How many days and weeks until March 1st?

Wales keeps March 1st for Dewi Sant, David, who died on this day in either 589 or 601 — the year is disputed, the day is not. He is the only patron saint of the four British nations to have been born and buried in the country he looks after. His reported last instruction to his monks was to do the little things.

On March 1st 1979 Scotland and Wales voted on devolution and neither got it. Scotland said yes by 51.6 per cent, but a backbench amendment required the support of 40 per cent of the entire electorate and the yes vote reached only 32.9. Wales rejected an assembly by roughly four to one. The Scottish National Party withdrew its support from the government, which fell twenty-seven days later.

The Spectator first appeared on March 1st 1711, a single folio sheet from Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, published six days a week for a penny and read aloud in the coffee houses. A paper of the same name was founded afresh in 1828 and is still on the shelves.

Chopin is the date’s disputed entry: his baptismal record gives February 22nd 1810, but the composer and his family always kept the first of March, and the family has generally been allowed to win. The day is less equivocal about Roger Daltrey, the Who’s frontman, born in 1944, the actor David Niven, the epitome of urbane English charm on screen, in 1910, and Harry Belafonte, the singer and actor who became known as the King of Calypso, in 1927.

Born on March 1st: star sign, birthstone and birth flower

Roger Daltrey and David Niven — both named above — share this star sign with everyone else born in the same window.

None of this is settled fact in the way the history above is — zodiac dates, birthstones and birth flowers are conventions rather than laws, and different sources hedge them slightly differently. The birthstone is the most standardised of the three (set by the trade in 1912 and revised since); the birth flower is the least, resting on Victorian tradition rather than any governing body.

Gift ideas for a March 1st birthday

A small, themed starting point rather than a shopping list — bloodstone for the stone, Pisces for the sign, and the sky itself on the day.

March birthstone necklace

A simple pendant in the actual March birthstone colour, from a long-running UK jewellery brand.

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Pisces constellation necklace

Stainless steel, sign selectable at checkout — choose Pisces for a March 1st birthday.

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Personalised birth flower & birthstone disc

Engraved with a name, the March birthstone and the daffodil — both in one pendant, in a gift box.

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Personalised star map print

The actual night sky over a chosen place on March 1st, whichever year — a print rather than jewellery.

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