March 8

March 8 is the 67th day of the year (68th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 298 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 1010 – Ferdowsi completes his Shāhnāmeh.
• 1126 – Alfonso VII is proclaimed king of Castile and León, after the death of his mother Urraca.
• 1655 – John Casor becomes the first legally-recognized slave in Britain's North American colonies.
• 1702 – Anne Stuart, sister of Mary II, becomes Queen regnant of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
• 1722 – The Safavid Empire of Iran is defeated by an army from Afghanistan at The Battle of Gulnabad, pushing Iran into anarchy.
• 1775 – Thomas Paine's "African Slavery in America," the first article in the American colonies calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery, is published.
• 1777 – Regiments from Ansbach and Bayreuth, sent to support Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, mutiny in the town of Ochsenfurt.
• 1782 – Gnadenhütten massacre: Ninety-six Native Americans in Gnadenhutten, Ohio, who had converted to Christianity are killed by Pennsylvania militiamen in retaliation for raids carried out by other Indians.
• 1817 – The New York Stock Exchange is founded.
• 1844 – King Oscar I ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway.
• 1862 – American Civil War: The iron-clad CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack) is launched at Hampton Roads, Virginia.
• 1911 – International Women's Day is launched in Copenhagen, Denmark, by Clara Zetkin, leader of the Women's Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany.
• 1917 – The U.S. Senate votes to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.
• 1917 – International Women’s Day protests in St. Petersburg contributed to the February Revolution and ultimately led to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, ending the Romanov dynasty in Russia.
• 1921 – Spanish Premier Eduardo Dato Iradier is assassinated while exiting the parliament building in Madrid.
• 1924 – The Castle Gate mine disaster kills 172 coal miners near Castle Gate, Utah.
• 1936 – Daytona Beach Road Course holds their first oval stock car race.
• 1942 – World War II: The Dutch surrender to Japanese forces on Java.
• 1949 – Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") is condemned to prison on count of treason
• 1957 – Egypt re-opens the Suez Canal after the Suez Crisis.
• 1957 – The 1957 Georgia Memorial to Congress, which petitions the U.S. Congress to declare the ratification of the 14th & 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution null and void, is adopted by the state of Georgia.
• 1957 – Ghana joins the United Nations.
• 1963 – The Ba'ath Party comes to power in Syria in a Coup d'état by a clique of quasi-leftist Syrian Army officers calling themselves the National Council of the Revolutionary Command.
• 1966 – A bomb planted by young Irish protesters destroys Nelson's Pillar in Dublin.
• 1974 – Charles de Gaulle Airport opens in Paris, France.
• 1978 – The first radio episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4.
• 1979 – Philips demonstrates the Compact Disc publicly for the first time.
• 1983 – President Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire".
• 1985 – A failed assassination attempt on Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah in Beirut, Lebanon, kills at least 45 and injures 175 others.
• 1999 – The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the murder convictions of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing.
• 2004 – A new constitution is signed by Iraq's Governing Council.

Births

• 1286 – John III, Duke of Brittany (d. 1341)
• 1293 – Beatrice of Castile, queen of Portugal (d. 1359)
• 1495 – John of God, Portuguese-born friar and saint (d. 1550)
• 1514 – Amago Haruhisa, Japanese samurai and warlord (d. 1562)
• 1566 – Don Carlo Gesualdo, Italian composer (d. 1613)
• 1659 – Isaac de Beausobre, French Protestant pastor (d. 1738)
• 1702 – Anne Bonny, Irish-American pirate (d. 1782)
• 1712 – John Fothergill, English physician (d. 1780)
• 1714 – Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German composer (d. 1788)
• 1726 – Richard Howe, British admiral (d. 1799)
• 1746 – André Michaux, French botanist (d. 1802)
• 1748 – William V of Orange, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic (d. 1806)
• 1783 – Hannah Van Buren, wife of Martin Van Buren (d. 1819)
• 1799 – Simon Cameron, 26th U.S. Secretary of War (d. 1889)
• 1804 – Alvan Clark, American telescope maker and astronomer (d. 1887)
• 1814 – Ede Szigligeti, Hungarian dramatist (d. 1878)
• 1822 – Ignacy Lukasiewicz, Polish inventor (d. 1882)
• 1827 – Wilhelm Bleek, German linguist (d. 1875)
• 1830 – João de Deus, Portuguese poet (d. 1896)
• 1841 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1935)
• 1847 – John Lister, English politician (d. 1933)
• 1856 – Bramwell Booth, the 2nd General of The Salvation Army (d. 1929)
• 1856 – Colin Campbell Cooper, American Impressionist painter (d. 1937)
• 1856 – Tom Roberts, Australian artist (d. 1931)
• 1859 – Kenneth Grahame, English author (d. 1932)
• 1865 – Frederic Goudy, American type designer (d. 1947)
• 1872 – Anna Held, Polish actress and singer (d. 1918)
• 1879 – Otto Hahn, German chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1968)
• 1886 – Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1972)
• 1897 – Damerla Rama Rao, Indian artist, (d. 1925)
• 1891 – Sam Jaffe, American actor (d. 1984)
• 1892 – Mississippi John Hurt, American blues singer and guitarist (d. 1966)
• 1892 – Juana de Ibarbourou, Uruguayan poet (d. 1979)
• 1896 – Charlotte Whitton, Canadian politician (d. 1975)
• 1899 – Elmer Keith, American firearms developer (d. 1984)
• 1902 – Louise Beavers, American actress (d. 1962)
• 1902 – Jennings Randolph, America politician, United States Senator from West Virginia (d. 1998)
• 1907 – Constantine Karamanlis, Greek politician (d. 1998)
• 1910 – Bernard Benjamin, British statistician (d. 2002)
• 1910 – Claire Trevor, American actress (d. 2000)
• 1911 – Alan Hovhaness, American composer (d. 2000)
• 1912 – Preston Smith, America politician, 40th Governor of Texas (d. 2003)
• 1914 – Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich, Russian physicist (d. 1987)
• 1915 – Tapio Rautavaara, Finnish athlete, actor, and singer (d. 1979)
• 1916 – John W. Seybold, American businessman, father of computer typesetting (d. 2004)
• 1920 – Douglass Wallop, American novelist and playwright (d. 1985)
• 1921 – Alan Hale, Jr., American actor (d. 1990)
• 1921 – Fritz Luchsinger, Swiss mountaineer (d. 1983)
• 1922 – Ralph H. Baer, German-born American inventor
• 1922 – Cyd Charisse, American actress and dancer (d. 2008)
• 1922 – Carl Furillo, American baseball player (d. 1989)
• 1922 – Shigeru Mizuki, Japanese soldier and Mangaka
• 1922 – Evgeniy Matveyev, Russian actor and film director (d. 2003)
• 1925 – Warren Bennis, American educator and author
• 1926 – Francisco Rabal, Spanish actor (d. 2001)
• 1927 – Dick Hyman, American pianist and composer
• 1929 – Hebe Camargo, Brazilian television presenter, actress and singer
• 1930 – Bob Grim, American baseball player (d. 1996)
• 1931 – Neil Adcock, South African Cricket player
• 1931 – John McPhee, American writer and professor
• 1931 – Neil Postman, American cultural critic (d. 2003)
• 1933 – Evelyn Margaret Ay, American beauty pageant winner (d. 2008)
• 1933 – Luca Ronconi, Italian theater and opera director
• 1934 – Marv Breeding, American baseball player (d. 2006)
• 1936 – Gábor Szabó, Hungarian guitarist (d. 1982)
• 1937 – Juvénal Habyarimana, President of Rwanda (d. 1994)
• 1938 – Pete Dawkins, American football player
• 1939 – Jim Bouton, American baseball player and author
• 1939 – Lidia Skoblikova, Russian skater
• 1939 – Robert Tear, Welsh tenor
• 1940 – Susan Clark, Canadian actress
• 1941 – Andrei Mironov, Soviet actor (d. 1987)
• 1942 – Dick Allen, American baseball player
• 1942 – Ann Packer, British athlete
• 1943 – Lynn Redgrave, English actress (d. 2010)
• 1944 – Buzz Hargrove, Canadian labour leader
• 1944 – Sergey Nikitin, Russian composer
• 1944 – Palito Ortega, Argentine singer and actor
• 1944 – Pepe Romero, Spanish guitarist
• 1945 – Bruce Broughton, American composer
• 1945 – Jim Chapman, American politician
• 1945 – Micky Dolenz, American musician (The Monkees)
• 1945 – Anselm Kiefer, German painter
• 1946 – Randy Meisner, American musician (The Eagles)
• 1947 – Mike Allsup, American musician (Three Dog Night)
• 1947 – Florentino Pérez, Spanish football executive
• 1947 – Carole Bayer Sager, American composer
• 1948 – Peggy March, American pop singer
• 1948 – Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth
• 1949 – Karel Lismont, Belgian athlete
• 1949 – Antonello Venditti, Italian singer-songwriter
• 1950 – Richard Ouzounian, Canadian/American theatre director and critic
• 1952 – George Felix Allen, American politician, 67th Governor of Virginia
• 1953 – Bob Brozman, American musician
• 1953 – Jim Rice, American baseball player
• 1953 – Don Werner, American baseball player
• 1954 – Cheryl Baker, British singer (Bucks Fizz)
• 1954 – David Wilkie, Scottish swimmer
• 1955 – Don Ashby, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1981)
• 1956 – Laurie Cunningham, English footballer (d. 1989)
• 1956 – John Kapelos, Canadian actor
• 1957 – Clive Burr, British musician (Iron Maiden)
• 1957 – John Butcher, American baseball player
• 1957 – Billy Childs, composer/pianist
• 1957 – Cynthia Rothrock, American actress
• 1957 – Bob Stoddard, American baseball player
• 1958 – Nick Capra, American baseball player
• 1958 – Gary Numan, British singer
• 1959 – Aidan Quinn, American actor
• 1959 – Lester Holt, American television journalist
• 1960 – Max Metzker, Australian swimmer
• 1960 – Buck Williams, American basketball player
• 1961 – Camryn Manheim, American actress
• 1961 – Larry Murphy, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1961 – Mark Salas, American baseball player
• 1962 – Kim Ung-Yong, Korean child prodigy.
• 1963 – Mike Lalor, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1964 – Kate Betts, American fashion editor
• 1964 – Thomas Bezucha, American screenwriter and director
• 1964 – Lance McCullers, American baseball player
• 1965 – Fátima Lopes, Portuguese fashion designer
• 1965 – Kenny Smith, American basketball player
• 1967 – Joel Johnston, American baseball player
• 1968 – Michael Bartels, German race car driver
• 1968 – Jim Dougherty, American baseball player
• 1968 – Ellen Forney, American cartoonist
• 1968 – Shawn Mullins, American musician
• 1970 – Andrea Parker, American actress, ballet dancer
• 1970 – Jason Elam, American football player
• 1971 – Kit Symons, Welsh footballer
• 1972 – Georgios Georgiadis, Greek footballer
• 1972 – Angie Hart, Australian pop singer
• 1972 – Fergal O'Brien, Irish snooker player
• 1973 – Anneke van Giersbergen, Dutch singer (The Gathering)
• 1973 – Boris Kodjoe, Austrian model
• 1973 – Mark Lukasiewicz, American baseball player
• 1973 – Kurt Mollekens, Belgian racing car driver
• 1973 – Justin Thompson, American baseball player
• 1974 – Mike Moriarty, American baseball player
• 1975 – Mauro Briano, Italian footballer
• 1975 – Fardeen Khan, Indian actor
• 1975 – Peggy Zina, Greek singer
• 1976 – Gaz Coombes, English singer (Supergrass)
• 1976 – Juan Encarnacion, American baseball player
• 1976 – Ryan Freel, American baseball player
• 1976 – Freddie Prinze Jr., American actor
• 1976 – Hines Ward, American football player
• 1977 – James Van Der Beek, American actor
• 1977 – Johann Vogel, Swiss footballer
• 1978 – Mohammed Bouyeri, Dutch-Moroccan assassin
• 1978 – Nick Zano, American actor
• 1979 – Tom Chaplin, English singer (Keane)
• 1979 – Andy Ross, American guitarist (OK Go)
• 1980 – Charli Delaney, Australian singer (Hi-5)
• 1980 – Stephen Milne, Australian rules footballer
• 1981 – Michael Beauchamp, Australian footballer
• 1981 – Timothy Jordan II, American musician (The All American Rejects, Jonezetta) (d. 2005)
• 1982 – Nicolas Armindo, French race car driver
• 1982 – Kat Von D, Mexican-born tattoo artist
• 1982 – Leonidas Kabantais, Greek footballer
• 1982 – Craig Stansberry, American baseball player
• 1983 – Mark Worrell, American baseball player
• 1983 – Austin Brown, footballer
• 1984 – Dave Moffatt, Canadian musician
• 1984 – Ross Taylor, New Zealand cricketer
• 1984 – Sasha Vujacic, Slovenian basketball player
• 1985 – Ewa Sonnet, Polish model and pop singer
• 1986 – Princess Tsuguko, Japanese princess
• 1988 – Armanti Edwards, American college football player
• 1988 – Elly Jackson, English singer (La Roux)
• 1989 – Robbie Hummel, American basketball player
• 1990 – Ben Tozer, English footballer
• 1990 – Kristinia DeBarge, American R&B singer
• 1991 – Devon Werkheiser, American actor
• 1992 – Charlie Ray, American actress
• 2001 – Sandra Cantu, American homicide victim

Deaths

• 1126 – Urraca of León (b. 1082)
• 1144 – Pope Celestine II
• 1223 – Wincenty Kadłubek, Polish chronicler (b. 1161)
• 1550 – John of God, Portuguese-born friar and saint (b. 1495)
• 1641 – Xu Xiake, Chinese adventurer (b. 1587)
• 1674 – Charles Sorel, sieur de Souvigny, French writer (b. 1597)
• 1702 – William III of England (b. 1650)
• 1731 – Ferdinand Brokoff, Czech sculptor (b. 1688)
• 1757 – Thomas Blackwell, Scottish classical scholar (b. 1701)
• 1771 – Louis August le Clerc, French-born sculptor (b. 1688)
• 1819 – Benjamin Ruggles Woodbridge, American doctor, Massachusetts militia officer, member of the Massachusetts legislature (b. 1739)
• 1844 – Charles XIV John of Sweden (b. 1763)
• 1855 – William Poole, American criminal, member of New York City's Bowery Boys gang (b. 1821)
• 1869 – Hector Berlioz, French composer (b. 1803)
• 1872 – Cornelius Krieghoff, Canadian painter (b. 1815)
• 1874 – Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States (b. 1800)
• 1887 – Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman (b. 1813)
• 1887 – James Buchanan Eads, American engineer (b. 1820)
• 1889 – John Ericsson, Swedish inventor (b. 1803)
• 1917 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German aircraft manufacturer (b. 1838)
• 1923 – Johannes Diderik van der Waals, Dutch Nobel laureate (b. 1837)
• 1923 – Krišjānis Barons, Latvian writer (b. 1835)
• 1930 – William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States (b. 1857)
• 1930 – Edward Terry Sanford, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court (b. 1865)
• 1935 – Hachiko, world-famous dog (b. 1923)
• 1937 – Howie Morenz, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1902)
• 1941 – Sherwood Anderson, American author (b. 1876)
• 1942 – José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player (b. 1888)
• 1945 – Frederick Bligh Bond, English architect, illustrator, archaeologist and psychical researcher (b.1864)
• 1951 – Martha Beck, American convicted murderer (b. 1920)
• 1951 – Raymond Fernandez, American convicted murderer (d. 1914)
• 1957 – Othmar Schoeck, Swiss composer and conductor (b. 1886)
• 1961 – Thomas Beecham, English conductor (b. 1879)
• 1971 – Harold Lloyd, American actor (b. 1893)
• 1972 – Erich von dem Bach, German Nazi official (b. 1899)
• 1973 – Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, American musician (b. 1945)
• 1975 – George Stevens, American director (b. 1904)
• 1976 – Alfons Rebane, Estonian military commander (b. 1908)
• 1981 – Joseph Henry Woodger, British theoretical biologist (b. 1894)
• 1983 – William Walton, English composer (b. 1902)
• 1985 – Edward Andrews, American actor (b. 1914)
• 1986 – Kersti Merilaas, Estonian author, poet (b. 1913)
• 1988 – Amar Singh Chamkila, Punjabi folk singer (b. 1961)
• 1988 – Werner Hartmann, German physicist (b. 1912)
• 1988 – Henryk Szeryng, Polish-born violinist (b. 1918)
• 1993 – Billy Eckstine, American musician (b. 1914)
• 1995 – Ingo Schwichtenberg, German drummer (b. 1965)
• 1996 – Jack Churchill, eccentric British soldier (b.1906)
• 1998 – Ray Nitschke, American football player (b. 1936)
• 1999 – Peggy Cass, American actress and comedian (b. 1924)
• 1999 – Joe DiMaggio, American baseball player (b. 1914)
• 1999 – Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine writer (b. 1914)
• 1999 – William Wrigley III, President of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company (b. 1933)
• 2001 – Edward Winter, American actor (b. 1937)
• 2003 – Adam Faith, English singer and actor (b. 1940)
• 2003 – Karen Morley, American actress (b. 1909)
• 2004 – Abu Abbas, founder of the Palestine Liberation Front (b. 1948)
• 2004 – Robert Pastorelli, American actor (b. 1954)
• 2005 – Aslan Maskhadov, Chechen leader (b. 1951)
• 2005 – César Lattes, Brazilian physicist (b. 1924)
• 2006 – Brian Barratt-Boyes, New Zealand heart surgeon (b. 1924)
• 2007 – John Inman, English actor (b. 1935)
• 2007 – Viky Vanita, Greek actress (b. 1948)
• 2007 – John Vukovich, American baseball player and coach (b. 1947)
• 2008 – Carol Barnes, former ITV news presenter (b. 1944)
• 2009 – Ali Bongo, British magician (b. 1929)
• 2009 – Zbigniew Religa, Minister of Health of the Republic of Poland (b. 1938)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day:
  • John of God
  • Philemon the actor
• Earliest day on which Canberra Day can fall, while March 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Monday in March. (Australian Capital Territory)
• Earliest day on which Commonwealth Day can fall, while March 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Monday in March. (Commonwealth of Nations)
• Earliest day on which Passion Sunday can fall, while April 11 is the latest; observed on the fifth Sunday of Lent. (Christianity)
• International Women's Day or Mother's Day (primarily Eastern Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet bloc)
• Revolution Day (Syria)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada