Almanac - March 8

Cyd Charisse 1922-2008

Events

• 1010 – Ferdowsi completes his epic poem Shahnameh.
• 1126 – Following the death of his mother Urraca, Alfonso VII is proclaimed king of Castile and León.
• 1576 – Spanish explorer Diego García de Palacio first sights the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Copán.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1736 – Nader Shah, founder of the Afsharid dynasty, is crowned Shah of Iran.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1868 – Sakai incident: Japanese samurai kill 11 French sailors in the port of Sakai near Osaka.
• 1910 – French aviatrix Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first woman to receive a pilot's license.
• 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.
• 1916 – World War I: A British force unsuccessfully attempts to relieve the siege of Kut (present-day Iraq) in the Battle of Dujaila.
• 1917 – International Women's Day protests in St. Petersburg mark the beginning of the February Revolution (so named because it was February on the Julian calendar).
• 1917 – The United States Senate votes to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.
• 1920 – The Arab Kingdom of Syria, the first modern Arab state to come into existence, is established.
• 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 its first oval stock car race.
• 1937 – Spanish Civil War: The Battle of Guadalajara begins.
• 1942 – World War II: The Dutch surrender to Japanese forces on Java.
• 1949 – Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") is condemned to prison for 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 U.S. 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 Irish Republicans 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, 1st Earl Howe, Royal Navy admiral of the fleet (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)
• 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)
• 1900 – Howard Aiken, American computing pioneer (d. 1973)
• 1902 – Louise Beavers, American actress (d. 1962)
• 1902 – Jennings Randolph, America politician, United States Senator from West Virginia (d. 1998)
• 1907 – Konstantinos 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)
• 1918 – Jacques Baratier, French director and screenwriter (d. 2009)
• 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 – Yevgeny Matveyev, Russian actor and film director (d. 2003)
• 1922 – Shigeru Mizuki, Japanese soldier and manga artist
• 1924 – Georges Charpak, Ukrainian-born physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 2010)
• 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 – Gerald Potterton, British/Canadian director, producer and animator
• 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 – Richard Farina, American folksinger (d. 1966)
• 1937 – Juvénal Habyarimana, President of Rwanda (d. 1994)
• 1938 – Pete Dawkins, American football player
• 1938 – Hans Fogh, Canadian competition sailor
• 1938 – Bruno Pizzul, Italian sports journalist
• 1939 – Jim Bouton, American baseball player and author
• 1939 – Lidia Skoblikova, Russian skater
• 1939 – Robert Tear, Welsh tenor
• 1940 – Susan Clark, Canadian actress
• 1940 – Jacques Doucet, radio play-by-play voice for the Montreal Expos (1972-2004)
• 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)
• 1943 – Dionysis Simopoulos, Greek physicist and astronomer
• 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 – Gyles Brandreth, British broadcaster and former Conservative Member of Parliament
• 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
• 1950 – Dimitris Spentzopoulos, Greek footballer
• 1952 – George Felix Allen, American politician, 67th Governor of Virginia
• 1953 – Jim Rice, American baseball player
• 1953 – Don Werner, American baseball player
• 1954 – Bob Brozman, American musician
• 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 – Lester Holt, American television journalist
• 1959 – Aidan Quinn, American actor
• 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 – Cheryl James, American performer (Salt-n-Pepa)
• 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 – Jason Elam, American football player
• 1970 – Andrea Parker, American actress, ballet dancer
• 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 – João Martins, Portuguese artist
• 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)
• 1981 – Joost Posthuma, Dutch professional cyclist
• 1982 – Nicolas Armindo, French race car driver
• 1982 – Leonidas Kampantais, Greek footballer
• 1982 – Craig Stansberry, American baseball player
• 1982 – Kat Von D, Mexican-born tattoo artist
• 1983 – André Santos, Brazilian footballer
• 1983 – Mark Worrell, American baseball player
• 1984 – Rafik Djebbour, Algerian 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 of Takamado, Japanese princess
• 1988 – Armanti Edwards, American college football player
• 1988 – Elly Jackson, British singer and songwriter (La Roux)
• 1989 – Robbie Hummel, American basketball player
• 1990 – Kristinia DeBarge, American R&B singer
• 1990 – Petra Kvitová, Czech tennis player
• 1990 – Ben Tozer, English footballer
• 1991 – Devon Werkheiser, American actor
• 1992 – Charlie Ray, American actress

Deaths

• 1126 – Urraca of León (b. 1082)
• 1144 – Pope Celestine II
• 1223 – Wincenty Kadlubek, 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)
• 1907 – Marinos Antypas, Greek lawyer and journalist, one of the country's first socialists (b. 1872)
• 1917 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German aircraft manufacturer (b. 1838)
• 1923 – Krišjanis Barons, Latvian writer (b. 1835)
• 1923 – Johannes Diderik van der Waals, Dutch Nobel laureate (b. 1837)
• 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-Zelewski, 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)
• 1989 – Charles Exbrayat, French novelist (b. 1906)
• 1991 – John Bellairs, American mystery author (b. 1938)
• 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 – Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine writer (b. 1914)
• 1999 – Peggy Cass, American actress and comedian (b. 1924)
• 1999 – Joe DiMaggio, American baseball player (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 – César Lattes, Brazilian physicist (b. 1924)
• 2005 – Aslan Maskhadov, Chechen leader (b. 1951)
• 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)
• 2007 – Christopher Barrios Jr., American Murder Victim (b. 2001)
• 2008 – Carol Barnes, former ITV news presenter (b. 1944)
• 2009 – Ali Bongo, British magician (b. 1929)
• 2009 – Hank Locklin, American country music singer and songwriter (b. 1918)
• 2009 – Zbigniew Religa, Minister of Health of the Republic of Poland (b. 1938)
• 2011 – St. Clair Lee, American vocalist (The Hues Corporation) (b. 1944)
• 2011 – Mike Starr (musician), American Musician (b. 1966)

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 17 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)