On this day: March 8

Events on March 8

• 1010 Ferdowsi completes his epic poem Shahnameh. Wikipedia
• 1126 Following the death of his mother, queen Urraca of León, Alfonso VII is proclaimed king of León. Wikipedia
• 1558 The city of Pori (Swedish: Björneborg) is founded by Duke John on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia. Wikipedia
• 1576 A Spanish colonial officer wrote a letter to King Philip II containing the first known mention of the Maya ruins of Copán in present-day Honduras. Wikipedia
• 1655 The court of Northampton County, Virginia, issued a ruling that made John Casor the first person of African descent in the Thirteen Colonies to be declared a slave for life as a result of a civil suit. Wikipedia
• 1658 After a devastating defeat in the Second Northern War, King Frederick III of Denmark–Norway was forced to give up nearly half his Danish territory to Sweden to save the remainder. Wikipedia
• 1702 Anne became the Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland, succeeding her brother-in-law William III. Wikipedia
• 1736 Nader Shah, the founder of the Afsharid dynasty, was crowned Shah of Iran. Wikipedia
• 1844 The Althing, the parliament of Iceland, is reopened after 45 years of closure. Wikipedia
• 1844 King Oscar I ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway. Wikipedia
• 1910 French aviator Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman to receive a pilot's licence. Wikipedia
• 1917 International Women's Day protests in Petrograd mark the beginning of the February Revolution (February 23 in the Julian calendar). Wikipedia
• 1919 During the Egyptian Revolution, British authorities arrested rebel leader Saad Zaghloul and exiled him to Malta. Wikipedia
• 1924 Three violent explosions at a coal mine near Castle Gate, Utah, killed all 171 miners working there. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: The Dutch East Indies surrender Java to the Imperial Japanese Army. Wikipedia
• 1963 The Ba'ath Party came to power in a coup d'état by a clique of quasi-leftist Syrian Army officers calling themselves the National Council for the Revolutionary Command. Wikipedia
• 1965 Vietnam War: US Marines arrive at Da Nang. Wikipedia
• 1966 Nelson's Pillar, a large granite pillar topped by a statue of Lord Nelson in Dublin, Ireland, was severely damaged by a bomb. Wikipedia
• 1978 BBC Radio 4 began broadcasting Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a science fiction radio series that was later adapted into novels, a television series, and other formats. Wikipedia
• 1979 Images taken by Voyager 1 proved the existence of volcanoes on Io, a moon of Jupiter. Wikipedia
• 1979 Philips demonstrates the compact disc publicly for the first time. Wikipedia
• 1983 Cold War: In a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, U.S. president Ronald Reagan described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire". Wikipedia
• 2001 Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-102, carrying the Expedition 2 crew to the International Space Station. Wikipedia
• 2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, with aircraft debris subsequently washing ashore a few years later in the Indian Ocean. Wikipedia
• 2017 The Azure Window, a limestone natural arch in Gozo, Malta, collapsed during a stor Wikipedia
• 2021 Twenty-eight political institutions in Myanmar establish the National Unity Consultative Council, a historic alliance of ethnic armed organizations and democratically elected leaders, in response to the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état. Wikipedia

Born on March 8

• 1714 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German pianist and composer (died 1788) Wikipedia
• 1822 Ignacy Łukasiewicz, Polish inventor and businessman, invented the Kerosene lamp (died 1882) Wikipedia
• 1841 Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., American lawyer and jurist (died 1935) Wikipedia
• 1859 Kenneth Grahame, British author (died 1932) Wikipedia
• 1879 Otto Hahn, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1968) Wikipedia
• 1886 Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1972) Wikipedia
• 1907 Konstantinos Karamanlis, Greek lawyer and politician, President of Greece (died 1998) Wikipedia
• 1910 Claire Trevor, American actress (died 2000) Wikipedia
• 1914 Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich, Belarusian-Russian physicist and astronomer (died 1987) Wikipedia
• 1922 Cyd Charisse, American actress and dancer (died 2008) Wikipedia
• 1922 Ralph H. Baer, German-American video game designer, created the Magnavox Odyssey (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1924 Anthony Caro, English sculptor and illustrator (died 2013) Wikipedia
• 1931 Neil Postman, American author and social critic (died 2003) Wikipedia
• 1937 Juvénal Habyarimana, Rwandan politician, President of Rwanda (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1943 Lynn Redgrave, English-American actress and singer (died 2010) Wikipedia
• 1945 Anselm Kiefer, German painter and sculptor Wikipedia
• 1949 Teofilo Cubillas, Peruvian footballer Wikipedia
• 1958 Gary Numan, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Wikipedia
• 1976 Freddie Prinze Jr., American actor, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1977 James Van Der Beek, American actor (died 2026) Wikipedia
• 1990 Petra Kvitová, Czech tennis player Wikipedia
• 1990 Asier Illarramendi, Spanish footballer Wikipedia

Died on March 8

• 1144 Pope Celestine II Wikipedia
• 1403 Bayezid I, Ottoman sultan (born 1360) Wikipedia
• 1702 William III of England (born 1650) Wikipedia
• 1723 Christopher Wren, English architect, designed St. Paul's Cathedral (born 1632) Wikipedia
• 1844 Charles XIV John of Sweden (born 1763) Wikipedia
• 1869 Hector Berlioz, French composer, conductor, and critic (born 1803) Wikipedia
• 1874 Millard Fillmore, American lawyer and politician, 13th President of the United States (born 1800) Wikipedia
• 1923 Johannes Diderik van der Waals, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1837) Wikipedia
• 1930 William Howard Taft, American politician, 27th President of the United States (born 1857) Wikipedia
• 1941 Sherwood Anderson, American novelist and short story writer (born 1876) Wikipedia
• 1942 José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player (born 1888) Wikipedia
• 1971 Harold Lloyd, American actor, director, and producer (born 1893) Wikipedia
• 2005 Aslan Maskhadov, Chechen commander and politician, President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (born 1951) Wikipedia
• 2020 Max von Sydow, Swedish actor (born 1929) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Edward King (Church of England) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Felix of Burgundy Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John of God Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Philemon the actor Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: March 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• International Women's Day, and its related observances: International Women's Collaboration Brew Day Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “March 8” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/March 8” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “March 8” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for March 8 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.