8th March

Events

• 1618 - Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion (he soon rejects the idea after some initial calculations were made but later on May 15 confirms the discovery).
• 1702 - Anne becomes Queen of Great Britain.
• 1782 - In Ohio the Gnadenhutten massacre of Native Americans takes place in which 29 men, 27 women, and 34 children were killed by white militiamen in retaliation for raids carried out by another Native American group.
• 1862 - American Civil War: The iron-clad CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack) is launched at Hampton Roads, Virginia.
• 1911 - International Women's Day is celebrated for the first time.
• 1917 - The United States Senate adopts the cloture rule in order to limit filibusters.
• 1921 - Spanish Premier Eduardo Dato is assassinated while exiting the parliament building in Madrid.
• 1936 - The first stock car race is held in Daytona Beach, Florida.
• 1942 - World War II: The Dutch surrender to Japanese forces on Java.
• 1942 - World War II: Japan captures Rangoon, Burma.
• 1943 - World War II: American forces are attacked by Japanese troops on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a battle that will last five days.
• 1948 - The United States Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools violated the Constitution.
• 1950 - The Soviet Union claims to have an atomic bomb.
• 1952 - Antoine Pinay becomes Prime Minister of France
• 1957 - Egypt re-opens the Suez Canal.
• 1961 - Max Conrad circumnavigates the earth in eight days, 18 hours and 49 minutes setting a new world record.
• 1965 - Vietnam War: 3,500 United States Marines arrive in South Vietnam becoming the first American combat troops in Vietnam.
• 1966 - Vietnam War: Australia announces it was going to substantially increase its number of troops in Vietnam.
• 1966- A bomb planted by Irish terrorists destroys Nelson's Pillar in Dublin.
• 1971 - Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali in the first of three epic bouts. Frazier defends the world Heavyweight title in a star-studded Madison Square Garden.
• 1972 - The Goodyear blimp flies for the first time.
• 1974 - Charles de Gaulle Airport opens in Paris, France.
• 1983 - President Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "Evil Empire".
• 1988 - Two United States Army helicopters collide in Fort Campbell, Kentucky killing 17 servicemen.
• 1999 - Oklahoma City bombing: The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the murder convictions of Timothy McVeigh.

Births

• 1714 - Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, composer, not to be confused with his father Johann Sebastian Bach, (d. 1788)
• 1783 - Hannah Van Buren, First Lady of the United States
• 1841 - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Supreme Court justice, (d. 1935)
• 1857 - Ruggiero Leoncavallo, composer, (d. 1919)
• 1859 - Kenneth Grahame, author, (d. 1932)
• 1879 - Otto Hahn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1944, (d. 1968)
• 1904 - Victor de Kowa, actor, (d. 1973)
• 1908 or '09, '10 or '11 - Claire Trevor, actress, (d. 2000)
• 1915 - Tapio Rautavaara, athlete, actor, singer, (d. 1979)
• 1921 - Cyd Charisse, actress, dancer
• 1922 - Heinar Kipphardt, dramatist, lyricist, narrator, (d. 1922)
• 1923 - Walter Jens, writer
• 1943 - Lynn Redgrave, actress
• 1945 - Micky Dolenz, actor, director, musica ("The Monkees")
• 1945 - Anselm Kiefer, painter
• 1947 - Carole Bayer Sager, composer
• 1948 - Gary Numan, singer
• 1959 - Aidan Quinn, actor
• 1976 - Freddie Prinze Jr., actor
• 1983 - Sandra Cougler,most beautiful girl of the world

Deaths

• 1702 - King William III of England, (b. 1650)
• 1874 - Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States, (b. 1800)
• 1930 - William Howard Taft, President of the United States, Chief Justice of the United States, (b. 1857)
• 1941 - Sherwood Anderson, author, (b. 1876)
• 1942 - José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player, (b. 1888)
• 1971 - Harold Lloyd, actor, (b. 1893)
• 1973 - Ron Pigpen McKernan of the Grateful Dead, (b. 1945)
• 1975 - George Stevens, director, producer, cinematographer, (b. 1904)
• 1983 - William Walton, composer, (b. 1902)
• 1988 - Henryk Szeryng, violinist, (b. 1918)
• 1992 - Red Callender, composer
• 1993 - Billy Eckstine, jazz musician, (b. 1914)
• 1998 - Ray Nitschke, American football star
• 1999 - Joe DiMaggio, Baseball Hall of Famer, (b. 1914)
• 2003 - Adam Faith, English singer and actor, (b. 1940)

Holidays and observances

• Catholicism - Feast day of St John of God.
• In many countries, it is International Women's Day
• Ottawa declares this day Alanis Morissette Day, in honor of singer Alanis Morissette, but Morissette refused to accept this honor because March 8 was already International Women's Day

March 7 - March 9 - February 8 - April 8 -- listing of all days

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