamese hamlet?

My Lai's killing was challenged on the spot by helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson Jr., whose crew tried to halt it; of 26 soldiers charged, only William Calley was convicted.

Which US military academy above the Hudson River was created by an act Thomas Jefferson signed on 16 March 1802?

West Point began as a Revolutionary War fort, on high ground where a great chain across the river kept Royal Navy ships from sailing upstream.

Which American physicist launched the world's first liquid-fuelled rocket from a Massachusetts farm on 16 March 1926?

Robert Goddard's rocket, later dubbed Nell, rose just 41 feet in a 2.5-second flight and came down in a cabbage field on his Aunt Effie's farm.

Which US president, born in Virginia on 16 March 1751, is remembered as the 'Father of the Constitution'?

James Madison earned the title by drafting and promoting both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights; under the old calendar his birthday was 5 March 1750.

Finnish Americans toast the made-up St. Urho every 16 March for driving which creatures out of Finland?

Grasshoppers are what he banished in the usual telling, saving Finland's grape crop; the legend is credited to a department-store worker in Minnesota in 1956.

A disputed referendum on leaving Ukraine to join Russia was held on 16 March 2014 in which region?

Crimea's vote was declared invalid by the UN General Assembly, by 100 votes to 11 with 58 abstentions, after Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution.

Which future moonwalker commanded Gemini 8, launched on 16 March 1966 to make the first docking of two spacecraft?

Neil Armstrong and David Scott achieved the docking but then lost control of their craft, which threatened their lives and forced an immediate abort of the mission.

Which former Italian prime minister was kidnapped in Rome by the Red Brigades on 16 March 1978?

Aldo Moro's five bodyguards were shot dead in the ambush, and after 54 days of imprisonment his body was found in the boot of a Renault 4.

The supertanker Amoco Cadiz ran aground on 16 March 1978 and broke apart off the coast of which French region?

Brittany's shore took what was then the largest tanker spill on record, about 220,000 tonnes, after the ship struck Portsall Rocks two kilometres out.

Which crime epic, premiered in New York on 14 March 1972, was for a time the highest-grossing film ever made?

The Godfather reached cinemas almost three months later than its planned Christmas Day opening, and the takings from its premiere went to The Boys Club of New York.

Which film, released in March 1999, popularised 'bullet time' after Will Smith turned down its lead role?

The Matrix made its crew so unsure the effect would work that they shot extra footage of Neo dodging bullets on the rooftop as a backup.

Which 2012 film, starring Jennifer Lawrence as a young archer, set an opening-weekend record for a March release?

The Hunger Games took $152.5 million that weekend, then also a record for any film that was not a sequel, and its opening day alone brought in $67.3 million.

Which Disney film, released on 4 March 2016, features a government vehicle office staffed entirely by sloths?

Zootopia is titled Zootropolis in some markets, and it grossed over $1 billion before winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

Which Tim Burton comedy, released on 30 March 1988, stars Michael Keaton as a sleazy 'bio-exorcist'?

Beetlejuice can only be summoned by saying his name three times, and the film's $8 million opening was at the time a record for an Easter weekend.

Fargo, released on 8 March 1996, won an Oscar for which actress as the pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson?

Frances McDormand's Best Actress win was one of two Oscars from seven nominations; the other went to Joel and Ethan Coen for the original screenplay.

Which superhero film opened on International Women's Day in March 2019 as its studio's first female-led project?

Captain Marvel went on to gross over $1.1 billion, making it the first female-led superhero film to pass the billion-dollar mark.

In How to Train Your Dragon, released on 26 March 2010, what name does Hiccup give the Night Fury he befriends?

Toothless is named for his retractable teeth, and the film is based on a 2003 novel by the British author Cressida Cowell.

Which March 1990 film, with costumes by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, was then the highest-grossing independent film ever?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made $202 million on a $14 million budget for New Line Cinema, then a small company known for low-budget B movies and arthouse fare.

Which courtroom comedy, released on 13 March 1992, won Marisa Tomei an Oscar as Mona Lisa Vito?

My Cousin Vinny was also the final film of Fred Gwynne, who played the strict Judge Chamberlain Haller and died the following year.

Which singer, born in Memphis on 25 March 1942, was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Aretha Franklin was crowned the Queen of Soul on stage in the 1960s by the radio personality Pervis Spann, in the middle of one of her own shows.

Which Soviet cosmonaut, born on 9 March 1934, became the first person in space aboard Vostok 1?

Yuri Gagarin's single orbit took 108 minutes; it was his only spaceflight, and the town near his birthplace was renamed Gagarin after his death.

Which Canadian singer, born on 30 March 1968 as the youngest of 14 children, recorded the love theme for Titanic?

Celine Dion won international notice by winning the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, where she sang in French as the entry for Switzerland.

Which director, born on 27 March 1963, spent five years working at Video Archives, a California video store?

Quentin Tarantino was known to customers for his recommendations, and when asked whether he went to film school he liked to answer that he went to films.

Which composer of Cats and The Phantom of the Opera shares a 22 March birthday with Stephen Sondheim?

Andrew Lloyd Webber arrived exactly 18 years after Sondheim, and on Broadway his Phantom went on to break the long-run record set by his own Cats.

Which Supreme Court justice, born in Brooklyn on 15 March 1933, co-founded the ACLU's Women's Rights Project in 1972?

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was known to her family as Kiki, a nickname given by her older sister, who died when the future justice was 14 months old.

Which jazz pianist, born on St Patrick's Day 1919, was among the first Black Americans to host a national TV series?

Nat King Cole was born Nathaniel Adams Coles in Montgomery, Alabama, and fronted his NBC variety series from 1956 to 1957.

Which English runner, born on 23 March 1929, ran the first mile in under four minutes at Oxford in 1954?

Roger Bannister had two pacemakers that day, Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher, and later became a neurologist and Master of Pembroke College, Oxford.

Which ballet dancer, born aboard a Trans-Siberian train on 17 March 1938, defected to the West in 1961?

Rudolf Nureyev's was the first defection of a Soviet artist during the Cold War, made despite KGB efforts to stop him, and it caused an international sensation.

Which engine pioneer, born in Paris on 18 March 1858, vanished from a steamer crossing to England in 1913?

Rudolf Diesel retired to his cabin on the SS Dresden at about 10 p.m. and was never seen alive again; his bed had not been slept in.

Romanians and Moldovans give a Mărțișor on 1 March, a small charm hung on a twisted cord of which two colours?

Red and white threads are twisted together, and the name simply means 'little March'; it is worn pinned to the chest like a brooch in the month's first days.