1618: Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion.
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.
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1702: Anne became the last Stuart monarch of Great Britain, having earlier acquiesced to the Act of Settlement of 1701, which designated as her successors the Hanoverian descendants of King James I.
1801: As Britain and France compete to control North Africa, a British expeditionary force lands in Aboukri, Egypt to drive out France’s 21,000 troops remaining from Napoleone Bonaparte’s troubled invasion of Egypt. Britain removes the French from the city, but suffers 730 casualties to France.
1817: The New York Stock Exchange is founded. The NYSE at 11 Wall Street in New York City is the world’s largest stock exchange.
1910: French aviatrix Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first woman to receive a pilot’s license.
The French aviatrix was also the first woman to fly solo. She died at the age of 36 when her experimental plane crashed at Le Crotoy airfield in northern France.
1920: The Arab Kingdom of Syria, the first modern Arab state to come into existence, is established.
1950: Volkswagen’s iconic Type 2 Kombi first began production.
1952: An artificial heart was used for the first time. It kept a man 41 alive for 80 minutes.
1957: Ghana is admitted to the United Nations.
1957: The Suez Canal, closed during the Second Arab-Isreali War, is reopened by Egypt following the withdrawal of the final Israeli troops from the country on this day.
1971: In the Fight of the Century, Joe Frazier triumphs over Muhammad Ali. Ali had been stripped of his World Heavyweight Champion title in 1967 for refusing to serve in the armed forces. As he was still undefeated, Frazier had to beat him to be recognized as the world champion.
1978: The first episode of the radio comedy. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is broadcast
Douglas Adams’ radio play was a major success with BBC Radio 4 listeners. The book version consisting of five novels – A Trilogy in Five Parts – became a worldwide success.
1979: The compact disc is presented to the public. The CD was developed by Philips and Sony. The companies later collaborated to produce a standard format and CD players.
1983: U.S. President Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union an “evil empire”.
1993: Nigerian singer, Fela Kuti is arrested on suspicion of murder.
2014: Malaysia airlines flight MH370, with 239 people on board, vanished en route to Kuala Lumpur from Beijing. The search for the missing airplane became the most expensive search in the history of aviation and the debris was never found.
2021: Nigeria’s Don Jazzy is listed by an international financial magazine, Forbes as the wealthiest member of the African Entertainment industry. Recording and producing since 2004, he has amassed a reported worth of 65 million US dollars.
Births on This Day, March 8
Yemi Osinbajo, 67
Oluyemi Oluleke Osinbajo GCON is a Nigerian lawyer, professor, and politician who served as the 14th vice president of Nigeria from 2015 to 2023. A member of the All Progressives Congress, he previously served as Attorney General of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007 and holds the title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
Milana Vayntrub, 37
Milana Aleksandrovna Vayntrub is an American actress, comedian, and activist. Born in the Soviet Union, she began her career as a child actress shortly after immigrating to the United States.
André Michaux (8 March 1746 – 11 October 1802)
André Michaux, also styled Andrew Michaud, was a French botanist and explorer. He is most noted for his study of North American flora. In addition, Michaux collected specimens in England, Spain, France, and even Persia. His work was part of a larger European effort to gather knowledge about the natural world. He was 56 years old when he died.
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968)
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who, aboard the first successful crewed spaceflight, became the first human to journey into outer space. Traveling on Vostok 1, Gagarin completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961, with his flight taking 108 minutes.
He died at the age of 34.
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