Calendar for March 8th, 2013

2008: Full Worm Moon

International Women's Day

2001: Commonwealth Day (Gibraltar)

2002: Daylight Saving Time Begins at 2:00 A.M.

International (working) Women's Day

Died 1702: King William III

Born 1799: Simon Cameron (Pennsylvania political boss, U.S. senator, Secretary of War)

Born 1841: Oliver Wendell Holmes (Supreme Court justice)

1855: First train crossed Niagara Railway Suspension bridge

Born 1859: Kenneth Grahame (author)

1862: Confederate ironclad frigate Virginia (formerly Merrimack) sunk Union ship Cumberland at Hampton Roads, Virginia (U.S. Civil War)

Died 1874: Millard Fillmore (13th U.S. president)

1887: Everett Horton patented a fishing rod with telescoping metal tubes

1894: The first dog licensing law in the U.S. was passed in New York state

Born 1924: Sam Jaffee (journalist)

1930: Yankee slugger Babe Ruth signed an $80,000 per year (2-year, $160,000) contract

Died 1930: William Howard Taft (27th U.S. president)

Born 1933: Johnny Dollar (country singer)

Born 1938: Lew DeWitt (singer, Statler Brothers)

Born 1943: Lynn Redgrave (actress)

Born 1945: Micky Dolenz (musician, actor, & director)

1948: U.S. Supreme Court ruled in McCollum v. Board of Education that religious instruction in public schools is unconstitutional

Born 1953: Jim Rice (baseball player)

Born 1959: Aidan Quinn (actor)

Born 1963: Kathy Ireland (model & actress)

1965: First U.S. ground combat troops arrived in Vietnam

1965: First year free for students from Newfoundland at Memorial University, N.L.

1971: Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight boxing championship in New York

Born 1976: Freddie Prinze Jr. (actor)

1976: Meteorites fell in northeastern China, with the largest fragment weighing about 3,900 pounds, perhaps largest in recorded history

Born 1977: James Van Der Beek (actor)

Born 1984: Bob, Dave, & Clint Moffatt (musicians, of The Moffatts)

1989: Daily artillery barrages between Christian and Syrian forces and their militia allies began in Beirut. At least 930 died before cease-fire took hold in September

Born 1991: Devon Werkheiser (actor)

1994: Wheeled suitcase with collapsible towing handle patented

Died 1999: Joe DiMaggio (baseball player)

Died 2003: Elliott Jaques (scientist who coined the term "midlife crisis")

Died 2004: Robert Pastorelli (actor)

2004: The body of actor-writer Spalding Gray was pulled from New York's East River, two months after he walked out of his Manhattan apartment and disappeared

Died 2007: John Inman (actor)

Died 2011: Victor Manuel Blanco (astronomer who helped build the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile)