March 8th Holidays & Observances

• International Women's Day
• St. John of God's Feast Day

Events

• 1655: John Castor becomes first legally recognized slave of North American colonies
• 1702: Anne Stuart becomes Queen regent of England, Scotland and Ireland
• 1817: New York Stock Exchange founded
• 1911: International Women's Day launched in Copenhagen, Denmark
• 1924: Castle Gate mine disaster kills 172 miners near Castle Gate, Utah
• 1937: Battle of Guadalajara begins
• 1957: Ghana joins the United Nations
• 1974: Charles de Gaulle Airport opens in Paris, France
• 1978: The first radio episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4.
• 1979: Philips demonstrates the Compact Disc publicly for the first time.
• 1983: President Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire".