This Day in History

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March 8

Today is International Women's Day.


Events

1618 – Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion.

1655 – John Casor becomes the first legally-recognized slave in England's North American colonies where a crime was not committed.

1702 – Queen Anne, the younger sister of Mary II, becomes Queen regnant of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

1775 – An anonymous writer, thought by some to be Thomas Paine, publishes "African Slavery in America", the first article in the American colonies calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery.

1782 – Gnadenhutten 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 Indian tribes.

1817 – The New York Stock Exchange is founded.

1910 – French aviator Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first woman to receive a pilot's license.

1917 – International Women's Day protests in St. Petersburg mark the beginning of the February Revolution (February 23rd in the Julian calendar).

1924 – A mine disaster kills 172 coal miners near Castle Gate, Utah.

1936 – Daytona Beach and Road Course holds its first oval stock car race.

1949 – Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") is condemned to prison for treason.

1965 – Thirty-five hundred United States Marines are the first American land combat forces committed during the Vietnam War.

1966 – Nelson's Pillar in Dublin, Ireland, destroyed by a bomb.

1971 – The Fight of the Century between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali commences. Frazier wins in 15 rounds via unanimous decision.

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.

2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, carrying a total of 239 people, disappears en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

2017 – The Azure Window in Gozo, Malta, collapses after a severe storm.

Births

1495 – John of God, 1841 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 1848 – LaMarcus Adna Thompson (developed the roller coaster), 1865 – Frederic Goudy (created fonts Copperplate Gothic and Goudy Old Style), 1899 – Elmer Keith, 1910 – Claire Trevor, 1921 – Alan Hale, Jr., 1922 – Ralph H. Baer (Magnavox Odyssey), 1922 – Cyd Charisse, 1927 – Dick Hyman, 1940 – Susan Clark (Webster), 1943 – Lynn Redgrave, 1945 – Micky Dolenz(The Monkees), 1946 – Randy Meisner(Poco, The Eagles), 1947 – Carole Bayer Sager♪ ♫, 1958 – Gary Numan♪ ♫, 1959 – Aidan Quinn, 1961 – Camryn Manheim, 1976 – Freddie Prinze, Jr., 1977 – James Van Der Beek

Deaths

1550 – John of God, 1723 – Christopher Wren, 1874 – Millard Fillmore (13th POTUS), 1887 – Henry Ward Beecher (Beecher's Bibles), 1917 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin, 1930 – William Howard Taft (27th POTUS), 1971 – Harold Lloyd, 1973 – Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (The Grateful Dead), 1999 – Peggy Cass (game show panelist To Tell The Truth, Match Game), 1999 – Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, 2001 – Edward Winter (M*A*S*H series), 2009 – Hank Locklin♪ ♫, 2011 – Mike Starr(Alice In Chains), 2016 – George Martin

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March 9

1009 – First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg.

1765 – After a campaign by the writer Voltaire, judges in Paris posthumously exonerate Jean Calas of murdering his son. Calas had been tortured and executed in 1762 on the charge, though his son may have actually committed suicide.

1796 – Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.

1815 – Francis Ronalds describes the first battery-operated clock in the Philosophical Magazine.

1841 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the United States v. The Amistad case that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.

1842 – The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush.

1847 – Mexican–American War: The first large-scale amphibious assault in U.S. history is launched in the Siege of Veracruz.

1862 – American Civil War: The USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between two ironclad warships.

1916 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against the border town of Columbus, New Mexico.

1944 – World War II: Soviet Army planes attack Tallinn, Estonia.

1945 – World War II: The first nocturnal incendiary attack on Tokyo inflicts damage comparable to that inflicted on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki five months later.

1946 – Bolton Wanderers stadium disaster at Burnden Park, Bolton, England, kills 33 and injures hundreds more.

1957 – The 8.6 Mw Andreanof Islands earthquake shakes the Aleutian Islands with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), causing $5 million in damage from ground movement and a destructive tsunami that affected Hawaii, where two people were killed in a plane crash while documenting its arrival.

1959 – The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

1975 - Actor Telly Savalas was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with his version of the David Gates (from Bread) song 'If'.

1976 – Forty-two people died in the 1976 Cavalese cable car disaster, the worst cable-car accident to date.

1977 – The Hanafi Siege: In a thirty-nine-hour standoff, armed Hanafi Muslims seize three Washington, D.C., buildings, killing two and taking 149 hostage.

1982 – "Krononauts" hosted an event in Baltimore, Maryland asking time-travelers to meet and demonstrate future science methods of time travel.

1997 – Comet Hale–Bopp: Observers in China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia are treated to a rare double feature as an eclipse permits Hale-Bopp to be seen during the day.

2011 – Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights.

Births

1454 – Amerigo Vespucci (namesake of the Americas), 1568 – Aloysius Gonzaga (namesake of Gonzaga University), 1824 – Amasa Leland Stanford (founded Stanford University), 1856 – Eddie Foy, Sr., 1890 – Vyacheslav Molotov (namesake of the Molotov Cocktail), 1902 – Will Geer ('Grandpa Walton' on The Waltons, 'Bear Claw Chris Lapp' in Jeremiah Johnson), 1918 – Mickey Spillane, 1926 – Joe Franklin (I can't remember what Joe Franklin looks like, all I can see is Billy Crystal's impersonation), 1930 – Ornette Coleman♪ ♫, 1934 – Yuri Gagarin (1st man in space), 1934 – Joyce Van Patten, 1936 – Mickey Gilley♪ ♫, 1936 – Marty Ingels, 1940 – Raúl Juliá, 1942 – Mark Lindsay♪ ♫(Paul Revere & The Raiders), 1943 – Bobby Fischer, 1943 – Charles Gibson, 1945 – Robin Trower♪ ♫, 1948 – Jeffrey Osborne♪ ♫, 1950 – Danny Sullivan, 1955 – Teo Fabi, 1958 – Linda Fiorentino, 1958 – Martin Fry♪ ♫, 1963 – David Pogue, 1964 – Juliette Binoche, 1965 – Brian Bosworth, 1971 – Emmanuel Lewis

Deaths

1989 – Robert Mapplethorpe, 1994 – Charles Bukowski, 1994 – Fernando Rey, 1996 – George Burns, 1997 – Terry Nation (tv writer DR. Who, created the Daleks and 'Davros'), 1997 – Notorious B.I.G.♪ ♫, 2005 – Chris LeDoux♪ ♫, 2005 - Danny Joe Brown♪ ♫(Molly Hatchet), 2006 – John Profumo (notable for the Profumo Affair), 2007 – Brad Delp♪ ♫(Boston)