On This Day

Today in History, March 12th

On March 12, 1930, Gandhi began his Salt March against British salt laws in India. Plus FDR's first fireside chat and the Truman Doctrine.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published March 12, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

March 12 is best known for 1930, when Mohandas Gandhi set out on his Salt March to protest Britain’s salt laws in India. The date also brought Franklin Roosevelt’s first fireside chat in 1933 and the Truman Doctrine in 1947.

The big story: Gandhi Begins the Salt March (1930)

In British-ruled India, salt was a government monopoly, so Indians had to buy it rather than make their own. Gandhi saw that as the perfect target: everyone needed salt, so everyone felt the law. On the morning of March 12, he left his ashram at Sabarmati, near Ahmedabad, with several dozen followers and started walking toward the Arabian Sea, about 240 miles away. Crowds grew along the route, and by the time the marchers reached the coastal village of Dandi on April 5, hundreds had joined them. The next day Gandhi scooped up salt from the shore, a small act that broke the law on purpose. Civil disobedience spread across India, and by the end of 1930 tens of thousands of people, Gandhi among them, had been jailed. The march did not end British rule, but it showed the world how much power a peaceful protest could carry.

More events on March 12

Year	What happened
1804	The U.S. House impeached Justice Samuel Chase, making him the first Supreme Court justice to be impeached. The Senate later acquitted him.
1894	Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time, at Joseph Biedenharn’s candy store in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
1912	Juliette Gordon Low formed the first American Girl Guides troop in Savannah, Georgia, with 18 girls. The group became the Girl Scouts.
1933	President Franklin Roosevelt gave his first fireside chat, a radio talk to the nation during the Great Depression.
1938	German troops crossed into Austria, with Adolf Hitler accompanying them. The annexation was proclaimed the next day.
1947	President Harry Truman asked Congress for aid to Greece and Turkey, laying out what became known as the Truman Doctrine.
1968	Oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope, the largest oil field ever found in the U.S.
1999	Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined NATO, bringing the alliance to 19 members.
2003	Elizabeth Smart, abducted from her Salt Lake City home nine months earlier, was found alive in Sandy, Utah.
2020	Broadway theaters went dark because of COVID-19, shutting down 31 running productions.

Born on March 12

1613: André Le Nôtre, French landscape architect who designed the gardens of Versailles.
1922: Jack Kerouac, Beat Generation novelist, author of On the Road.
1928: Edward Albee, playwright of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1946: Liza Minnelli, Oscar-winning star of Cabaret.