On this day: 8 March
Events, births and deaths on 8 March. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths · Athol Fugard
10 years ago2016
- Deaths · George Martin
100 years ago1926
- Births · Francisco Rabal
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 1126 · Deaths · Urraca of León
- 974 · Births · Ly Thai To
Events · 21
- 1262Battle of Hausbergen — 1262 conflict to free the city of Strasbourg
- 1722Battle of Gulnabad — 1722 battle
- 1782Gnadenhutten massacre — massacre
- 1801Second Battle of Abukir — 1801 second battle of the French campaign in Egypt and Syria to be fought at Abu Qir
- 1868Sakai incident — 1868 killing of French sailors in Japan
- 1916Battle of Dujaila — 1916 WWI battle of the Mesopotamian Campaign
- 1917International Women's Day — holiday to recognize women globally
- 1917February Revolution — first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917
- 1937Battle of Guadalajara — 1937 battle
- 1949Élysée Accords — 1949 agreement between France and Vietnam
- 19621962 Turkish Airlines Taurus Mountains crash — 1962 aircraft accident in Turkey
- 19631963 Syrian coup d'état — overthrow of Syrian Prime Minister Nazim al-Kudsi by the Ba'ath Party
- 1965Aeroflot Flight 513 — aviation accident
- 19661966 Xingtai earthquake — series of earthquakes affecting Hebei, China
- 1974Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport — international airport serving Paris, France
- 1983Evil Empire speech — 1983 speech by Ronald Reagan
- 19851985 Beirut car bombing — event
- 1988Aeroflot Flight 3739 — plane crash caused by hijacker
- 20002000 Naka-Meguro derailment — train wreck
- 20082008 Malaysian general election — election for the Malaysian Parliament
- 2014Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 — passenger aircraft flight that went missing in 2014
Births · 60
- 1495(Julian date)John of God — Portuguese soldier turned health-care worker, canonized by the Catholic Church (1495–1550)
- 1714Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach — German composer (1714–1788)
- 1726Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe — Royal Navy Admiral of the Fleet
- 1748William V, Prince of Orange — Prince of Orange, General Stadtholder of the United Provinces (1748-1806)
- 1761Jan Potocki — Polish nobleman, writer (creating in French), traveler, politician and historian (1761-1815)
- 1822Ignacy Łukasiewicz — Polish pharmacist and petroleum industry pioneer (1822-1882)
- 1841Oliver Wendell Holmes — American jurist (1841–1935); US Supreme Court justice from 1902 to 1932
- 1859Kenneth Grahame — British novelist
- 1876(Julian date)Hrachia Adjarian — Armenian scientist in the field of linguistics (1876-1953)
- 1879Otto Hahn — German chemist and physicist (1879-1968)
- 1886Edward Calvin Kendall — American chemist (1886-1972)
- 1892Juana de Ibarbourou — Uruguayan writer (1892–1979)
- 1907(Julian date)Konstantinos Karamanlis — Greek politician and lawyer (1907–1998), Prime Minister of Greece intermittently between 1955–80, President from 1980–85, 1990–95
- 1910Claire Trevor — American actress (1910–2000)
- 1921Cyd Charisse — American dancer and actress (1921–2008)
- 1922Ralph H. Baer — German-born American inventor and engineer (1922–2014)
- 1924Anthony Caro — English abstract sculptor (1924-2013)
- 1926Francisco Rabal — Spanish actor (1926–2001)
- 1930Douglas Hurd — British Conservative politician and novelist (born 1930)
- 1931Neil Postman — American writer and academic (1931-2003)
- 1937Juvénal Habyarimana — 2nd President of Rwanda (1937–1994)
- 1939Lidiya Skoblikova — speed skater
- 1942Ann Packer — Olympic gold medallist
- 1943Lynn Redgrave — British actress (1943–2010)
- 1945Anselm Kiefer — German painter and sculptor (born 1945)
Deaths · 60
- 1126(Julian date)Urraca of León — Spanish queen
- 1137(Julian date)Adela of Normandy — Countess of Blois from 1089 to 1102
- 1144(Julian date)Celestine II — pope of the Catholic Church from 1143 to 1144
- 1403(Julian date)Bayezid I — fourth Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1389–1402)
- 1466(Julian date)Francesco I Sforza — Italian condottiero and Sforza dynasty founder (1401–1466)
- 1550(Julian date)John of God — Portuguese soldier turned health-care worker, canonized by the Catholic Church (1495–1550)
- 1619Veit Bach — great-great-grandfather of J. S. Bach
- 1641Xu Xiake — Chinese geographer and traveller
- 1702(Julian date)William III of England — King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1689 to 1702 (1650-1702)
- 1717Abraham Darby I — Ironmaster: first successful use of coke in smelting
- 1723Christopher Wren — English architect (1632–1723)
- 1844Charles XIV John of Sweden — King of Sweden and Norway between 1818–1844. Prince of Ponte Corvo 1806–1810 and French field marshal (1763–1844)
- 1869Hector Berlioz — French composer and conductor (1803–1869)
- 1872Priscilla Susan Bury — British botanist and artist (1799–1872)
- 1874Millard Fillmore — president of the United States from 1850 to 1853
- 1877James Scott Bowerbank — British scientist/naturalist (1797-1877)
- 1887Henry Ward Beecher — American clergyman and activist (1813–1887)
- 1887James Buchanan Eads — American civil engineer (1820–1887)
- 1889John Ericsson — Swedish-US engineer (1803-1889)
- 1898(Julian date)Ivan Shishkin — Russian landscape painter (1832-1898)
- 1917Ferdinand von Zeppelin — German general and airship pioneer (1838–1917)
- 1923Johannes Diderik van der Waals — Dutch physicist (1837–1923)
- 1930William Howard Taft — 27th President of the United States from 1909 to 1913 (1857–1930)
- 1935Ruan Lingyu — Chinese silent film actress
- 1937Howie Morenz — Canadian ice hockey player (1902–1937)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.