On This Day In History – March 8

Birthdays

• 1702 Anne Bonny, Irish pirate (date of birth is approximate), born in Kinsale, Ireland (d. 1782)
• 1841 Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, US 59th Supreme Court justice (1902-32), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1935)

• 1936 Gabor Szabo (any relation to the great Wall Streeter, Andy Szabo?), Hungarian jazz guitarist (Perfect Circle)

• 1939 Jim Bouton, pitcher (NY Yankees)/author (Ball Four), born in Newark, New Jersey

Events

• 1531 Henry VIII recognized as supreme head of Church in England by the Convocation of Canterbury
• 1702 Queen Anne becomes Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland upon the death of King William III
• 1817 The New York Stock Exchange is founded

• 1838 US mint in New Orleans begins operation (producing dimes)
• 1854 US Commodore Matthew C. Perry‘s second trip to Japan
• 1884 Susan B. Anthony addresses U.S. House Judiciary Committee arguing for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women the right to vote, 16 years after legislators 1st introduced a federal women’s suffrage amendment.
• 1913 Internal Revenue Service begins to levy & collect income taxes

• 1930 Babe Ruth signs a 2-year contract for $160,000 with NY Yankee GM Ed Barrow, wrongly predicts “No one will ever be paid more than Ruth”
• 1934 Edwin Hubble photo shows as many galaxies as Milky Way has stars
• 1962 Beatles, with Pete Best, TV debut (perform “Dream Baby” on BBC)
• 1971 Joe Frazier ends Muhammad Ali‘s 31-fight winning streak at Madison Square Garden, NYC; retains heavyweight boxing title by unanimous points decision over 15 rounds in “Fight of the Century”
• 2013 North Korea terminates all peace pacts with South Korea

• 2018 US President Trump authorizes tariffs on steel and aluminum, excluding Canada and Mexico