This Day In History for March 8

1854 - US Commodore Matthew C. Perry made his second landing in Japan. Within a month, he concluded a treaty with the Japanese.

1702 - England's Queen Anne ascended the throne upon the death of King William the Third.

1841 - Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior, the "Great Dissenter," was born in Boston.

1874 - the 13th president of the United States, Millard Fillmore, died in Buffalo, New York. ...more

He died at 11:10 p.m. on March 8, 1874, at the age of seventy-four, of the aftereffects of a stroke. His last words were alleged to be, upon being fed some soup, "the nourishment is palatable." On January 7 each year, a ceremony is held at his grave site in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo.

1917 - Russia's "February Revolution" (so called because of the Old Style calendar used by Russians at the time) began with rioting and strikes in St. Petersburg.

1917 - the US Senate voted to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.

1930 - the 27th president of the United States, William Howard Taft, died in Washington.

1942 - Japanese forces captured Rangoon, Burma, during World War Two.

1944 - US bombers resumed bombing Berlin.

1965 - the United States landed about 3500 Marines in South Vietnam.

1986 - four French television crew members were abducted in west Beirut; a caller claimed Islamic Jihad was responsible. (All four were eventually released.)