Interesting events an anniversaries in the month ahead.
4 March
Shrove Tuesday, and therefore Pancake Day. Traditionally this was the feast to eat remaining winter food stocks on the last day before the fasting of Lent. It was also the day when the penitent went to confession (hence “shrove” from “shriven”) in preparation for Lent.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder; The Fight between Carnival and Lent (detail)
5 March
The day after Shrove Tuesday is therefore Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.
8 March
International Women’s Day. Find out more at www.internationalwomensday.com
11 March
This day in 1984 saw the beginning of the National Miner’s Strike in which Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher defeated the Miners’ Unions and effectively killed the British coal industry.
14-23 March
National Science & Engineering Week is a ten-day national programme of science, technology, engineering and maths events and activities across the UK aimed at people of all ages. Find more at www.britishscienceassociation.org/national-science-engineering-week.
21 March
Spring (Vernal) Equinox and the pagan festival of Ēostre (which the Christian church subsumed into Easter and made a moveable feast).
21 March
Composer Modest Mussorgsky was born this day in 1839.
25 March
Lady Day or the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin. It is the first of the four traditional English quarter days when servants were hired and rents were due.
26 March
The UK Driving Test was introduced on this day in 1934.
30 March
Mothers’ Day in the UK, which is always celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Lent.
31 March
Paris’s Eiffel Tower was opened this day in 1889.