Today in History March 8

1618 – Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion.

1736 – Nader Shah, founder of the Afsharid dynasty, is crowned Shah of Iran.

1775 – An anonymous writer, thought by some to be Thomas Paine, publishes “African Slavery in America“, the first article in the American colonies calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery.

1782 – Gnadenhutten massacre: The Gnadenhutten massacre, also known as the Moravian massacre, was the killing of 96 Christian Lenape (Delaware) by colonial American militia from Pennsylvania on March 8, 1782 at the Moravian missionary village of Gnadenhutten, Ohio during the American Revolutionary War.   a very sad story of brutality against the Native Americans. To read more click here

1817 – The New York Stock Exchange is founded.

1920 – The Arab Kingdom of Syria, the first modern Arab state to come into existence, is established.

1936 – Daytona Beach and Road Course holds first oval stock car race.

1965 – Thirty-five hundred United States Marines are the first American land combat forces committed during the Vietnam War.

1979 – Philips demonstrates the compact disc publicly for the first time.

1983 – Cold War: While addressing a convention of Evangelicals, U.S. President Ronald Reagan labels the Soviet Union an “evil empire”.

2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, carrying a total of 239 people, disappears en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

1712 – John Fothergill, English physician and botanist (d. 1780)

1714 – Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, pianist and composer (d. 1788)

1841 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., colonel, lawyer, and jurist (d. 1935)

1924 – Anthony Caro, English sculptor and illustrator (d. 2013)

1945 – Micky Dolenz, American singer-songwriter, drummer, and actor

819 – Li Shidao, Chinese warlord

1723 – Christopher Wren, English architect, designed St. Paul’s cathedral (b. 1632)

1874 – Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States (b. 1800)

1889 – John Ericsson, Swedish-American engineer, designed the USS Monitor (b. 1803)

1917 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German general and businessman, founded the Zeppelin Company (b. 1838)

1930 – William Howard Taft, American lawyer, jurist, and politician, 27th President of the United States (b. 1857)

1973 – Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, American keyboard player and songwriter (b. 1945)

2016 – George Martin, English composer, conductor, and producer (b. 1926)