March 1868

Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI) is founded. It is also known as "The People's Store" and has been called America's first department store. In 1988, the Mormon Church owned 51 percent of ZCMI's stock. ZCMI was sold to Meier and Frank in December 1999.

March 1911

The first Utah flag is adopted. It is later changed in 1913 to its present form.

March 1, 1842

Joseph Smith's first vision is published.

March 8, 1923

An explosion at the Castle Gate coal mine at 8:30 a.m. near Springfield, Utah takes the lives of 173 miners. Coal dust and methane gas ignited causing the blast.

March 9, 1923

Utah ends ban on cigarette sales

March 10, 1848

Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo ratified by U.S. Senate, officially making Utah part of the United States.

March 11, 1853

Ike Hatch is killed by Mormon gunman Bill Hickman.

March 12, 2003

Elizabeth Smart is found alive. Smart, Wanda Barzee, and Brian David Mitchell are spotted in public by a pair of sharp-eyed citizens who had recently seen an America's Most Wanted segment on the Smart abduction. Mitchell and Barzee are arrested. Elizabeth initially denies her identity. She is reunited with her family.

March 13, 1968

A test from Dugway Proving Grounds goes wrong. A Phantom Jet accidentally releases an extra 20 pounds of VX gas beyond its target when its valve fails to close. Over the next few days over 6,000 sheep die from the nerve agent. This causes an international stink. If the winds had been different the toxic cloud could have drifted into Salt Lake City. Open air testing of biological weapons is banned in 1969. The U.S. Army still refuses to claim responsibility to this day.

March 15, 1868

The city of Kaysville incorporates, making it the first city in newly formed Davis County.

March 17, 1839  

Sampson Avard is excommunicated. He was a founding member of the Danites, a secret LDS society avowed to avenge wrongs done to Mormons. This sometimes involved the spilling of blood. The church claims that the shadowy organization was disbanded long before the Mormons came to Utah. Rumors persist that the Danites are still performing dark deeds for the Church. Official Mormon policy is that Avard was the main guy behind the Danites and Joseph Smith was ignorant of their seedier activities. Mormon gunmen Porter Rockwell and Bill Hickman were purported members.

March 17, 1842

Joseph Smith organizes Female Relief Society latter renamed the Women's Relief Society.

March 23, 1858

In preparation for the Mormon War against the U.S., Brigham Young implements the "Sebastopol Policy." The faithful are ordered to Provo after preparing their homes in Salt Lake for burning. About 30,000 people make the move, remaining in Provo and other central and southern Utah towns until the end of the Mormon War.  

March 23, 1877

John D. Lee is executed for the Mountain Meadows Massacre. He was the only man ever convicted for the murders.

March 27, 1990

Eugene Nate Woodland aka Captain Nemo enters his former property, the Woodland Dinner Theater Garden Complex, and guns down Bruce Larsen.

March 30, 1836

The Danites are formed in Kirkland, Ohio by Joseph Smith according to the 1912 "Kansas: A cyclopedia of state history." All other records concerning the Danites dispute this tidbit.