March 1915

[March 1], 1915 (Monday)

• The Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet began seaplane carrier raids against the Bosporus and the Ottoman Empire's European Black Sea coast. The raids, which continue until May, were history's first in which battleships play a subsidiary role while operating with aviation ships, foreshadowing the aircraft carrier-battleship task forces of World War II.
• A virulent locust infestation broke out in Palestine and would continue until October.
• The Royal Flying Corps established the No. 15 Squadron at Farnborough Airport, Farnborough, Hampshire, England as a training unit under command of Philip Joubert de la Ferté.
• The 11th, 12th, and 13th Light Horse Regiments of the First Australian Imperial Force were established to serve at the upcoming Gallipoli campaign.
• John Martin Poyer relieved Lieutenant Charles Armijo Woodruff to become the 12th naval governor of the American Samoa.
• The Institute of Arbitrators was established in London to represent the interests of alternative dispute resolution practitioners. The organization presently has 14,000 members in 130 countries.
• The Fuji Minobu Railway extended the Minobu Line in the Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan with station Shibakawa serving the line.
• The Old Wan Chai Post Office opened on Queen's Road East in Hong Kong, and remains the oldest surviving post office in the city. It was declared a Hong Kong monument in 1990.

  [March 2], 1915 (Tuesday)

• British battleship joined in assault missions on the Dardanelles.
• 1915 Vanceboro international bridge bombing — German saboteur Werner Horn was indicted by a federal grand jury at the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts for transporting explosives on a public train that were later used in an attempt to blow up the Saint Croix–Vanceboro Railway Bridge that crossed the U.S.-Canada border between New Brunswick and Maine. He was sentenced to serve 18 months at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Georgia before he was extradited to Canada where he was tried for sabotage by the Court of Queen's Bench of New Brunswick in Fredericton. He was found guilty and sentenced to serve 10 years at Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick, but was deemed to be insane by prison authorities in 1921, whereby he was released and deported to Germany.
• The United States Motion Picture Corporation was established to produce film comedies, with its main office in Wilkes-Barre, New Jersey and its film studio in Forty Fort, Pennsylvania. The company produced 27 films that became known as the "Black Diamond Comedies" until 1919, after which the studio was sold to another film production company.
• Born: Anthony Lewis, English composer and music educator, principal of Royal Academy of Music from 1968 to 1982; in Bermuda

  [March 3], 1915 (Wednesday)

• The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor of NASA, was founded in the United States.
• Mount Mitchell State Park was established in Yancey County, North Carolina, the first state park in that U.S. state.
• The 10th Bavarian Infantry Division and 54th Infantry Division of the Imperial German Army were established, and would see major action at Verdun, Somme and Passchendaele.
• The Ocean to Ocean Bridge that spanned the Colorado River opened in Yuma, Arizona.
• The Great Western Railway closed the Oldbury railway station in Oldbury, West Midlands, England.
• Born:
• * Manning Clark, Australian historian, author of the six-volume A History of Australia, published between 1962 and 1987; as Charles Manning Hope Clark, in Sydney, Australia
• * Wood B. Kyle, American marine corps officer, commander of the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines during World War II and 3rd Marine Division during the Vietnam War, two-time recipient of the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, and Distinguished Service Medal; in Pecos, Texas, United States

  [March 4], 1915 (Thursday)

• Sessions for the 64th United States Congress began in Washington D.C.
• Admiral Sackville Carden of the Royal Navy cabled Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, with revised plans at Churchill's request with an objective for the Mediterranean British fleet to reach Constantinople in 14 days.
• The third German attempt to bomb England using airships failed when a lone naval Zeppelin encountered a gale over the North Sea and was blown out of control over Nieuwpoort, Belgium where Belgian antiaircraft gunners shot her down.
• German submarine was scuttled by the crew after it was ensnared by nets in the English Channel.
• The Zeppelin airship LZ 37 began flying for the Imperial German Navy on bombing raids throughout 1915. It was downed in February 1916 by a British fighter plane.
• The U.S. Government passed the Seamen's Act to preserve the security and safety of workers in the merchant shipping industry, but its ineffectiveness lead to the Merchant Marine Act in 1920.
• The Hardinge Bridge officially opened for rail crossings over the Padma River in British India. Named after Baron Hardinge, who was Governor-General of India at the time, the bridge spans.
• The Yukon Territory in Canada held a general election for 10 seats on the Yukon Territorial Council.

  [March 5], 1915 (Friday)

• Battle of Hartmannswillerkopf — French forces staged renewed attacks on German defenses on the Hartmannswillerkopf summit on the French-German border, running one German position but stopped by new German defense lines close to the summit. The Germans counterattacked but were repulsed, sustaining 200 casualties in the process. A second attack two days later also failed the push the French off the mountain.
• The 56th Infantry Division of the Imperial German Army was established and fought key battles on the Eastern Front including Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive.
• British destroyer was launched by J. Samuel White at East Cowes, Isle of Wight. It served for one year before being sunk in the Battle of Jutland.
• Born: Laurent Schwartz, French mathematician, pioneered the theory of distributions; as Laurent-Moïse Schwartz, in Paris, France
• Died:
• * Thomas R. Bard, 73, American politician, U.S. Senator for California from 1900 to 1905
• * Jim Donnelly, 49, American baseball player, third baseman for the Washington Nationals, Kansas City Cowboys, and the Baltimore Orioles from 1884 to 1899

  [March 6], 1915 (Saturday)

• British destroyers HMS and were assigned to escort RMS Lusitania to Liverpool, but when the ships tried to contact Lusitania by radio, Captain Daniel Dow only gave his position by code and continued to Liverpool unescorted.
• The 52nd Infantry and 58th Infantry Divisions of the Imperial German Army were established to fight on the Western Front, although the 58th was transferred to the Eastern Front to participate in the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive.
• British racing driver Dario Resta won his second racing championship title of 1915 in the 10th running of the Vanderbilt Cup at San Francisco while driving a Peugeot EX3.
• Born:
• * Per Vilhelm Brüel, Danish physicist, leading researcher on sound and co-founder of electronics company Brüel & Kjær; in Copenhagen, Denmark
• * Friedrich Guggenberger, German naval officer, commander of U-boat when it sank British aircraft carrier, recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross; in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
• * Pete Gray, American baseball player, left fielder of the St. Louis Browns in 1945, first player with one arm to compete in professional baseball; as Peter Wyshner, in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, United States
• * Bob Swift, American baseball player, catcher for the St. Louis Browns, Philadelphia Athletics and Detroit Tigers from 1940 to 1953, 1945 World Series champion; as Robert Swift, in Salina, Kansas, United States

  [March 7], 1915 (Sunday)

• British collier was sunk by torpedo in the Bristol Channel northeast of Ilfracombe, Devon, England by, with all 33 crew rescued.
• German noble Bernhard III established the Cross for Merit in War medal for officers that displayed outstanding merit in World War I.
• Born:
• * Jacques Chaban-Delmas, French politician, Prime Minister of France from 1969 to 1972; as Jacques Michel Pierre Delmas, in Paris, France
• * Johannes Wiese, German air force officer, commander of Jagdgeschwader 52 and Jagdgeschwader 77 for the Luftwaffe during World War II, recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross; in Breslau, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire

  [March 8], 1915 (Monday)

• San Diego Union Station officially opened, ushering in a new era of rail transport for the city.
• British pilot Eric Gordon England flew the prototype for the White & Thompson Bognor Bloater reconnaissance plane, which was used in 1915 by the Royal Naval Air Service for training and coastal patrols.
• New York City Fire Department Rescue Company 1 was established as the first New York City Fire Department unit designed for specialized rescue operations. The company lost half of its crew when the World Trade Center North Tower collapsed during the September 11 attacks in 2001.
• The Princess Theatre opened in Edmonton with 660 seats and the largest live performance stage in a cinema west of Winnipeg. It is the oldest surviving movie theater in the city.
• Born: Tapio Rautavaara, Finnish field athlete, gold medalist at the 1948 Summer Olympics; as Kaj Tapio Rautavaara, in Prikkala, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire

  [March 9], 1915 (Tuesday)

• The German 11th Army was established, initially for the Western Front was soon transferred to the Eastern Front where it took part in the Serbian Campaign. The army was dissolved briefly in September before it was reformed, and permanently dissolved in 1919.
• The cargo ship SS Aberdon was torpedoed and sunk in the North Sea off St Abb's Head, Berwickshire, Scotland by German submarine with the loss of fifteen crew.
• German astronomer Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth discovered 799 Gudula, a minor planet, at the Heidelberg Observatory.
• Born:
• * Johnnie Johnson, British air force pilot, commander of Air Forces Middle East from 1963 to 1965, recipient of the Order of the British Empire, Order of the Bath, Legion of Honour, and Legion of Merit; as James Edgar Johnson, in Barrow upon Soar, England
• * Francisco Matos Paoli, Puerto Rican poet and politician, nominee of the Nobel Prize in Literature, leader of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico; in Lares, Puerto Rico