Daily Calendar for March 8th, 2020

The Old Farmer's Almanac daily calendar gives you quick reference for the significant events on any day throughout the year.

Daylight Saving Time Begins on Sunday at 2:00 A.M.

Today is the beginning of Daylight Saving Time, time for moving the clocks one hour ahead. The exceptions are Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa. Credit for Daylight Saving Time belongs to Benjamin Franklin, who first suggested the idea in 1784. The idea was revived in 1907, when William Willett, an Englishman, proposed a similar system in the pamphlet The Waste of Daylight. The Germans were the first to officially adopt the light-extending system in 1915 as a fuel-saving measure during World War I. The British switched one year later, and the United States followed in 1918, when Congress passed the Standard Time Act, which established our time zones. This experiment lasted only until 1920, when the law was repealed due to opposition from dairy farmers (cows don't pay attention to clocks). During World War II, Daylight Saving Time was imposed once again (this time year-round) to save fuel.

Every Year

• International (working) Women's Day

• International Women's Day

1700s

• Died 1702: King William III

1790s

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

1840s

• Born 1841: Oliver Wendell Holmes (Supreme Court justice)

1850s

• 1855: First train crossed Niagara Railway Suspension bridge

• Born 1859: Kenneth Grahame (author)

1860s

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

1870s

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

1880s

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

1890s

• 1894: The first state dog licensing law in the United States was passed in New York state

1920s

• Born 1924: Sam Jaffee (journalist)

1930s

• 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)

1940s

• 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

1950s

• Born 1953: Jim Rice (baseball player)

• 1955: Whirlwind I's Director, precursor to computer operating system, demonstrated

• Born 1959: Aidan Quinn (actor)

1960s

• Born 1963: Kathy Ireland (model & actress)

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

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

1970s

• 1971: Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight boxing championship in New York50 Years Ago

• 1976: Meteorites fell in northeastern China, with the largest fragment, weighing about 3,902 pounds, falling in Jilin Province.

• Born 1976: Freddie Prinze Jr. (actor)

• Born 1977: James Van Der Beek (actor)

1980s

• 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

1990s

• Born 1991: Devon Werkheiser (actor)

• 1994: Wheeled suitcase with collapsible towing handle patented

• Died 1999: Joe DiMaggio (baseball player)

2000s

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

• 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 2004: Robert Pastorelli (actor)

• Died 2007: John Inman (actor)

2010s

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

• 2016: Total Eclipse of the Sun