March 8

1010 – After 33 years, Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi completes the epic poem Shahnama.

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 – 96 Christian Lenape indians are massacred at the Moravian missionary village of Gnadenhutten, Ohio by Pennsylvania militia, who had mistakenly identified them as another tribe who had carried out raids into Pennsylvania.

1817 – The New York Stock Exchange is founded.

1917 – The Senate votes to limit filibusters by adopting the parliamentary  cloture rule, where 60 votes can ‘limit debate’.

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

1950 – The Volkswagen Type 2 “Bus” begins production.

1965 – The first U.S. combat troops, 3500 Marines of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, are deployed to Da Nang, Vietnam

1971 – In Madison Square Garden, Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali in a 15 round match.

1979 – The Dutch conglomerate Koninklijke Philips N.V. demonstrates the CD  compact disc publicly for the first time.

1983 – While addressing a convention of The National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando Florida, President Ronald Reagan labels the Soviet Union an “evil empire”.

2004 – Under supervision of the U.S. led Coalition Provisional Authority, the Iraq Governing Council enacts a new constitution.

2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777-200ER, carrying 239 passengers and crew, disappears en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the fate of the flight still unknown to date.