March 5

In March 2000, more than 900 followers of a Ugandan doomsday cult perished in a coordinated series of mass killings and a deadly fire, making the Kanungu Massacre one of history's deadliest cult tragedies. The event exposed the lethal consequences of exploitation, despair, and unregulated religious fervor.

In late March 1997, thirty-nine members of the religious group Heaven’s Gate died by mass suicide in a rented mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Led by Marshall Applewhite, the group believed that they would ascend to an extraterrestrial spacecraft trailing the Hale-Bopp comet, escaping Earth’s impending destruction. Their deaths shocked the nation and prompted renewed scrutiny of cults, charismatic leadership, and psychological vulnerability.

The Oso Mudslide of March 22, 2014, swept through a rural Washington neighborhood, killing 43 people and destroying nearly 50 homes—the deadliest landslide in U.S. history. It catalyzed changes in landslide hazard awareness, emergency response, and community resilience.