http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Mar 8, 1917: February Revolution begins
In Russia, the February Revolution (known as such because of Russia's use of the Julian calendar) begins when riots and strikes over the scarcity of food erupt in Petrograd. One week later, centuries of czarist rule in Russia ended with the abdication of Nicholas II, and Russia took a dramatic step closer toward communist revolution.
By 1917, most Russians had lost faith in the leadership ability of the czarist regime. Government corruption was rampant, the Russian economy remained backward, and Nicholas repeatedly dissolved the Duma, the Russian parliament established after the Revolution of 1905, when it opposed his will. However, the immediate cause of the February Revolution--the first phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917--was Russia's disastrous involvement in World War I. Militarily, imperial Russia was no match for industrialized Germany, and Russian casualties were greater than those sustained by any nation in any previous war. Meanwhile, the economy was hopelessly disrupted by the costly war effort, and moderates joined Russian radical elements in calling for the overthrow of the czar.
On March 8, 1917, demonstrators clamoring for bread took to the streets in the Russian capital of Petrograd (now known as St. Petersburg). Supported by 90,000 men and women on strike, the protesters clashed with police but refused to leave the streets. On March 10, the strike spread among all of Petrograd's workers, and irate mobs of workers destroyed police stations. Several factories elected deputies to the Petrograd Soviet, or "council," of workers' committees, following the model devised during the Revolution of 1905.
On March 11, the troops of the Petrograd army garrison were called out to quell the uprising. In some encounters, regiments opened fire, killing demonstrators, but the protesters kept to the streets, and the troops began to waver. That day, Nicholas again dissolved the Duma. On March 12, the revolution triumphed when regiment after regiment of the Petrograd garrison defected to the cause of the demonstrators. The soldiers, some 150,000 men, subsequently formed committees that elected deputies to the Petrograd Soviet.
The imperial government was forced to resign, and the Duma formed a provisional government that peacefully vied with the Petrograd Soviet for control of the revolution. On March 14, the Petrograd Soviet issued "Order No. 1," which instructed Russian soldiers and sailors to obey only those orders that did not conflict with the directives of the Soviet. The next day, March 15, Czar Nicholas II abdicated the throne in favor of his brother Michael, whose refusal of the crown brought an end to the czarist autocracy. The new provincial government, tolerated by the Petrograd Soviet, hoped to salvage the Russian war effort while ending the food shortage and many other domestic crises. It would prove a daunting task. Meanwhile, Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik revolutionary party, left his exile in Switzerland and crossed German enemy lines to return home and take control of the Russian Revolution.
Mar 8, 1983: Reagan refers to U.S.S.R. as "evil empire" again
Speaking to a convention of the National Association of Evangelicals in Florida on this day in 1983, President Ronald Reagan publicly refers to the Soviet Union as an evil empire for the second time in his career. He had first used the phrase in a 1982 speech at the British House of Commons. Some considered Reagan's use of the Star Wars film-inspired terminology to be brilliant democratic rhetoric. Others, including many within the international diplomatic community, denounced it as irresponsible bombast.
Reagan's aggressive stance toward the Soviet Union became known as the Reagan Doctrine. He warned against what he and his supporters saw as the dangerous trend of tolerating the Soviets' build-up of nuclear weapons and attempts to infiltrate Third World countries in order to spread communism. Advocating a peace through strength policy, Reagan declared that the Soviets must be made to understand we will never compromise our principles and standards [nor] ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire. To do so would mean abandoning the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.
Reagan proposed a policy that went beyond the Truman Doctrine of containment, urging active intervention. He vowed to increase U.S. military spending and to use force if necessary to roll back communist expansion in Third World nations. His administration provided military aid to Nicaraguan groups fighting the leftist Sandinista government and gave material support to the Afghan mujahedeen in their ongoing war against Soviets. At the same time, he reassured Americans that he would pursue an understanding with totalitarian powers and cited the United States' effort to limit missile development as a step toward peace.
Reagan's doctrine came at the same time as a surge in international and domestic protests against the U.S.-Soviet arms race. His opponents blamed the administration for causing the largest increase in American military spending since the beginning of the Cold War, a policy that swelled the nation's budget deficit.
The Soviet economy ultimately collapsed in the late 1980s, ending decades of communist rule in Russia and Eastern Europe. Americans disagreed as to the cause: while economists and Reagan's critics claimed the Soviet empire had buckled under the weight of its own bloated defense spending and a protracted war in Afghanistan, Reagan and his supporters credited his hard-line anti-communist policies for defeating Soviet communism.
Mar 8, 1982: United States accuses Soviets of using poison gas
The United States government issues a public statement accusing the Soviet Union of using poison gas and chemical weapons in its war against rebel forces in Afghanistan. The accusation was part of the continuing U.S. criticism of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.
Since sending troops into Afghanistan in 1979 in an attempt to prop up a pro-Soviet communist government, the Soviet Union had been on the receiving end of an unceasing string of criticism and diplomatic attacks from the United States government. First the Carter administration, and then the Reagan administration, condemned the Soviets for their intervention in a sovereign nation. Because of the issue, arms control talks had been tabled, the United States had boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, and diplomatic tension between America and Russia reached alarming proportions.
Reports that the Soviets were using poison gas and chemical weapons in Afghanistan only intensified the heightened tensions. The U.S. government's official statement charged that over 3,000 Afghans had been killed by weapons, including "irritants, incapacitants, nerve agents, phosgene oxime and perhaps mycotoxins, mustard, lewisite and toxic smoke." Evidence to support these charges was largely anecdotal and a number of U.S. scientists had serious doubts about the data put forward by the Reagan administration. Some critics charged that the accusations were a smokescreen behind which the United States could go forward with further development and stockpiling of its own chemical weapons arsenal.
The U.S. attack must have seemed mildly ironic to the Soviets, who had pilloried America for the use of defoliants and other chemical weapons during its war in Vietnam. By 1982, many Americans were referring to Afghanistan as "Russia's Vietnam."
Mar 8, 1669: Mount Etna erupts
On this day in 1669, Mount Etna, on the island of Sicily in modern-day Italy, begins rumbling. Multiple eruptions over the next few weeks killed more than 20,000 people and left thousands more homeless. Most of the victims could have saved themselves by fleeing, but stayed, in a vain attempt to save their city.
Mount Etna dominates the island of Sicily. Rising 11,000 feet above sea level in the northeast section of Sicily, it can be seen from just about every part of the 460-square-mile island. The geologic history of Mount Etna demonstrates that it has been periodically spewing ash and lava for thousands of years; the first recorded eruption of the volcano was in 475 BCE. It is the most active volcano in Europe. In 1169, an earthquake just prior to an eruption killed 15,000 people on Sicily. Despite the dangers of living near an active volcano, the eruptions made the surrounding soil very fertile, so many small villages developed on the slopes of the mountain.
When Etna began to rumble and belch gas on March 8, the residents nearby ignored the warning signs of a larger eruption. Three days later, the volcano began spewing out noxious fumes in large quantities. Approximately 3,000 people living on the slopes of the mountain died from asphyxiation. Even worse, Etna was soon emitting tremendous amounts of ash and molten lava. The ash was sent out with such force that significant amounts came down in the southern part of mainland Italy, in some cases nearly 100 miles away. Lava also began pouring down the south side of the mountain heading toward the city of Catania, 18 miles to the south along the sea.
At the time, the city of Catania had about 20,000 residents; most failed to flee the city immediately. Instead, Diego de Pappalardo, a resident of the city, led a team of 50 men to Mount Etna, where they attempted to divert the lava flow. Wearing cowhides soaked in water, the men bravely approached the lava with long iron rods, picks and shovels. They were able to hack open a hole in the hardened lava wall that had developed on the outside of the lava flow and much of the flow began to flow west out of the new hole. However, the residents of Paterno, a city lying southwest of Etna were monitoring these developments and quickly realized that this new flow direction could imperil their own city. They literally fought back the Catanians, while the lava breach hardened and filled again.
For several weeks, the lava pushed toward Catania and the sea. Still, the residents failed to evacuate the city. Apparently, they remained hopeful that the lava would stop or the city's ancient defensive walls would protect them. Neither was the case—the walls were quickly swallowed by the extremely hot lava and nearly 17,000 people in Catania died. Most of the city was destroyed. Catania was not the only city affected—the eruption wiped out 14 towns and villages and left about 27,000 people homeless.
Following this disaster, it was decreed that interference with the natural flow of lava was prohibited in Italy, a regulation that remained in effect hundreds of years later.
Mar 8, 1950: VW bus, icon of counterculture movement, goes into production
Volkswagen, maker of the Beetle automobile, expands its product offerings to include a microbus, which goes into production on this day in 1950. Known officially as the Volkswagen Type 2 (the Beetle was the Type 1) or the Transporter, the bus was a favorite mode of transportation for hippies in the U.S. during the 1960s and became an icon of the American counterculture movement.
The VW bus was reportedly the brainchild of Dutch businessman Ben Pon, an importer of Beetles to the Netherlands, who saw a market for a small bus and in 1947 sketched out his concept. Volkswagen engineers further developed the idea and in March 1950, the vehicle, with its boxy, utilitarian shape and rear engine, went into production. The bus eventually collected a number of nicknames, including the "Combi" (for combined-use vehicle) and the "Splittie" (for its split windshield); in Germany it was known as the "Bulli." In the U.S., it was referred to by some as a hippie van or bus because it was used to transport groups of young people and their camping gear and other supplies to concerts and anti-war rallies. Some owners painted colorful murals on their buses and replaced the VW logo on the front with a peace symbol. According to "Bug" by Phil Patton, when Grateful Dead musician Jerry Garcia died in 1995, Volkswagen ran an ad featuring a drawing of the front of a bus with a tear streaming down it.
The bus was only the second product offering for Volkswagen, a company whose history dates back to the 1930s Germany. In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany and announced he wanted to build new roads and affordable cars for the German people. At that time, Austrian-born engineer Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951) was already working on creating a small car for the masses. Hitler and Porsche later met and the engineer was charged with designing the inexpensive, mass-produced Volkswagen, or "people's car." In 1938, work began on the Volkswagen factory, located in present-day Wolfsburg, Germany; however, full-scale vehicle production didn't begin until after World War II.
In the 1950s, the Volkswagen arrived in the U.S., where the initial reception was tepid, due in part to the car's historic Nazi connection as well as its small size and unusual rounded shape (which later led to it being dubbed the "Beetle"). In 1959, the advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach launched a groundbreaking campaign that promoted the car's diminutive size as a distinct advantage to consumers, and over the next several years VW became the top-selling auto import in the U.S. In 1972, the VW Beetle passed the iconic Ford Model T as the world's best-selling car, with over 15 million vehicles produced.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
1586 - Johan van Oldenbarnevelt becomes Dutch chief legal
advisor
1658 - Peace of Roskilde between Sweden & Denmark
1702 - England Queen Anne ascends throne upon death of King
William III
1706 - Vienna's Wiener Stadtbank established
1711 - Antoin de Guiscard tries English premier Haley for
murder
1722 - Afghan monarch Mir Mahmud occupies Persia
1746 - Cumberland's troops occupy Aberdeen
1754 - Marquis of Ensenada becomes premier of Spain
1766 - Willem V (18) becomes governor of United Provinces
1777 - Regiments from Ansbach and Bayreuth, sent to support
Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, mutiny in the town of
Ochsenfurt.
1782 - Gnadenhutten Massacre - Ohio militia kills 90 indians
1801 - British drive French forces from Abukir, Egypt
1813 - 1st concerto of Royal Philharmonic
1817 - The New York Stock Exchange is founded.
1838 - US mint in New Orleans begins operation (producing
dimes)
1844 - King Oscar I ascends to the throne of Sweden-Norway.
1854 - US Commodore Matthew C Perry's 2nd trip to Japan
1855 - 1st train crosses 1st US railway suspension bridge,
Niagara Falls
1861 - St Augustine Florida surrenders to Union armies
1862 - Battle of Elkhorn Tavern ends with Confederate
withdrawal
1862 - Confederate ironclad "Merrimack" launched
1862 - Naval Engagement at Hampton Roads, VA CSS Virginia,
Jamestown & Yorktown vs USS Cumberland, Congress & Monitor
1865 - Battle of Kingston, NC (Wilcox's ridge, Wise's Forks)
1884 - 1st performance of Edward MacDowell's 2nd Piano suite
1884 - Susan B. Anthony addresses the U.S. House Judiciary
Committee arguing for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women the
right to vote. Anthony's argument came 16 years after legislators had first
introduced a federal women's suffrage amendment.
1887 - Everett Horton, CT, patents fishing rod of
telescoping steel tubes
1894 - The state of New York enacts the nation's first
dog-licensing law.
1896 - Volunteers of America forms (NYC)
1898 - Richard Straus' "Don Quixote," premieres in
Keulen
1900 - NL decides to go with 8 teams They exclude Baltimore,
Cleveland, Louisville & Washington (in 1953 Boston Braves move to
Milwaukee)
1902 - 1st performance of Jean Sibelius' 2nd Symphony
1904 - Hugh Trumble takes a hat-trick in his final Test
Cricket match
1906 - Stanley Cup: Ottawa Silver 7 sweep Smiths Falls (Ont)
in 2 games
1908 - Dutch utopist Frederick of Eden speaks in Carnegie
Hall, NY
1910 - Baroness Raymonde de Laroche of Paris is 1st licensed
female pilot
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.
1913 - Federal League organizes with 6 teams
1913 - Internal Revenue Service begins to levy & collect
income taxes
1915 - 1st US navy minelayer, Baltimore, commissioned
1916 - US invades Cuba for 3rd time, this to end corrupt
Menocal regime
1917 - Russian revolution breaks out [OS=Feb 24] (in
Petrograd)
1918 - The first case of Spanish flu occurs, the start of a
devastating worldwide pandemic.
1920 - Denmark & Cuba join the League of Nations
1921 - Spanish Premier Eduardo Dato Iradier is assassinated
while exiting the parliament building in Madrid.
1924 - Coal mine explosion kills 171 at Castle Gate Utah
1927 - Pan American Airlines incorporates
1929 - US worker union commission reports of slavery in
Liberia
Pacifist and Spiritual Leader Mahatma GandhiPacifist and
Spiritual Leader Mahatma Gandhi 1930 - Mahatma Gandhi starts civil disobedience
in India
1930 - Babe Ruth signs 2-year contract for $160,000 with NY
Yankee GM Ed Barrow, wrongly predicts "No one will ever be paid more than
Ruth"
1934 - Edwin Hubble photo shows as many galaxies as Milky
Way has stars
1936 - The first stock car race is held in Daytona Beach,
Florida.
1939 - Lenore Coffee & William Joyce Cowan's
"Family Portrait," premieres
1941 - 1st baseball player drafted into WW II (Hugh Mulcahy,
Phillies)
1942 - Japanese forces captures Rangoon Burma
1942 - KNIL, Dutch colonial army on Java, surrenders to
Japanese armies
1943 - 335 allied bombers attack Neurenberg
1943 - Limited gambling legalized in Mexico
1943 - US Ladies Figure Skating championship won by Gretchen
Merrill
1943 - US Mens Figure Skating championship won by Arthur
Vaughn
1944 - US resumes bombing Berlin
1945 - "Kiss Me Kate" opens in Britain
1945 - 53 Amsterdammers executed by nazi occupiers
Astronomer Edwin HubbleAstronomer Edwin Hubble 1945 -
International Women's Day is 1st observed
1945 - Phyllis M Daley is 1st black nurse sworn-in as US
Navy ensign
1946 - 1st helicopter licensed for coml use (NYC)
1948 - Supreme Court rules relg instructions in pub schools
unconstitutional
1949 - WAGA TV channel 5 in Atlanta, GA (CBS) begins
broadcasting
1949 - WBAP-FM, Fort Worth Texas, begins broadcasting
1950 - 1st woman medical officer assigned to naval vessel
(BR Walters)
1950 - Marshall Voroshilov of USSR announces they developed
atomic bomb
1951 - Intl Table Tennis Federation bans Egypt (for refusing
to play Israel)
1952 - Antoine Pinay forms French government
1953 - "Two's Company" closes at Alvin Theater NYC
after 90 performances
1953 - Census indicates 239,000 farmers gave up farming in
last 2 years
1953 - KSWO TV channel 7 in Lawton, OK (ABC) begins
broadcasting
1953 - Patty Berg wins LPGA Jacksonville Golf Open
1953 - WFMJ TV channel 21 in Youngstown, OH (NBC) begins
broadcasting
1954 - Herb McKinley sets quarter mile record of 0:46.8 in
Melbourne, Australia
1957 - 1st performance of David Diamond's 6th Symphony in
Boston
1957 - Israeli troops leave Egypt; Suez Canal re-opened for
minor ships
1957 - USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test
1958 - Silky Sullivan comes from 40 lengths back to win by 3
at Santa Anita
Author and Nobel Laureate William FaulknerAuthor and Nobel
Laureate William Faulkner 1958 - William Faulkner says US school degenerated to
become babysitters
1959 - Groucho, Chico & Harpo's final TV appearance
together
1959 - KUAT TV channel 6 in Tucson, AZ (PBS) begins
broadcasting
1959 - Mickey Wright wins LPGA Jacksonville Golf Open
1959 - Pro-Egyptian coup fails in Mosul Iraq
1960 - "Greenwillow" opens at Alvin Theater NYC
for 95 performances
1961 - Jean Kerr's "Mary, Mary," premieres in NYC
1961 - US nuclear submarine Patrick Henry arrives at
Scottish naval base of Holy Loch from SC in a record underseas journey of 66
days 22 hrs
1962 - Beatles, with Pete Best, TV debut (perform
"Dream Baby" on BBC)
1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1963 - Syrian Arab Rep Revolution Day - Military coup in
Syria
1964 - Malcolm X leaves Black Muslim Movement
1965 - 1st US combat forces arrive in Vietnam (3,500
Marines)
1966 - "Golden Boy" closes at Majestic Theater NYC
after 569 performances
1966 - An IRA bomb destroyed Nelson's Column in Dublin
African American Activist Malcolm XAfrican American Activist
Malcolm X 1966 - Casey Stengel elected to Hall of Fame
1967 - New Orleans Saints begin selling season tickets
(20,000 sold 1st day)
1968 - 6 year old Tommy Moore scores hole-in-one in golf
(Hagerstown, Md)
1968 - Fillmore East opens
1968 - Students demonstrate in Warsaw
1970 - WTCI TV channel 45 in Chattanooga, TN (PBS) begins
broadcasting
1971 - Joe Frazier beats Muhammad Ali in 15, retains
heavyweight boxing title at Madison Sq Garden
1971 - Milwaukee Bucks win their 20th straight NBA game
(team record)
1971 - Radio Hanoi broadcasts Jimi Hendrix's "Star
Spangled Banner"
1972 - 1st airship flown over Britain in 20 years (Europa)
1972 - 1st flight of the Goodyear blimp
1973 - Eisenhower Tunnel, world's highest/US longest, opens
1973 - Paul & Linda McCartney are fined £100 for growing
cannabis
1973 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1974 - Charles de Gaulle Airport opens in Paris, France
Heavyweight Boxing Champion Muhammad AliHeavyweight Boxing
Champion Muhammad Ali 1975 - Royal Canadian Mint announces branch opening in
Winnipeg Manitoba
1976 - 1,774 kg (largest observed) stony meteorite falls in
Jilin, China
1977 - Henry L Marsh III elected mayor of Richmond
1977 - Princess Anne announces she's expecting her 1st child
(Peter)
1978 - The first-ever radio episode of The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4.
1979 - 1st extraterrestrial volcano discovered (Jupiter's
satellite Io)
1979 - 5th People's Choice Awards
1979 - China withdraws invasion troops from Vietnam
1979 - Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) transported 38 miles
overland from Palmdale
1980 - Greg Chappell 235 & Yallop 172, for 217 stand at
Faisalabad
1980 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1980 - The first festival of rock music kicks off in the
Soviet Union.
1981 - "Shakespeare's Cabaret" closes at Bijou
Theater NYC after 54 perfs
1981 - Dennis Lillee ct by Qld 12th man Dennis Lillie in
Shield game
1981 - Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Arizona Copper Golf Classic
Author Douglas AdamsAuthor Douglas Adams 1983 - House
Foreign Affairs Com endorses nuclear weapons freeze with USSR
1983 - IBM releases PC DOS version 2.0
1983 - President Reagan calls the USSR an "Evil
Empire"
1985 - Ice Dance Championship at Tokyo won by Bestemianova
& Bukin (URS)
1986 - 4 French TV crew members are abducted in west Beirut
Lebanon
1986 - Japanese probe Suisei passes Halley's Comet at
109,800 km
1986 - Martina Navratilova is 1st tennis player to earn $10
million
1987 - 17th Easter Seal Telethon raises $35,184,425
1987 - David Hookes (306*) Wayne Phillips make 462 stand for
S Aust
1987 - FBI apprehends most wanted Claude L Dallas, Jr in
Calif
1987 - Jane Geddes wins LPGA GNA/Glendale Federal Golf
Classic
1987 - Nelli Cooman becomes world champion 60m indoor
1987 - "A Team," last aired on NBC-TV after 4
years
1989 - "Heidi Chronicles" opens at Plymouth
Theater NYC for 621 performances
1989 - Roger Kingdom runs indoor world record 60m hurdles
(7.37 secs)
Tennis Player Martina NavratilovaTennis Player Martina
Navratilova 1990 - NYC's Zodiac killer shoots 1st victim, Mario Orosco
1991 - 17th People's Choice Awards: Julia Roberts, Bill Cosby,
Pretty Woman
1991 - Harry Hamlin & Nicollette Sheridan wed
1991 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1991 - Planeloads of US troops arrive home from the Persian
Gulf, Iraq hands over 40 foreign journalists & 2 American soldiers it
captured
1992 - 22nd Easter Seal Telethon
1992 - Judy Dickinson wins LPGA Inamori Golf Classic
1993 - Katharine Hepburn released from the hospital after
exhaustion
1993 - Nigerian singer Fela Kuti arrested again on suspicion
of murder
1994 - 20th People's Choice Awards
1994 - B737 collides with Ilyushin-86 in New Dehli, at least
8 killed
1994 - Defense Department announces smoking ban in
workplaces
1994 - Train accident at Pinetown, Natal kills 47
1995 - -26°F (-32.2°C) in Bismarck, North Dakota
1995 - -44°F (-42.2°C) in Chosedacharad, Komi-district, on
67°N
Actress Julia RobertsActress Julia Roberts 1995 - Costis
Stephanopoulos becomes president of Greece
1995 - Dutch Liberal Party wins Provincial-National
elections
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.
2012 - Greece secures debt-restructuring deal with private
lenders
2012 - Toyota recalls 700,000 vehicles over safety concerns
2013 - North Korea terminates all peace pacts with South
Korea
1618 - Johann Kepler discovered the third Law of Planetary Motion. 1702 - England's Queen Anne took the throne upon the death of King William III. 1782 - The Gnadenhutten massacre took place. About 90 Indians were killed by militiamen in Ohio in retaliation for raids carried out by other Indians. 1853 - The first bronze statue of Andrew Jackson is unveiled in Washington, DC. 1855 - A train passed over the first railway suspension bridge at Niagara Falls, NY. 1862 - The Confederate ironclad "Merrimack" was launched. 1880 - U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes declared that the United States would have jurisdiction over any canal built across the isthmus of Panama. 1887 - The telescopic fishing rod was patented by Everett Horton. 1894 - A dog license law was enacted in the state of New York. It was the first animal control law in the U.S. 1904 - The Bundestag in Germany lifted the ban on the Jesuit order of priests. 1905 - In Russia, it was reported that the peasant revolt was spreading to Georgia. 1907 - The British House of Commons turned down a women's suffrage bill. 1909 - Pope Pius X lifted the church ban on interfaith marriages in Hungary. 1910 - In France, Baroness de Laroche became the first woman to obtain a pilot's license. 1910 - The King of Spain authorized women to attend universities. 1911 - In Europe, International Women's Day was celebrated for the first time. 1911 - British Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Gray declared that Britain would not support France in the event of a military conflict. 1917 - Russia's "February Revolution" began with rioting and strikes in St. Petersburg. The revolution was called the "February Revolution" due to Russia's use of the Old Style calendar. 1917 - The U.S. Senate voted to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule. 1921 - Spanish Premier Eduardo Dato was assassinated while leaving the Parliament in Madrid. 1921 - French troops occupied Dusseldorf. 1933 - Self-liquidating scrip money was issued for the first time at Franklin, IN. 1941 - Martial law was proclaimed in Holland in order to extinguish any anti-Nazi protests. 1942 - During World War II, Japanese forces captured Rangoon, Burma. 1943 - Japanese forces attacked American troops on Hill 700 in Bougainville. The battle lasted five days. 1945 - Phyllis Mae Daley received a commission in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. She later became the first African-American nurse to serve duty in World War II. 1946 - In New York City, the "Journal American" became the first commercial business to receive a helicopter license. 1946 - The French naval fleet arrived at Haiphong, Vietnam. 1948 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that religious instruction in public schools was unconstitutional. 1953 - A census bureau report indicated that 239,000 farmers had quit farming over the last 2 years. 1954 - France and Vietnam opened talks in Paris on a treaty to form the state of Indochina. 1954 - Herb McKenley set a world record for the quarter mile when he ran the distance in 46.8 seconds. 1957 - The International Boxing Club was ruled a monopoly putting it in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. 1959 - Groucho, Chico and Harpo made their final TV appearance together. 1961 - Max Conrad circled the globe in a record time of eight days, 18 hours and 49 minutes in the Piper Aztec. 1965 - The U.S. landed about 3,500 Marines in South Vietnam. They were the first U.S. combat troops to land in Vietnam. 1966 - Australia announced that it would triple the number of troops in Vietnam. 1973 - Two bombs exploded near Trafalgar Square in Great Britain. 234 people were injured. 1982 - The U.S. accused the Soviets of killing 3,000 Afghans with poison gas. 1985 - The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reported that 407,700 Americans were millionaires. That was more than double the total from just five years before. 1986 - Four French television crewmembers were abducted in west Beirut. All four were eventually released. 1988 - In Fort Campbell, KY, 17 U.S. soldiers were killed when two Army helicopters collided in midair. 1989 - In Lhasa, Tibet, martial law was declared after three days of protest against Chinese rule. 1999 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Timothy McVeigh for the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. 1999 - The White House, under President Bill Clinton, directed the firing of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The firing was a result of alleged security violations. 2001 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted for an across-the-board tax cut of nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. 2005 - In norther Chechnya, Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov was killed during a raid by Russian forces.
1782 A peaceful settlement of Delaware Indians were massacred by militia at Gnadenhutten in Ohio. 1917 Russia's February Revolution, which eventually led to the overthrow the csarist government, began. 1945 Phyllis Mae Daley, the first African-American nurse to serve in World War II, received her U.S. Navy commission. 1948 The Supreme Court ruled that religious instruction in public schools violated the Constitution. 1950 The Soviet Union claimed to be in possession of the atomic bomb. 1965 First U.S. combat troops arrived in Vietnam. 1983 President Reagan called the USSR an "Evil Empire." 1999 Baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio died.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/mar08.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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