Daily Calendar for Saturday, March 8, 2025

Died

  • King William III –
  • Millard Fillmore (13th U.S. president) –
  • William Howard Taft (27th U.S. president) –
  • Joe DiMaggio (baseball player) –
  • Elliott Jaques (scientist who coined the term midlife crisisβ€β€œ) –
  • Robert Pastorelli (actor) –
  • John Inman (actor) –
  • Victor Manuel Blanco (astronomer who helped build the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile) –

Born

  • Simon Cameron (Pennsylvania political boss, U.S. senator, Secretary of War) –
  • Oliver Wendell Holmes (Supreme Court justice) –
  • Kenneth Grahame (author) –
  • Joseph Lee (American philanthropist) –
  • Sam Jaffee (journalist) –
  • Johnny Dollar (country singer) –
  • Lew DeWitt (singer, Statler Brothers) –
  • Lynn Redgrave (actress) –
  • Micky Dolenz (musician, actor, & director) –
  • Jim Rice (baseball player) –
  • Aidan Quinn (actor) –
  • Kathy Ireland (model & actress) –
  • Freddie Prinze Jr. (actor) –
  • James Van Der Beek (actor) –
  • Bob, Dave, & Clint Moffatt (musicians, of The Moffatts) –
  • Devon Werkheiser (actor) –

Events

  • First train crossed Niagara Railway Suspension bridge–
  • Confederate ironclad frigate Virginia (formerly Merrimack) sunk Union ship Cumberland at Hampton Roads, Virginia (U.S. Civil War)–
  • Everett Horton patented a fishing rod with telescoping metal tubes–
  • The first state dog licensing law in the United States was passed in New York state–
  • Yankee slugger Babe Ruth signed an $80,000 per year (2-year, $160,000) contract–
  • U.S. Supreme Court ruled in McCollum v. Board of Education that religious instruction in public schools is unconstitutional–
  • Whirlwind I’s Director, precursor to computer operating system, demonstrated–
  • First U.S. ground combat troops arrived in Vietnam–
  • First year free for students from Newfoundland at Memorial University, N.L.–
  • Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight boxing championship in New York–
  • Meteorites fell in northeastern China, with the largest fragment, weighing about 3,902 pounds, falling in Jilin Province.–
  • 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–
  • Wheeled suitcase with collapsible towing handle patented–
  • 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–

Weather

  • 1.6-inch-diameter hail fell in Erin, Ontario–
  • A tornado in Arkansas killed 64 people–
  • A winter storm brought high winds, heavy rains, and snow to southern British Columbia–
  • Portsmouth, New Hampshire, had a record high temperature of 69 degrees Fahrenheit–

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