Today in History for 8th March 2024

[CoM Moderators]

Historical Events

1862 - Confederate ironclad "Merrimack" launched
1898 - Richard Straus' "Don Quixote" premieres in Keulen
1916 - US invades Cuba for 3rd time, this to end corrupt Menocal regime
1927 - Pan American Airlines incorporates
1995 - Dutch Liberal Party wins Provincial-National elections
2014 - Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 with 239 people loses contact and disappears, prompting the most expensive search effort in history and one of the most enduring aviation mysteries

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1743 - [Benedikt] Bendix Friedrich Zinck, Danish violinist, keyboardist, and composer, baptized in Husum, Duchy of Schleswig (now Germany) (d. 1801)
1879 - Mechtilde Lichnowsky, German writer, born in Pocking, Bavaria (d. 1958)
1918 - Poon Lim, Chinese sailor who survived 133 days adrift at sea, born in Hainan, China (d. 1991)
1927 - Jaromir Podešva, Czech composer (Fragments of the Quinguennium), music theorist, and pedagogue, born in Brno, Czechoslovakia (d. 2000)
1971 - Marc Tobert, CFL slot back (Edmonton Eskimos)
1977 - James Van Der Beek, American actor (Dawson's Creek), born in Cheshire, Connecticut

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1853 - Edward John Dent, British clockmaker to Queen Victoria and commissioned to make Big Ben, London (completed after his death by his son Frederick Dent), dies at 62
1955 - Clémentine, Princess of Belgium, wife of Prince Napoleon Bonaparte V, dies at 82
1971 - Harold Lloyd, American silent and sound film actor, comedian, and director (Why Worry?; The Freshman; Safety Last!; The Sin of Harold Diddlebock), dies of cancer at 77
1985 - Thomas Creighton, US heart patient (3 implants in 46 hrs), dies at 33
1994 - Joop C Swart, publisher/founder (World Press Photo), dies at 69
2014 - William Guarnere, American WWII veteran and author, portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, dies at 90

More Famous Deaths »