March: Publication in New York of exiled French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's self-illustrated children's novella The Little Prince, the all-time best-selling book originated in French.

March-December: History of computing hardware: Construction of British prototype Mark I Colossus computer, the world's first totally electronic programmable computing device, to assist in cryptanalysis of German signals at Bletchley Park.

March 1: Heinz Guderian becomes the Inspector-General of the Armoured Troops for the German Army.

March 1-2: Koriukivka massacre - Mass murder of the inhabitants of Koriukivka in the Ukraine by German SS troops.

March 2: Battle of the Bismarck Sea - United States and Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships.

March 3: 173 people are killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station in London.

March 4: The 15th Academy Awards ceremony is held in Los Angeles. Mrs. Miniver wins the Best Picture award.

March 9: S,ükrü Saracog(lu forms the new government of Turkey (14th government; S,ükrü Saracog(lu had served twice as a prime minister).

March 10: Banco Bradesco is founded by Amador Aguiar in Marília, São Paulo, Brazil.

March 13: Nazi German forces liquidate the Jews of the Kraków Ghetto in Occupied Poland.

March 14: British submarine HMS Thunderbolt is sunk off Sicily by an Italian corvette, the second time this vessel has been lost with all hands.

March 15: The Italian submarine Leonardo da Vinci sinks the Canadian Pacific liner RMS Empress of Canada off Sierra Leone. Nearly half of the 392 fatalities are Italian prisoners of war. - German forces recapture Kharkov after four days of house-to-house fighting against Soviet troops, ending the month-long Third Battle of Kharkov.

March 16-19: 22 ships from Convoys HX 229/SC 122 and one U-boat are sunk in the largest North Atlantic U-boat "wolfpack" attack of the war.

March 17 (Saint Patrick's Day) - Eamon de Valera, Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, makes the speech "The Ireland That We Dreamed Of", commonly called the "comely maidens" speech, in Dublin Castle.

March 22: Khatyn massacre - The entire population of Khatyn in Belarus is burnt alive by the German occupation forces.

March 23: The drugs Vicodin and Lortab are first produced in Germany.

March 26: Battle of the Komandorski Islands: In the Aleutian Islands, the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese troops attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska.

March 27: British Royal Navy escort carrier HMS Dasher (D37) is destroyed by an accidental explosion in the Firth of Clyde, killing 379 of the crew of 528.

March 28: In Italy a ship full of weapons and ammunition explodes in the port of Naples, killing 600.

March 31: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! opens on Broadway, heralds a new era in "integrated" stage musicals, becomes an instantaneous stage classic, and goes on to be Broadway's longest-running musical up to that time (1948). (source: Wikipedia)