March 8 ...

In 1702 England's Queen Anne ascended the throne upon the death of King William III. In 1841 Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was born in Boston. In 1854 US Commodore Matthew C. Perry made his second landing in Japan; within a month, he concluded a treaty with the Japanese. In 1874 former president Millard Fillmore died in Buffalo, NY. In 1917 Russia's "February Revolution" (so called because of the Old Style calendar being used by Russians at the time) began with rioting and strikes in St. Petersburg; also on this day, the US Senate voted to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule. In 1930 former president and Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court William Howard Taft died in Washington. In 1942 Japanese forces captured Rangoon, Burma; also on this day, the Dutch surrender to Japanese forces on Java. In 1943 Japanese troops counter-attacked American forces on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a battle that lasted five days. In 1950 the Soviet Union claimed to have an atomic bomb. In 1971 Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali in New York City's Madison Square Garden in the first of three of the most famous fights in history. In 1999 New York Yankees Hall-of-Famer Joe DiMaggio died in Hollywood, FL, at age 84.