On This Day: March 8

This is the 67th day of the year.

Fact of the Day: Argentina

The name Argentina comes from the Latin word argentum 'silver' and the name means 'Land of Silver'. When Spanish explorers first reached the area in the early 16th century, the local people presented them with silver gifts. The explorers returned home with tales of the Sierra del Plata, a mountain supposedly composed of silver. The main river estuary was christened Rio de la Plata or 'River of Silver.'

Holidays

Feast day of St. Felix of Dunwich, St. Duthac, St. Julian of Toledo, St. Pontius of Carthage, St. Veremund, St. Senan, and St. John of God.

United Nations: International Women's Day.

Syria: Revolution Day.

Events

1765 - The British House of Lords passed the Stamp Act.

1801 - During the Napoleonic Wars, combined British and Ottoman forces successfully established a foothold in French-occupied Egypt.

1894 - A dog license law was enacted in the state of New York, a first in the U.S..

1910 - In Britain, the first man received a pilot's certificate, John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon, while in France, Mme Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman to be issued a pilot's license.

1913 - The Internal Revenue Service began to levy and collect income taxes.

1917 - In Russia, the "February Revolution" (known as such because of Russia's then use of the Julian calendar) began when riots and strikes over the scarcity of food erupted in Petrograd.

1917 - The U.S. Senate voted to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.

1930 - In India, Mahatma Gandhi began the campaign of civil disobedience.

1950 - The USSR declared they had built an atomic bomb.

1962 - The Beatles performed for the first time on the BBC in Great Britain.

1965 - Around 3500 Marines landed at Da Nang in South Vietnam and became the first U.S. combat troops in Vietnam.

1971 - Joe Frazier, of Philadelphia, won a boxing decision over Muhammad Ali, who had been previously undefeated.

1974 - Charles de Gaulle Airport opens in Paris, France.

2001 - The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted for an across-the-board tax cut of nearly $1 trillion over the next decade.

Births

1841 - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., U.S. Supreme Court justice.

1859 - Kenneth Grahame, Scottish author.

1879 - Otto Hahn, German, co-discoverer of nuclear fission.

1943 - Lynn Redgrave, English actress.

1946 - Randy Meisner, American musician best known as a founding member of the country-rock group the Eagles.

Deaths

1889 - John Ericsson, Swedish inventor.

1917 - Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German aircraft manufacturer.

1930 - William Howard Taft, President of the United States.

1971 - Harold Lloyd, American comedian and silent-film actor.

1999 - Joe DiMaggio, American baseball player.