On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on March 08:
1075 Abu 'l-Kasim Mahmud ibn Omar al-Zamachshari Arab theologist
1495 Juan de Dios Portugal/Spain, saint/founder (Brothers of Mercy)
1787 Karl Ferdinand von Grafe help create modern plastic surgery
1836 Matthew Calbraith Butler Major General (Confederate Army)
1841 Oliver Wendell Holmes Massachusetts, 59th Supreme Court justice (1902-32)
1865 Frederick William Goudy US, printer/type designer
1879 Otto Hahn German physicist/chemist (Nobel 44, radiothorium/actinium, co-discoverer-nuclear fission)
1911 Elsie Agnes Giorgi physician/humanitarian
1914 Jacob B Bakema urban developer (St Louis MO)
1918 Alan Hale [MacKahan] Jr Los Angeles CA, actor (Skipper Jonas Grumby-Gilligan's Island)
1921 Cyd Charisse [Tula Ellice Finklea] Amarillo TX, dancer/actress (East Side West Side, Brigadoon)
1939 Jim Bouton Newark NJ, pitcher (New York Yankees)/author (Ball Four)
1940 Leslie Isben Rogge one of FBI's most wanted
1945 Keith Jarrett pianist/composer
1945 Mickey Dolenz Los Angeles CA, actor (Circus Boy) singer/drummer (Monkees)
1952 Vladimir Vladimirovich Vasyutin USSR, cosmonaut (Soyuz T-14)
1963 Kathy Ireland model/actress (Alien From LA, Side Out)
1970 Jason Elam NFL kicker (Denver Broncos-Superbowl 32)
1973 Nanette Pearson Pleasant Grove UT, Miss America-Utah (1996)
Deaths which occurred on March 08:
0883 Albumasar [Ahmad Aboe M Gafar al-Balkhi], Arabic astronomer, dies
1144 Celestine II [Guido], Italian Pope (1143-44), dies in battle
1403 Bajezid I Jildirim 4th sultan of Turkey (1389-1403), dies at 42
1709 William Cowper/Cooper English anatomist, dies at about 62
1862 Nat Gordon last pirate, hanged in New York NY for stealing 1,000 slaves
1874 Millard Fillmore 13th President (1850-53), dies of at 74
1917 Ferdinand von Zeppelin Dutch count/air pioneer, dies at 78
1930 William Howard Taft 27th US President (1909-13)/Chief Justice, dies at 72
1951 The Honeymoon Killers (Martha Beck & Raymond Fernandez) die in electric chair
1967 John F Bothwell actor (Freckles-Our Gang), dies at 46
1971 Harold Lloyd US comic/actor (Why Worry), dies of cancer at 77
1973 Ron "Pigpen" McKernan rocker (Grateful Dead, Grass Roots), dies at 27
1977 Henry Hull actor (Werewolf of London, Boys Town), dies at 86
1985 Thomas Creighton US heart patient (3 implants in 46 hours), dies at 33
1993 Billy Eckstine jazz singer (Fools Rush In), dies at 78 of stroke
1997 Alexander Salkind producer (Superman), dies at 75
1998 James McDougal of whitewater fame dies at 57
1999 Joe DiMaggio, (The Yankee Clipper), died at age 84
Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1967 CRAIN CARROLL O.---MEMPHIS TN.
1967 GALVIN RONALD E.---RIVER FOREST IL.
1967 PAWLISH GEORGE F.---LAS ANIMAS CO.
1971 ANSHUS RICHARD C.---MINNEAPOLIS MN.
[03/27/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1971 GRANTHAMROBERT E.---LOS ANGELES CA.
1971 HALE JOHN D.---BRANDENBURG KY.
1971 PRATHER PHILLIP D.---ARMARILLO TX.
[03/27/73 RELEASED BY PRG, DECEASED 11/20/97]
POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.
On this day...
1702 England's Queen Anne ascends throne upon death of King William III
1722 Afghan monarch Mir Mahmud occupies Persia
1746 Cumberland's troops occupy Aberdeen
1801 British drive French forces from Abukir, Egypt
1838 US mint in New Orleans begins operation (producing dimes)
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 FL 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)
1887 Everett Horton, Connecticut, patents fishing rod of telescoping steel tubes
1894 New York passes 1st state dog license law
1896 Volunteers of America forms (New York NY)
1900 National League decides to go with 8 teams They exclude Baltimore, Cleveland, Louisville & Washington (in 1953 Boston Braves move to Milwaukee)
1908 Collingwood Elementary (Cleveland) burns, kills 173 kids & 2 teachers
1910 Baroness Raymonde de Laroche of Paris France becomes 1st licensed female pilot
1911 International Women's Day (1st celebrated)
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 (in Petrograd/St Petersburg)
1924 Coal mine explosion kills 171 at Castle Gate UT
1927 Pan American Airlines incorporates
1930 Babe Ruth signs 2-year contract for $160,000 with New York Yankee GM Ed Barrow, wrongly predicts "No one will ever be paid more than Ruth"
1930 Mahatma Gandhi starts civil disobedience in India
1934 Edwin Hubble photo shows as many galaxies as Milky Way has stars
1941 1st baseball player drafted into WWII (Hugh Mulcahy, Phillies)
1942 Japanese forces captures Rangoon Burma
1943 Limited gambling legalized in Mexico
1945 Phyllis M Daley is 1st black nurse sworn-in as US Navy ensign
1946 1st helicopter licensed for commercial use (New York NY)
1950 1st woman medical officer assigned to naval vessel (BR Walters)
1950 Marshall Voroshilov of USSR announces they developed atomic bomb
1951 International Table Tennis Federation bans Egypt (for refusing to play Israel)
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
1958 William Faulkner says US schools degenerated to become babysitters
1959 Groucho, Chico & Harpo's final TV appearance together
1959 Pro-Egyptian coup fails in Mosul Iraq
1961 US nuclear submarine Patrick Henry arrives at Scottish naval base of Holy Loch from South Carolina in a record underseas journey of 66 days 22 hours
1963 Syrian Arab Republic Revolution Day: Military coup in Syria
1965 1st US combat forces arrive in South Vietnam (3,500 Marines)
1966 An IRA bomb destroyed Nelson's Column in Dublin
1966 Casey Stengel elected to Hall of Fame
1968 6 year old Tommy Moore scores hole-in-one in golf (Hagerstown MD)
1968 Fillmore East opens
1968 Students demonstrate in Warsaw
1969 Marriage of 12 year old Marcella Rosciglione in Palermo Italy
1971 Joe Frazier beats Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden (New York NY)in 15, retains heavyweight boxing title
1971 Milwaukee Bucks win their 20th straight NBA game (team record)
1973 Eisenhower Tunnel, world's highest/US longest, opens
1973 Paul & Linda McCartney are fined £100 for growing cannabis
1976 1,774 kg (largest observed) stony meteorite falls in Jilin, China
1979 1st extraterrestrial volcano discovered (Jupiter's satellite Io)
1983 House Foreign Affairs Committee endorses nuclear weapons freeze with USSR
1983 IBM releases PC DOS version 2.0
1983 President Reagan calls the USSR an "Evil Empire"
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 FBI apprehends most wanted Claude L Dallas, Jr in California
1990 NYC's Zodiac killer shoots 1st victim, Mario Orosco
1991 17th People's Choice Awards: Julia Roberts, Bill Cosby, Pretty Woman
1994 Defense Department announces smoking ban in workplaces
1995 -26ºF (-32.2ºC) in Bismarck ND
2000 Israel the supreme court rules that the government may no longer allocate land based on religion or ethnicity and may no longer prevent Arab citizens from living where they choose.
2001 A new AIDS vaccine was reported to be successful in monkeys
2002 The Holy Land Foundation filed suit against the US Departments of Justice, Treasury and State for violation of its civil rights and putting it out of business as a suspected conduit for terrorist funds (Boo Hoo Hoo)
2003 FORMER US president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter condemned preparations for a unilateral US attack on Iraq
2003 An Argentine judge asked Interpol to arrest four Iranian diplomats, accusing them of responsibility in a deadly terrorist attack that destroyed a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994
2004 China's parliament began discussing a constitutional amendment that would protect private property for the first time since the 1949 communist revolution
2004 Abul Abbas (56), the Palestinian who planned the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro passenger ship in which a wheelchair-bound American tourist was killed and thrown overboard, died of natural causes in Baghdad while in U.S. custody.
2004 Syrian authorities broke up a rare protest by human rights activists demanding political and civil reforms on the 41st anniversary of the ruling party's accession to power
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
China, Cuba, Mauritania, Mongolia, USSR : International Women's Day
Egypt, Libya, Syria : Syrian Revolution Day (1963)
Memphis TN : Cotton Carnival (held for 5 days)
New Mexico : Arbor Day - - - - - (Friday)
US : Aardvark Week (Day 2)
US : Federal Employees Recognition Week (Day 2)
US : Skunks Mating Day
Humorists Are Artists Month
Religious Observances
Roman Catholic : Memorial of St John of God, confessor (optional)
Religious History
1698 The first meeting convened of the British group which later formed the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK).
1711 In this date's edition of "The Spectator," English essayist Joseph Addison wrote: 'To be an atheist requires an infinitely greater measure of faith than to receive all the great truths which atheism would deny.'
1740 Colonial revivalist Gilbert Tennent, 37, preached his famous sermon, "The Danger of An Unconverted Ministry." The message, assaulting opponents of the Great Awakening, contributed to the first schism within the American Presbyterian Church between the Old Side and New Side. (In 1758 the two divisions were reunited.)
1887 Death of Henry Ward Beecher, 73, American clergyman and social reformer. His last words were: 'Going out into life" that is dying.'
1921 The United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Australia was organized at Ebenezer, in South Australia. In 1966 the UELCA united with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia (ELCA) to form the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA).
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"Quit work and play for once."
