March 5, 1963
Noted country music vocalist and Virginia native, Patsy Cline, dies in an airplane crash in Tennessee. She is buried at Shenandoah Memorial Park in Winchester.

March 7, 1956
As part of Virginia’s Massive Resistance to federally mandated school desegregation, a constitutional convention amends the state's laws to permit the payment of public funds for tuition to parents who send their children to private, segregated schools.

March 9, 1862
The first battle of ironclad ships takes place in the waterways of Hampton Roads when the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (Merrimac) engage in a five-hour fight that ends in a draw.

March 12, 1612
England's King James I issues the third charter of the Virginia Company of London. This charter remained in force until May 1624, when the company was dissolved and Virginia became a royal colony.

March 12, 1956
In response to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, 101 southern members of Congress draft the Declaration of Constitutional Principles, popularly known as the "Southern Manifesto," pledging to "use all lawful means to bring about a reversal of this decision which is contrary to the Constitution and to prevent the use of force in its implementation."

March 16, 1751
James Madison is born near Port Conway in King George County. Madison served as the fourth president of the United States and was the primary author of the U.S. Constitution.

March 16, 1861
Texas governor Sam Houston is removed from office for refusing to take the Confederate oath of allegiance. Robert E. Lee, a U.S. Army officer stationed in Texas, is ordered out of the state after its secession. Houston and Lee are both native Virginians.

March 21, 1617
Pocahontas is buried at St. George’s Church in Gravesend, England, after she died of an unknown illness while traveling home to Virginia after a visit to England. She was about 21 years old. 

March 22, 1622
Powhatan Native Americans stage an uprising on Good Friday in which more than 300 English settlers are killed.

March 23, 1775
Patrick Henry delivers his famous speech "Give me liberty or give me death" at Henrico Parish, now named St. John's Church, in Richmond.

March 29, 1901
Fire levels much of the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond. It is not fully refurbished until 1907.

March 29-30, 1849
Henry “Box” Brown makes a sensational escape from slavery by having himself shipped in a crate from Richmond to Philadelphia. He made the twenty-seven-hour journey to freedom crammed into a box measuring 3 x 2 ½ x 2 feet. 

March 30, 1791
President George Washington issues a proclamation to establish a permanent seat for the U.S. government on the Potomac River, on land ceded by both Virginia and Maryland. The nation's new capital site is called the District of Columbia.

March 30, 1970
Secretariat, future triple-crown winning racehorse, is born at Meadow Stable near Doswell, Virginia.