The Month of March
March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian calendar. It used to be the first month of the year before the calendar was revised in ancient Roman times. March is named after the war god Mars. March heralds the coming of spring and the end of winter in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, March heralds the start of autumn and the end of summer. The vernal equinox (time when the sun's path through the skies passes the equator) occurs in mid-March.
Events
March 17 is celebrated as the feast of St. Patrick. March 19 is celebrated as the feast of St. Joseph. This year, Holy Week and Passover fall on the last week of March.
In the Philippines this year, March 16th is the 481st anniversary of the discovery of the archipelago by the Portuguese explorer Fernao de Magalhaes (Fernando Magallanes) for the Spanish.
March is also the birth-month of several famous personalities, including, scientists (A. Bell, L. Burbank, A. Einstein, P. Lowell, I. Newton, G. Ohm, A. Roentgen, W. Von Braun, to name a few), politicians (K. Attaturk, M. Gorbachev, Napoleon II, among others), artists (Michaelangelo, Raphael, VanGogh, etc.) and musicians (J. Bach, G. Benson, F. Chopin, E. Clapton, G. Haydn, M. Ravel, J. Strauss, etc). Also born on this month were astronauts (F. Borman, J. Cooper, Y. Gagarin, W. Schirra, D. Slayton, etc), athletes (R. Bannister, B. Fisher, J. Joyner-Kersee, I. Lendl, S. Oneal, R. Mancini, etc), explorers (A. Vespucci, M. Mercator) and several men who were pillars of the automotive industry (A. Cadillac, G. Daimler, R. Diesel, H. Royce, F. Studebaker, etc) as well as poets (E. Browning, for one), writers (T. Giesel, aka. Dr Seuss, for one), cartoonists (H. Ketcham, for one), actors (W. Shatner, for one) and many more.
So you see, March has produced a good number of people with probably the widest variety of talents.
