8 March: This Date in History

	Sign In Sign-Up

<< Mar 07| HISTORY “4” “2”DAY |Mar 09 >>
Events, deaths, births, of MAR 08
[For Mar 08 Julian go to Gregorian date: 1583~1699: Mar 18 — 1700s: Mar 19 — 1800s: Mar 20 — 1900~2099: Mar 21]

ALTERNATE SITES ALL FOR 030308 ANY DAY OF THE YEAR IN HISTORY ART “4” MAR 08

• Sheep shoots shepherd... • UNIVAC designer dies... • Suez Canal reopened... • IBM's PC–DOS 2.0... • The rich get richer, the poor poorer... • IBM wins repetitive stress case... • US accuses Soviets of using poison gas... • Thomas Wolfe's Of Time and the River... • South Vietnamese retreat... • Dutch surrender on Java... • Russia's February Revolution... • White savages round up Amerindians for massacre... • French defeated at Abukir in Egypt... • Finn success in Kuhmo against Russian aggressors... • First US combat troops in Vietnam... • John Birch Society investigated... • Battle of Pea Ridge ends... • The Great Dissenter is born... • Mort de Sir William Walton... • Mort de Sir Thomas Beecham... • Of Time and the River, by Thomas Wolfe... • Mort de Berlioz...

On a March 08:

2002 Astronomer Ivan Baldry and his collaborators at Johns Hopkins University say that the average light from the universe is not turquoise [< square at left], as they had announced earlier in the year, but beige [as in background to this text]. They had amassed detailed light measurements from more than 200'000 galaxies and had been misled by using a piece of free software they had downloaded off the Web. It used an unusual representation for white.

2002 Bishop resigns in sex scandal.
     Anthony J. O'Connell, 63, Catholic bishop of Palm Beach, Florida, resigns, admitting to the allegations leveled by Christopher Dixon, 40, his former student at St. Thomas Aquinas minor Seminary in Hannibal, Missouri. O'Connell was the rector there from the late 60s to 1988. Dixon, now 40, said the two touched inappropriately in bed after he sought out O'Connell for counseling, and that the abuse began when he was in the ninth grade and continued through the 12th grade. O'Connell said that there he might have been involved in a similar way with one other person in those years. In fact, a number of former seminarians allege that Father O'Connell, the highly respected rector of the seminary, would not only ignore complaints of sexual abuse by other priests at the seminary, but would turn monthly private spiritual-counseling sessions into mostly psychotherapy about sex, urging the seminarian to verbalize his sexual fantasies, engage in simultaneous masturbation in the chapel, saying that “there is no sin in accepting your body for what it is,” grope and fondle the seminarian, disrobe him, and take him to bed, both naked. One anonymous plaintiffs maintains that for several years after becoming a bishop, O'Connell continued to arrange sexual encounters with him. They also say that O'Connell tried to dissuade them from taking legal action, making secret payments in some cases.
      The nation's latest and biggest sex-abuse scandal involving priests began in the Archdiocese of Boston, where Cardinal Bernard Law admitted that a former priest molested children for years but was shuttled from parish to parish anyway. More than 130 people have come forward to say the defrocked priest, John Geoghan, abused them. Since January 2002 dozens of Catholic priests out of more than 47'000 nationwide have been suspended or forced to resign, and priests' names have been turned over to prosecutors.
      O'Connell, who has been a priest for 38 years, was bishop of Knoxville, Tennessee, since 1988, before coming to Palm Beach in 1999. He succeeded J. Keith Symons, the first US bishop to resign because of sexual involvement with boys.
      O'Connell's admission came only hours after Florida's bishops issued a statement calling sexual abuse “both criminal and sinful”.
     The Jefferson City, Missouri., diocese paid Dixon $125'000 in a 1996 settlement, and he promised not to pursue further claims against the diocese, O'Connell and two other priests, Rev. Manus Daly, who allegedly abused Dixon at the seminary, and the Rev. John Fischer, who allegedly began abusing Dixon at a Catholic school when he was 11. Daly was removed from a Marceline, Missouli, church this week and Fischer was removed from the priesthood in 1993 after allegations involving other children.
      Dixon himself was a priest for five years before he was diagnosed with depression in 1995. He said the depression came after he was assigned to work at the Hannibal seminary under Daly. He later left the priesthood.
      O'Connell is not the highest-ranking clergyman felled by a sex scandal. In 1993, Archbishop Robert Sanchez of Santa Fe, N.M., resigned over his involvement with several women, some of them teen-agers. Archbishop Eugene Marino of Atlanta and Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann of Santa Rosa, Calif., resigned after sex scandals involving adults. The late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin in Chicago was accused of abuse in a 1993 lawsuit, but the accuser later recanted.
      It should be noted that while the abuses uncovered are atrocious and intolerable, priests are being disciplined even on mere accusations to which they have not admitted. The lesson ought to be learned from the witch-hunt of childcare providers some years ago, where the disgusting crimes alleged led to the convictions of several persons later proved to be innocent.

2001 After Yahoo announces lower than expected results for the first quarter and the coming resignation of its chief executive Tim Koogle, Yahoo stock (YHOO on NASDAQ) loses $3.25 to close at $17.69. On a split adjusted basis, it had traded as high as high as $237.50 on 03 January 2000, and as low as $1.32 on 22 September 1996. [3-year graph >]
2001 At 21:44 UT, The US Census Bureau's population estimates are US 283'752'400 World 6'133'250'401.
2001 La Sala Primera de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago de Chile confirma el procesamiento contra el ex dictador Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte.
2000 Today, on International Women's Day, Israel's Transportation Minister and Center Party leader Yitzhak Mordechai is being accused of a history of sexual abuse of women. Yesterday he had announced that he was going on leave, after a woman on his staff complained to the police that he had sexually harassed her. (000308 Jerusalem Post)
2000 US President Clinton submits to Congress legislation to establish permanent normal trade relations with China.
1999 En uno de los peores momento de la crisis económica que ha sufrido Ecuador en los últimos 50 años, el gobierno decide cerrar todos los bancos para controlar la acelerada subida que el dólar experimenta y así evitar la especulación ante las medidas económicas de urgencia que pretendía implementar.
1999 The Clinton administration directed the firing of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee, 59, from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory because of mostly unfounded allegations of security violations (or rather, it is suspected, because he is an ethnic Chinese). They persecuted him mercilessly, holding him in chains in solitary confinement for nine months (10 Dec 1999 – 13 Sep 2000) until, in desperation, he pled guilty to one minor charge, while the US Justice (a misnomer) Department dropped 58 others. Later Lee would present his case in a book: My Country Versus Me: The First-Hand Account by the Los Alamos Scientist Who Was Falsely Accused
1998 Con motivo del Día Internacional de la Mujer Trabajadora, coincidente este año con el cincuentenario de la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos, las mujeres de casi todos los países salen a la calle para dar a conocer ante la sociedad los problemas que sufren.
1998 Más de 20,7 millones de colombianos acuden a las urnas para elegir a 102 senadores y 161 representantes a la Cámara, en medio de una ofensiva guerrillera que causó al menos 200 muertos en la semana previa a los comicios. La victoria es para el presidente colombiano, Ernesto Samper Pizano, que obtiene una cómoda mayoría en el Senado.
1996 Major sell-off on Wall Street, resulting from a drop in the US's unemployment rate and the biggest jobs gain in more than a decade, and therefore expectations of no more interest rate cuts.

1996 Dr. Jack Kevorkian is acquitted of assisted suicide for helping two suffering patients kill themselves.

1995 IBM wins repetitive stress case. ^top^
A jury in Hastings, Minnesota, decides that IBM is not responsible for repetitive-stress injuries suffered by some computer users. Plaintiffs argued that IBM should have provided warnings that overuse of keyboards could cause injuries. One of thousands of repetitive-stress cases against computer manufacturers, the suit was originally filed against both IBM and Apple Computer. Apple settled its part of the case the previous week. Compaq Computer Corporation had won a similar trial in 1994. Concerns over repetitive-stress injuries led to the design of more ergonomically correct keyboards and the widespread use of wrist-rests for computer keyboards.

1990 El Bundestag, asamblea legislativa de la República Federal Alemana, acepta las fronteras existentes con Polonia.

1985 Reaganomics is great for millionaires. ^top^
According to a report released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) the number of millionaires in the US has doubled since 1980, to 407'700. Under the Reagan presidency, the rich prosper, while the poor suffer. From 1977 to 1990 the wealthiest fifth of the population would see their incomes increase by one third. The wealthiest 1% would double their incomes. During the same period, the combined income of the bottom 60% of Americans declined, while people living below the poverty line experienced the highest drop-off in income. Economists Barry Blueston and Bennett Harrison described this fiscal shift as the "Great U-Turn" and declared that the gulf between the "rich and the poor...is higher today than at any point in the lifetimes of all but our most senior citizens, the veterans of the Great Depression."

1983 IBM releases PC-DOS version 2.0 ^top^
IBM releases its PC-DOS, version 2.0, updating the earlier version of PC-DOS, which was developed by Microsoft for the IBM PC that debuted in 1981. Microsoft's involvement with DOS, which skyrocketed the company to huge financial success, was the result of a series of accidents and misunderstandings. Legend has it that IBM had intended to ask Gary Kildall of Digital Research to license his operating system, CP/M, which ran most personal computers at the time. Kildall was out flying his airplane when IBM executives came to talk to him at his Pacific Grove, California, office. Later, on a separate matter, the IBM executives met with a small company specializing in computer languages. When the president of this small company, Bill Gates, heard about IBM's new computer, he suggested using a more powerful 16-bit chip instead of the standard 8-bit chip. Although no 16-bit operating system existed at the time, Gates convinced IBM he could create one. He promptly bought the rights to a program under development called QDOS-for "Quick and Dirty Operating System"-for $50,000 from Seattle Computer Products. The deal ensured Microsoft's long-term success as a software company, and the IBM PC quickly took over the personal computer market.

1983 Pres Reagan calls the USSR an "Evil Empire"

1982 United States accuses Soviets of using poison gas. ^top^
The United States government issues a public statement accusing the Soviet Union of using poison gas and chemical weapons in its war against rebel forces in Afghanistan. The accusation was part of the continuing US criticism of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. Since sending troops into Afghanistan in 1979 in an attempt to prop up a pro-Soviet communist government, the Soviet Union had been on the receiving end of an unceasing string of criticism and diplomatic attacks from the United States government. First the Carter administration, and then the Reagan administration, condemned the Soviets for their intervention in a sovereign nation. Because of the issue, arms control talks had been tabled, the United States had boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, and diplomatic tension between America and Russia reached alarming proportions.
Reports that the Soviets were using poison gas and chemical weapons in Afghanistan only intensified the heightened tensions. The US government's official statement charged that over 3,000 Afghans had been killed by weapons, including "irritants, incapacitants, nerve agents, phosgene oxime and perhaps mycotoxins, mustard, lewisite and toxic smoke." Evidence to support these charges was largely anecdotal and a number of US scientists had serious doubts about the data put forward by the Reagan administration. Some critics charged that the accusations were a smokescreen behind which the United States could go forward with further development and stockpiling of its own chemical weapons arsenal. The US attack must have seemed mildly ironic to the Soviets, who had pilloried America for the use of defoliants and other chemical weapons during its war in Vietnam. By 1982, many Americans were referring to Afghanistan as "Russia's Vietnam."

1979 Volcanoes on Io discovered by Voyager 1
1976 1774 kg (largest observed) stony meteorite falls in Jilin, China

1975 South Vietnamese retreat. ^top^
President Nguyen Van Thieu orders the withdrawal of South Vietnamese forces from the Central Highlands. In late January 1975, just two years after the cease-fire had been established by the Paris Peace Accords, the North Vietnamese launched Campaign 275. The objective of this campaign was the capture of Ban Me Thuot in the Central Highlands. The battle began on March 4 and the North Vietnamese quickly encircled the city. As it became clear that the communists would take the city and probably the entire Darlac province, Thieu decided to withdraw his forces in order to protect the more critical populous areas. Accordingly, he ordered his forces in the Central Highlands to pull back from their positions. Abandoning Pleiku and Kontum, the South Vietnamese forces began to move toward the sea, but what began as an orderly withdrawal soon turned into panic. The South Vietnamese forces rapidly fell apart. The North Vietnamese were successful in both the Central Highlands and further north at Quang Tri, Hue, and Da Nang. The South Vietnamese soon collapsed as a cogent fighting force and the North Vietnamese continued the attack all the way to Saigon. South Vietnam surrendered unconditionally on April 30.

1965 First US combat troops in Vietnam ^top^
      The USS Henrico, Union, and Vancouver, carrying the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade under Brig. Gen. Frederick J. Karch, take up stations 4 km off Red Beach Two, north of Da Nang. First ashore was the Battalion Landing Team 3/9, which arrived on the beach at 08:15. Wearing full battle gear and carrying M-16s, the Marines were met by sightseers, South Vietnamese officers, Vietnamese girls with leis, and four US soldiers with a large sign stating: "Welcome, Gallant Marines." Gen. William Westmoreland, senior US military commander in Saigon, was reportedly "appalled" at the spectacle because he had hoped that the Marines could land without any fanfare. Within two hours, Battalion Landing Team 1/3 began landing at Da Nang air base.
    The 3500 Marines were deployed to secure the US airbase, freeing South Vietnamese troops up for combat. On 01 March, Ambassador Maxwell Taylor had informed South Vietnamese Premier Phan Huy Quat that the United States was preparing to send the Marines to Vietnam. Three days later, a formal request was submitted by the US Embassy, asking the South Vietnamese government to "invite" the United States to send the Marines. Premier Quat, a mere figurehead, had to obtain approval from the real power, Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu, chief of the Armed Forces Council. Thieu approved, but, like Westmoreland, asked that the Marines be "brought ashore in the most inconspicuous way feasible." These wishes were ignored and the Marines were given a hearty, conspicuous welcome when they arrived.
      Two US Marines battalions, the first US combat troops openly assigned to Vietnam, go ashore near Danang in South Vietnam. Within five days, a total of 3500 Marines have landed at Danang, joining some 23'000 Americans who had been serving as military advisors to South Vietnam for several years.
      In 1961, US President John F. Kennedy sent the first large force of US military personnel to Vietnam to bolster the ineffectual autocratic regime of South Vietnam against the Communist North. Three years later, with the South Vietnamese government crumbling, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered limited bombing raids on North Vietnam and the US Congress authorized the use of US troops.
      By 1965, North Vietnamese offensives left President Johnson with two choices: escalate US involvement or withdraw. Johnson ordered the former, sending the first combat troops to Vietnam in March of 1965, and authorizing these Marines to engage in offensive operations one month later. US troop levels soon jumped to over 300'000 and US air forces commenced the largest bombing campaign in history.
      Over the next few years, the extended length of the war, the high number of US casualties, and the exposure of US involvement in war crimes such as the massacre at My Lai turned many in the United States against the Vietnam War, and created a perilous national division. In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon increased bombing across Indochina but began withdrawing US troops, and in early 1973, a peace agreement was signed by the belligerent parties. Its key provisions included a cease-fire throughout North and South Vietnam, the withdrawal of US forces and dismantling of US installations within sixty days, the release of North Vietnamese, Vietcong, and American prisoners of war within sixty days, and the reunification of North and South Vietnam through peaceful means. The South Vietnamese government was to remain in place until new elections were held, and North Vietnamese forces in the South were not to be reinforced or to advance further into the South.
      Two years later, the last American citizens and personnel were evacuated from Saigon as Communist forces launched their final triumphant offensive into South Vietnam, despite the terms of the treaty signed in 1973. It was the longest and most unpopular foreign war in US history, and cost fifty-eight-thousand US lives.

1963 Syrian Arab Republic Revolution Day.

1961 US Congress considers the John Birch Society ^top^
      In Washington, DC, the US Senate considers a motion to launch a formal investigation of the John Birch Society, an ultraconservative organization founded in 1958 by Massachusetts businessman Robert H. Welch, Jr. Established in Amerindianapolis, Amerindiana, the John Birch Society was dedicated to fighting what it perceived to be the extensive infiltration of communism into American society.
      Welch named the society in honor of John Birch, considered by many to be the first American casualty in the struggle against communism. In 1945, Birch, a Baptist missionary and US army intelligence specialist, was killed by Chinese Communists in the northern province of Anhwei.
      The John Birch Society, initially founded with only eleven members, had by the early 1960s grown to a membership of nearly 100,000 Americans, and enjoyed annual private contributions of several million dollars. The society revived the spirit of McCarthyism, claiming in unsubstantiated accusations that a vast Communist conspiracy existed within the US government.
      Among others, the organization even implicated President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, leading Congress to consider an official investigation of the John Birch Society. However, during the subsequent Senate inquiries, the organization’s outrageous claims were rapidly discredited and its ideology was generally ridiculed by a mainstream America that had grown wary of radical anti-communism after the public debacle of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s public hearings in the early 1950s. By the mid-1960s the John Birch Society had faded into insignificance.

1961 US nuclear submarine Patrick Henry arrives at Scottish naval base of Holy Loch from SC in a record underseas journey of 66 days 22 hrs

1957 Egypt reopens the Suez Canal ^top^
Following Israel's withdrawal from occupied Egyptian territory, the Suez Canal is reopened to international traffic. However, the canal was so littered with wreckage from the Suez Crisis that it took weeks of cleanup by Egyptian and United Nations workers before larger ships could navigate the waterway. The Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas across Egypt, was completed by French engineers in 1869. For the next 88 years, it remained largely under British and French control, and Europe depended on it as an inexpensive shipping route for oil from the Middle East.
In July 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the canal, hoping to charge tolls that would pay for construction of a massive dam on the Nile River. In response, Israel invaded in late October, and British and French troops landed in early November, occupying the canal and other Suez territory. Under pressure from the United Nations, Britain and France withdrew in December, and Israeli forces departed in March 1957. That month, Egypt took over control of the canal and reopened it to commercial shipping. Ten years later, Egypt shut down the canal again following the Six Day War and Israel's occupation of the Sinai peninsula. It remained closed for eight years, ending when Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat reopened it in 1975 after peace talks with Israel.

1950 USSR announces they have developed the atomic bomb
1946 Des troupes françaises débarquent à Haiphong et reprennent pied à Hanoi et au Tonkin sous le commandement du général Leclerc et du commissaire Jean Sainteny.
1942 Japanese forces capture Rangoon, Burma.

1942 On Java, Dutch surrender to Japanese. ^top^
Dutch forces surrender to the Japanese after two months of fighting. Java is an island of modern-day Indonesia, and it lies southeast of Malaysia and Sumatra, south of Borneo, and west of Bali. The Dutch had been in Java since 1596, establishing the Dutch East India Company, a trading company with headquarters at Batavia (modern-day Jakarta), which the Dutch commandeered in 1619. The Dutch East India Company began to assert greater and greater control over the Muslim kingdoms of the East Indies, transforming them into vassal states, with peasants growing rice, sugar, pepper, and coffee for the Dutch government. The company was dissolved in 1799 because of debts and corruption, and the Dutch government took control of the East Indies directly.
The British supplanted the Dutch in Java for a brief period (1811-1816), but the Dutch returned to power, slowly granting native Javanese more local control, even giving them a majority on the People's Council. But on 11 January 1942, the Japanese declared war on the Royal Dutch government with its invasion of Borneo and the Island of Celebes, a date that also marked the beginning of the end of the Dutch presence in the East Indies. Sumatra was the next site of Japanese occupation, with paratroopers and troops landing from transports on February 14-16. Seven thousand British and Australian troops reinforced the Dutch fighters on Java, but the Allies pulled out of the fight in late February at the approach of two more large Japanese invasion forces that arrived on 01 March. The Dutch finally ended all resistance to the superior Japanese forces on 08 March, surrendering on Java. Java's independence of colonial control became a final fact of history in 1950, when it became part of the newly independent Republic of Indonesia.

1937 La bataille de Guadalajara débute pendant la guerre civile espagnole. Elle est gagnée le 18 par les républicains aux dépens des franquistes et de leur alliés italiens, qui perdent 3000 hommes dans les combats. Cette victoire ne retardera que peu la victoire de Franco.
1934 Edwin Hubble photo shows as many galaxies as Milky Way has stars
1930 Mahatma Gandhi starts civil disobedience in India
1922 En España, cae el gobierno Maura-Cambó, que es sustituído por el de José Sánchez Guerra.

1917 Russia's February Revolution begins (on 23 February Julian = 08 March Gregorian) ^top^
     In Russia, the February Revolution (known as such because of Russia’s use of the Old Style Julian calendar) begins.
     Thousands of women textile workers in Petrograd shut down their factories, partly in commemoration of International Women's Day but mainly to protest bread shortages, thus adding to the already large number of men and women on strike. Strikers march through the streets shouting "Give us bread" (Daite khleb and Khleba, khleba). Crowds head toward the city center. Demonstrators -- who were in a nasty mood -- break store windows, halt street-cars, and force other workers to join them. During the next two days, encouraged by hundreds of experienced rank-and-file socialist activists, workers in factories and shops throughout the capital would go on strike.
     The army garrison at Petrograd would soon refuse to suppress striking workers and would defects to the cause of the socialist revolutionaries. One week later, the Petrograd insurgents have taken over the capital and Czar Nicholas II is forced to abdicate.
      A provisional government composed mainly of moderates is established, and the Soviet--a coalition of workers’ and soldiers’ committees--calls for an end to violent revolutionary activity. Meanwhile, Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik revolutionary party, leaves his exile in Switzerland and crosses German enemy lines to arrive at Petrograd on 16 April, 1917. The Bolshevik Party, founded in 1903, was a militant group of professional revolutionaries who sought to overthrow the czarist government of Russia and set up a Marxist government in its place.
      On 06 November 1917, the Bolsheviks seize control of the Russian state in the October Revolution, and Lenin becomes virtual dictator of the country. However, civil war and foreign intervention delay complete Bolshevik control of Russian until 1920. Lenin’s Soviet government nationalizes industry and distributes land, and on 30 December 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is established.
      In the USSR, the Communist Party controls all levels of government, and the Party’s politburo, with its increasingly powerful general secretary, effectively rules the country. Soviet industry is owned and managed by the state, and agricultural land is divided into state-run collective farms. In the decades after its establishment, the Russian-dominated Soviet Union grows into one of the world’s most powerful and influential states, and eventually encompasses fifteen republics--Russia, the Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

La Révolution de Février en Russie
      Un grand nombre de travailleurs défilent paisiblement à Petrograd, la capitale de l'empire russe, à l'occasion de la journée internationale des femmes. Cette manifestation pacifique marque le début de la Révolution dite de Février. Elle est ainsi dénommée parce que ce jour-là correspond au 23 Feb dans le calendrier julien qui restera en vigueur en Russie jusqu'en 1918.
      Les difficultés d'approvisionnement liées au froid poussent un nombre croissant d'ouvriers à faire grève et à se joindre au défilé. Ils réclament du pain, la paix et la république! Les manifestations se succèdent et s'amplifient les jours suivants. Le dimanche 11 mars, l'armée fait face à 200'000 manifestants. Les officiers obligent alors les soldats à "viser au coeur". On relève 40 morts. Mais le lendemain, soldats et ouvriers fraternisent. Ils créent le Soviet (ou conseil) des ouvriers et soldats de Petrograd. Emmenés par le populaire député Alexandre Kerenski, les députés socialistes de la Douma (l'assemblée nationale) se rallient au Soviet de Petrograd. Le 15 mars, dans la soirée, le tsar abdique.
      Au terme de ces Cinq Jours, au prix d'un nombre limité de victimes, la Révolution a vaincu. Malgré la poursuite de la guerre, la Russie va vivre dans une très grande euphorie démocratique, mais celle-ci sera minée par les agissements des bolcheviks, les partisans de Lénine. Le 29 Jun, une manifestation violente téléguidée par Lénine sert de prétexte à Kerenski pour réprimer les extrémistes qui menacent la démocratie. Lénine abandonne ses partisans et s'enfuit sous un déguisement en Finlande. Mais il finira par s'emparer du pouvoir par le coup d'Etat d'Octobre.
      NB: Saint-Pétersbourg (ou Sankt Petersburg)a russifié son nom en Petrograd lorsque le pays est entré en guerre contre l'Allemagne en 1914. Après la mort de Lénine, en 1924, elle changera encore son nom en Léningrad. Un référendum populaire entraînera le retour à l'ancienne appellation, Saint Petersbourg, en 1991.

     In Russia, the February Revolution (known as such because of Russia's use of the Julian calendar) begins when riots and strikes over the scarcity of food erupt in Petrograd. One week later, centuries of czarist rule in Russia ended with the abdication of Nicholas II, and Russia took a dramatic step closer toward communist revolution. By 1917, most Russians had lost faith in the leadership ability of the czarist regime. Government corruption was rampant, the Russian economy remained backward, and Nicholas repeatedly dissolved the Duma, the Russian parliament established after the Revolution of 1905, when it opposed his will. However, the immediate cause of the February Revolution--the first phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917--was Russia's disastrous involvement in World War I. Militarily, imperial Russia was no match for industrialized Germany, and Russian casualties were greater than those sustained by any nation in any previous war. Meanwhile, the economy was hopelessly disrupted by the costly war effort, and moderates joined Russian radical elements in calling for the overthrow of the czar.
      On 08 March 1917, demonstrators clamoring for bread took to the streets in the Russian capital of Petrograd (now known as St. Petersburg). Supported by 90,000 men and women on strike, the protesters clashed with police but refused to leave the streets. On 10 March, the strike spread among all of Petrograd's workers, and irate mobs of workers destroyed police stations. Several factories elected deputies to the Petrograd Soviet, or "council," of workers' committees, following the model devised during the Revolution of 1905.
      On 11 March, the troops of the Petrograd army garrison were called out to quell the uprising. In some encounters, regiments opened fire, killing demonstrators, but the protesters kept to the streets, and the troops began to waver. That day, Nicholas again dissolved the Duma. On 12 March, the revolution triumphed when regiment after regiment of the Petrograd garrison defected to the cause of the demonstrators. The soldiers, some 150'000 men, subsequently formed committees that elected deputies to the Petrograd Soviet.
      The imperial government was forced to resign, and the Duma formed a provisional government that peacefully vied with the Petrograd Soviet for control of the revolution. On 14 March, the Petrograd Soviet issued "Order No. 1," which instructed Russian soldiers and sailors to obey only those orders that did not conflict with the directives of the Soviet. The next day, 15 March, Czar Nicholas II abdicated the throne in favor of his brother Michael, whose refusal of the crown brought an end to the czarist autocracy. The new provincial government, tolerated by the Petrograd Soviet, hoped to salvage the Russian war effort while ending the food shortage and many other domestic crises. It would prove a daunting task. Meanwhile, Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik revolutionary party, left his exile in Switzerland and crossed German enemy lines to return home and take control of the Russian Revolution.

1917 US invades Cuba for 3rd time.
1917 The US Senate voted to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.
1910 En España, el Rey autoriza que las mujeres realicen estudios superiores.
1893 S'ouvre le procès du scandale de Panama qui va briser la confiance des Français dans la République et inaugurer une vague d'antisémitisme.
1888 Proclamación de Federico III como emperador de Alemania.
1886 Gottlieb Daimler orders a coach from coach makers Wilhelm Wimpff & Sohn in Stuttgart and has it equipped with a fast-running engine. It is the first four-wheeled automobile which he builds. [photo >]
1865 Battle of Kinston (Wise's Fork), North Carolina begins
1865 Union General Sherman's army group occupies Fayetteville, North Carolina
1862 Siege of New Madrid, Missouri continues
1854 US Commodore Matthew C Perry's makes his second landing in Japan. Within a month, he concluded a treaty with the Japanese. — Suite aux menaces du commodore Perry, les Japonais se résignent à signer avec les Etats-Unis le traité de Kanagawa par lequel ils consentent à ouvrir leurs ports aux navires de commerce battant pavillon américain.
1836 Decreto de Juan Alvarez Mendizábal por el que se dispone la incautación y venta de los bienes de órdenes religiosas en España.
1796 The US Supreme Court, in Hylton v. United States, rules that the carriage tax is an indirect tax, therefore constitutional. This is the first time that the Court rules on the constitutionality of legislation passed by Congress.
1795 Rappel Girondin Les modérés qui se sont affirmés imposent à l'Assemblée le retour des Girondins -- qui tiennent leur nom du fait que plusieurs de leurs chefs avaient été, dès le début de la Révolution, députés de la Gironde -- et font restituer aux familles des victimes de la Terreur tous leurs biens.

1782 Gnadenhütten Amerindians are rounded up to be massacred. ^top^
It is the cold-blooded murder of 96 Ohio Amerindians, mostly Delawares (= Lenapes), by an American Revolutionary War officer, Captain David Williamson, and his militia at Gnadenhütten Village south of what is now New Philadelphia, Ohio. The Amerindians, who had been converted by Moravian Brethren and were peaceful Christians, were under suspicion because of their neutrality in the war. Williamson and his 90 volunteers, seeking revenge for Amerindian raids on frontier settlements, pretended friendship and disarmed the tribe; on the following morning they slaughtered the villagers in cold blood. Two scalped boys escaped to relate the incident.
In 1782, the village of Gnadenhütten had about 100 Christian Amerindians, mostly Delawares, there to gather crops from their fields. Although the Amerindians professed and practiced neutrality, the British, the residents of the US, and other Amerindians did not trust those living at Gnadenhütten. The leader of the mission, David Zeisberger, had been tried by the British for treason. He had been cleared of the charges in a British court While the Amerindians were harvesting the corn, some white settlers were attacked. Other settlers blamed those at Gnadenhütten for the violence. The settlers organized and went to Gnadenhütten where they claimed to find clothing from the murdered whites. The Amerindians were confined to their church while the settlers voted on their fate. Less than 20 of the approximately 100 whites voted against the murder of the Amerindians. When the Amerindians learned of their fate, they spent the night praying and signing hymns. The following morning, 09 March 1782, the Amerindians were led from the church in pairs and killed. Their skulls were crushed with mallets. In all, 28 men, 29 women, and 39 children were murdered.

1711 In this date's edition of The Spectator, English essayist Joseph Addison wrote: 'To be an atheist requires an infinitely greater measure of faith than to receive all the great truths which atheism would deny.'
1702 Queen Anne ascends the English throne throne upon the death of King William III this same day.
1610 Felipe II, rey de España, dispone que se establezca la Inquisición en Cartagena de Indias (Colombia).
1545 Los encomenderos de Paraguay envían preso a España a Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca.

TO THE TOP

Deaths which occurred on a March 08:

2002 Miranda Diane Gaddis (born on 18 November 1988) [photo below, left], abducted while walking after breakfast to the school bus stop from her home in Oregon City, Oregon, later murdered. Ashley Marie Pond [born 01 March 1989], who lived in the same apartment complex (Newell Creek Village), was similarly abducted and murdered early on 09 January 2002. Ward Weaver, 39 [photo below, right], who lives near-by, would be arrested on 13 August 2002 for the rape and attempted murder by smothering of the girlfriend (who fled naked) of his son, Francis Weaver, 19, who reports it to police and adds that his father had admitted killing the two girls. Miranda was a friend of Ward Weaver's daughter Mallori (who was in the same dance class with her and Ashley) and had visited her in her home, staying overnight a few times. On 24 August 2002 Miranda's remains are found in a shed in Ward Weaver's backyard. On 25 August 2002 Ashley's remains are found under a concrete slab which Ward Weaver had poured in his backyard on 12 March 2002. Ward Weaver's father is on death row in California for a 1981 double murder, after which he buried the body of one of the victims, a young woman, in his backyard then covered it with a slab of concrete. Miranda had previously suffered sexual abuse, from a former boyfriend of her mother's. He was sentenced to 75 months in jail.

2002 Some 60 North African illegal immigrants after their small boat heading for Italy capsizes in rough weather some 100 km south of Lampedusa, Italy, early in the morning. 11 persons are rescued. Each month hundreds of illegal immigrants try to enter Europe by sailing to Italy.
2002 Edward Korol, 20, Israeli Staff Sergeant, from Ashdod, during gunbattles with armed Palestinians in the Tul Karm refugee camp. He is the only Israeli killed on this day when Israeli troops entering Palestinian areas have killed at least 42 Palestinians (some of which are listed below).
2002 Yousif Shehada, 33, Akram Ganayim, 18, Muhanad Abu Hilal, 24, Tarik Abu Jamous, 24, Husni Nayef, 28, Walid Ganim, 22, Shadi Abbas, 22, Kamal Salim, 36, (a nurse), Ibrahim Asaad, 25, (an ambulance driver), Ahmad Abu Tama, 50, Bilal Rajab, 24, Mahmoud Abbas, 20, Zeyad Aljarar, 26, Khalid Khirallah, 36, Mahmoud Fayez, 10, Palestinians killed by Israeli troops in Tul Karm, West Bank.
2002 Mosa Alnajar, Bakir Alnajar, Ashraf Alnajar, Arif Hirzallah, Reyad Alkassas, Ayman Abu Tir, Marwan Abu Motlak, Ibrahim Abu Daka, khalid Kdeeh, Husam Abu Tir, Reyad Abu Ridi, Muhammad Abu Argili, Muhammad Abu Ridi, Walid Abu Argili, Ihab Altalatini, and Ahmed Mefrej. “Abu Hamidi”, Palestinians killed by Israeli troops of the Givati battalion in “Khozaa”, near Khan Yunis. Major-General Ahmed Mefrej, Palestinian Authority National Security Commander in the southern Gaza Strip, was killed by Israeli gunfire as he was going to the village of Ahiz'a east of Khan Yunis to prevent PA security forces from taking part in the fighting. His bodyguard was also killed, and two others with him were wounded.
2002 Hani Ashour, 32, Saed Shalayel, 26, (an ambulance driver), Samir Younis, and Abid Abu Ibid, Palestinians killed by Israeli troops in the Alsodaniya area, north of Gaza.
2002 Ibrahim Alaraj, 42, Suliman Aldabas, 35, Sayed Fayez Abu Seifin, 14, and Saed Eid, 35, Palestinians killed by Israeli troops, two of them in the Aida refugee camp, one in Jenin, and one in the Dhesha refugee camp.

2001 Mokhtar Fadl, 20, shot in his sleep by a sheep (according to police) ^top^
He was a Bedouin shepherd shot in the chest and killed when one of his flock jogged his loaded shotgun as he slept. This occurred in the northern coastal governorate of Marsa Matrouh, Egypt. The gun was not licensed. There is no information as to how the police came to their conclusion, nor how they plan to go about identifying the guilty sheep, much less as to what its motivation might have been. Sheared too close?

2001 Antonio “Tonico” Ballester Vilaseca, dibujante y escultor español.
1999 Adolfo Vicente Perfecto Bioy Casares, de 84 años, escritor argentino (imperfecto), en una clínica de Buenos Aires.
1998 James McDougal, 57, one of the most important cooperating witnesses in the Whitewater investigation, dies in a federal medical prison in Fort Worth, Texas.
1991 One person, killed in a NYC theater showing extremely violent film New Jack City, about Harlem drug gangs. Violence erupts in movie theaters around the US, at the showing of this film.
1988 Seventeen soldiers died when two US Army helicopters from Fort Campbell, Ky., collided in midair.
1987 Manuel Viola, pintor español.
1986 Eduardo Mendoza Varela, poeta y periodista colombiano.
1985:: 96 personas, en el barrio chiíta de Beirut, al estallar un coche-bomba junto a un cine y una mezquita llena de fieles.
1985 Goodstein, mathematician.

1983 Sir William Turner Walton, à Londres, d’un compositeur néoromantique ^top^
Walton, né en 1902 à Oldham, fut formé comme choriste à l'école de chant choral de Christ Church, à Oxford. Il parvint à la célébrité avec " Façade " (1921), pour récitant et 6 instruments sur des poèmes d'Édith Sitwell. " La première symphonie " (1935) ; l'oratorio " Belshazzar's Feast " (1931), qui a contribué à prolonger la tradition du choral de langue anglaise établi par Haendel, Mendelssohn et Elgar, et le " Concerto pour violon " en 1939. Sa musique de film, en particulier la musique " d'Henry V ", mis en scène par Laurence Olivier est digne d'être comparée à celle de Prokofiev. On peut également citer : un " Concerto pour violoncelle " (1956) écrit pour Gregor Piatigorsky, une " Symphonie n°2 " (1960), et l'opéra " Troilus and Cressida " (1954). Le style de Walton est caractérisé par une brillante orchestration et un grand esprit musical. Toutefois, dans des œuvres plus abstraites, sa musique indique un fond méditatif. Ses meilleures pièces musicales font ressortir deux tendances opposées : d'une part, les dissonances aiguës et les rythmes entraînants influencés par Stravinski, Prokofiev, et par le jazz ; d'autre part, la nature cérémoniale de sa musique, imprégnée des marches d'Elgar.

1962 Howard Engstrom Boston, 59, a UNIVAC designer ^top^
Howard Engstrom Boston helped design UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer), the world's first commercial computer, originally sold to the US Census department in 1946. UNIVAC used magnetic tape storage to replace the millions of punched cards the Census Bureau and other businesses used to store information. An early demonstration of UNIVAC, televised on election night, 1952, predicted a massive landslide for Dwight Eisenhower over Adlai Stevenson, directly contradicting opinion polls from Gallup and Roper. The computer's predictions of an overwhelming victory for Eisenhower proved correct. However, the computer's programmers and the television network, assuming such a landslide impossible, had altered the computer's program to give a more conservative estimate on television.

1961 Sir Thomas Beecham, à Londres, directeur d’opéra et chef d’orchestre. ^top^
Né en 1879 à Saint Helens, dans le Lancashire, il fut diplômé de l'université d'Oxford puis, après une tournée en Angleterre avec une compagnie d'opéra, autodidacte en musique, il fit ses premiers pas de chef d'orchestre professionnel avec le Queen's Hall Orchestra de Londres en 1905. En 1906 il fonda le New Symphony Orchestra, qu'il dirigea jusqu'en 1908. Il créa alors sa propre formation, la Beecham Symphony, qui donna son premier concert à Londres en 1909. En 1910, il se lança dans l'interprétation de musique symphonique et d'opéras contemporains peu connus. Il invita le maître de ballet Russe Serge de Diaghilev et sa compagnie, les Ballets russes, à Londres en 1911. Puis, en 1913, il contribua à la renommée en Grande-Bretagne du chanteur russe Fedor Chialapine. En 1932, il fonda le London Philharmonic Orchestra et devint en 1933 le directeur artistique du Covent Garden. Il dirigea également le Seattle Symphony Orchestra et le Metropolitan Opera Orchestra de New York. En 1947, il fonda le Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Il laissa une autobiographie, " A Mingled Chime " (1943), ainsi qu'une biographie de " Frederick Delius " (1958), dont il admira toujours l'œuvre. Beecham a joué un rôle déterminant pour faire connaître la musique anglaise dans le monde entier. Mais il a également imposé la musique de Sibelius et de Richard Strauss en Angleterre et contribué au regain d’intérêt que connaissaient alors Haydn et Mozart. Son approche de la musique ancienne passait par des arrangements très personnels dont il était l’auteur et dont notamment " Le Messie " de Haendel a connu les égards. Mais rien ne pouvait remplacer l’enthousiasme qu’il communiquait à tous ses collaborateurs. L’homme cultivait un humour légendaire et un raffinement qui convenait particulièrement à la musique française, qu’il a su servir, notamment dans un enregistrement de "Carmen" avec Victoria de Los Angeles, qui constitue encore une référence.

1951 Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez, “the Honeymoon Killers”, in NY electric chair. They had seduced, robbed, and murdered 4 women (they claimed 17) who placed personal ads in newspapers, and the 2-year-old daughter of the last woman.
1942 José Raul Capablanca, ajedrecista cubano.
1941 Drach, mathematician.

1940 Day 100 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland. ^top^
More deaths due to Stalin's desire to grab Finnish territory.
Finns take eastern Luelahti motti in Kuhmo
       Mannerheim suggests Finland consider one more time the offer of assistance by the Western Allies.
      Foreign Minister Tanner believes asking for assistance from the Allies could wreck the talks in Moscow.
      The Finnish negotiators in Moscow meet the Soviet negotiating team at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The Soviet team comprises Molotov, Zdanov and General Vasilevski. The Finns are disappointed in their hope of getting Stalin to participate in the talks. The first session of talks begins in Moscow at 7 o'clock in the evening.
      To block the enemy advance, the Finnish defenders attempt to dam the waterways to the northeast of Viipuri and manage finally to flood the area.
      Soviet troops on the Isthmus reach the Finnish support line in Tali.
      The Finnish troops in Viipurinlahti bay are forced to evacuate Suonionsaari and Ravansaari islands.
      On the mainland, the enemy consolidates its bridgeheads in Niskapohja, Vilaniemi and Häränpääniemi.
      In Vuosalmi the enemy is digging in on the northern bank of the Vuoksi.
      The Finnish 2nd and 21st divisions are estimated to be facing six Russian divisions. They are thus outnumbered three to one.
      In Taipale, the Finns pull back their positions in the Terenttilä sector.
      In the north, the Finns take the eastern Luelahti 'motti' in Kuhmo.
      General Headquarters orders the evacuation of the Mantsi islands at the eastern end of Lake Ladoga.
      Two Soviet divisions attack across the Vuoksi from Vasikkasaari to Vuosalmi.
      Up in Kuhmo, the eastern Luelahti 'motti' is in Finnish hands by midday.
      The Soviet Union is today celebrating International Women's Day. The special "sisters of struggle" women's groups attached to the Red Army arrange numerous dance performances and other programmes in the various units of the army. Selected women soldiers are decorated for valour.
      In Finland, the Central Organization of Social Democratic Women urges its members to join the Lotta Svärd women's defense organization.

Kuhmossa Luelahden itäinen motti kukistuu Talvisodan 100. päivä, 08.maaliskuuta.1940 ^top^
      Mannerheim esittää vielä kerran harkittavaksi länsivaltojen avuntarjouksen hyväksymistä.
      Ulkoministeri Tannerin mielestä avunpyyntö voisi katkaista neuvottelut Moskovassa.
      Suomen neuvottelijat tapaavat neuvostovaltuuskunnan klo 16. Neuvostovaltuuskuntaan kuuluvat Molotov, Zdanov ja kenraali Vasilevski. Suomalaisten toive saada Stalin neuvottelupöytään ei toteudu. Ensimmäinen neuvottelu alkaa Moskovassa klo 19.
      Vihollisen etenemisen estämiseksi Viipurin koillispuolella yritetäänpadota vesistöjä ja Viipurin koillispuoleinen tulvitus toteutetaan.
      Neuvostojoukot tunkeutuvat tukilinjalle Talin kannaksella.
      Viipurinlahdella suomalaiset joutuvat vetäytymään Suonionsaaresta ja Ravansaaresta.
      Mantereella vihollinen vahvistaa sillanpääasemiaan Niskapohjassa, Vilaniemessä ja Häränpääniemessä.
      Vuosalmella vihollinen pureutuu Vuoksen pohjoisrannalle.
      Suomalaisten 2. ja 21. Divisioonia vastassa lasketaan olevan kuusi venäläistä divisioonaa. Ylivoima on siis kolminkertainen.
      Taipaleessa vedetään Terenttilän lohkon asemat taemmas.
      Kuhmossa Luelahden itäinen motti kukistuu.
      Päämaja käskee tyhjentämään suomalaisten hallussa olevat Mantsin saaret Laatokan itäpäässä.
      Kaksi neuvostodivisioonaa rynnäköi Vasikkasaaresta Vuoksen yli Vuosalmelle.
      Itäinen Luelahden motti Kuhmossa kukistuu puoleen päivään mennessä.
      Tänään vietetään Neuvostoliitossa Kansainvälistä Naistenpäivää.Puna-armeijaan perustetut "taistelun ystävättäret" -naisryhmät järjestävät lukuisia tanssiesityksiä ja muuta ohjelmaa eri joukko-osastoissa. Puna-armeija palkitsee kunniamerkeillä urhoollisia naissotilaitaan.
      Sosialidemokraattinen Naisjärjestö kehottaa jäsenistöään liittymään lottiin.

I Kuhmo kvävs den östra mottin i Luelahti Vinterkrigets 100 dag, den 08 mars 1940 ^top^
     Mannerheim föreslår att man ännu en gång borde överväga att ta emot hjälp från väststaterna.
      Utrikesminister Tanner anser att en begäran om bistånd skulle avbryta förhandlingarna i Moskva.
      De finska förhandlarna sammanträder med sovjetdelegationen kl. 16. Sovjetdelegationen består av Molotov, Zdanov och general Vasilevski. Finnarnas önskemål om att få Stalin med i förhandlingarna uppfylls inte. De första förhandlingarna börjar kl. 19 i Moskva.
      För att förhindra fiendens avancemang nordost om Viborg försöker man dämma vattendragen och låta vissa områden svämma över.
      Ryska trupper tränger ända fram till stödlinjen på Tali näs.
      I Viborgska viken tvingas finnarna retirera från öarna Suonionsaari och Ravansaari.
      På fastlandet befäster fienden sina brohuvuden i Niskapohja, Vilaniemi och Häränpäänniemi.
      I Vuosalmi biter sig fienden fast vid den norra stranden av Vuoksen.
      Man räknar att sex ryska divisioner strider mot de finska 2. och 21. Divisionerna. Övermakten är alltså trefaldig.
      I Taipale drar finnarna ställningen i Terenttilä-avsnittet längre bakåt.
      I Kuhmo kvävs den östra mottin i Luelahti.
      Huvudkvarteret ger order om att tömma Mantsiöarna som ligger i den östra ändan av Ladoga och som finnarna har kontrollen över.
      Två ryska divisioner rycker fram från Vasikkasaari över Vuoksen till Vuosalmi.
      Den östra mottin i Luelahti, Kuhmo, likvideras vid middagstid.
      Idag firas den internationella kvinnodagen i Sovjetunionen. Grupper av kvinnor som kallar sig "väninnor i strid" har grundats i anslutning till Röda Armén. Dessa grupper arrangerar flera dansförevisningar och annat program för avdelningarna. Röda armén belönar sina tappra kvinnliga soldater med hederstecken.
      Den socialdemokratiska kvinnoorganisationen uppmanar sina medlemmar att ansluta sig till lottorna.

1930 William Howard Taft, 27th US president.
1930 Gabriel Francisco Victor Miró Ferrer, escritor español.
1925 Juliette (Trulemans) Wytsman, Belgian artist born on 14 July 1866.
1924 Alfred William Strutt, British artist born in 1856.
1920 Édouard Jean E. Ravel, Swiss artist born on 03 March 1847.
1921 Eduardo Dato Iradier, presidente del Gobierno español, tiroteado su coche por tres anarquistas, en Madrid.
1920 Rafael Obligado, poeta y escritor argentino.
1917 Ferdinand von Zeppelin, piloto alemán, inventor del dirigible que lleva su nombre.
1908 Two teachers and 173 children in fire of Collingwood Elementary School, Cleveland.
1908: 129 mujeres, en el incendio de una fábrica textil de Nueva York en la que permanecían encerradas para pedir iguales derechos laborales que los hombres. Este suceso dará lugar a que se celebre en esta fecha el Día de la Mujer Trabajadora.
1908 Manuel Curros Enríquez, poeta y periodista español.
1889 Anton Romako, Austrian painter born on 20 October 1832.— MORE ON ROMAKO AT ART “4” MARCH — Tegetthoff at the Naval Battle of Lissa.
1888 Wilhelm I, rey de Prusia, emperador de Alemania.
1874 Millard Fillmore, in Buffalo, New York, 13th president of the United States.

1869 Hector Berlioz, à La Côte Saint André (Isère, France). ^top^
      Né à La Côte-Saint-André, dans l'Isère, le 11 décembre 1803, Louis Hector Berlioz commença l'étude de la musique à douze ans. Il se rendit à Paris en 1821 pour y faire des études de médecine, qu'il abandonna pour se consacrer à la composition. Sa première œuvre importante, " la Messe solennelle ", date de 1825, ainsi que " la Révolution grecque ", inspirée par le soulèvement des Grecs contre la domination ottomane. Il entra alors au conservatoire de Paris où il étudia la composition, le contrepoint et la fugue. Après trois tentatives infructueuses, il remporta le grand prix de Rome avec " la Mort de Sardanapale ", créée à Paris s d'une " idée fixe" (motif récurrent). D'une forme révolutionnaire, la Symphonie fantastique mettait Berlioz au tout premier rang du romantisme européen. Grâce à la modernité de son orchestration, à la force expressive des couleurs et timbres et à l'utilisation très personnelle du contrepoint, le jeune compositeur signa ici, à vingt-sept ans, un chef-d'œuvre de l'histoire musicale du XIXe siècle, dépassant le modèle romantique beethovenien.
      L'obtention du grand prix de Rome, en 1830, permit à Berlioz de s'installer en Italie. Son monodrame lyrique pour soli, chœur et orchestre, intitulé " Lélio ou le Retour à la vie " (1831), fut conçu comme une continuation de " la Symphonie fantastique ". Il écrivit sur une commande de Paganini " Harold en Italie " (1834) pour alto solo et orchestre, inspiré d'un poème de George Byron. Parallèlement, il devint critique musical au Journal des débats de 1833 à 1863 et, à partir de 1834, à la Gazette musicale. Berlioz, qui aborda la direction d'orchestre en 1835, dirigea un grand nombre de ses œuvres par la suite. En 1837, il composa, sur commande du gouvernement, " la Grande Messe des morts " (Requiem), pour laquelle il exigea un effectif choral et instrumental exceptionnel.
      En 1839, il obtint le poste de bibliothécaire au conservatoire de Paris et fut nommé chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. Il acheva cette même année sa symphonie dramatique " Roméo et Juliette ", d'après Shakespeare. L'année suivante, répondant à une commande du gouvernement, il dirigea sa " Symphonie funèbre et triomphale ", pour le dixième anniversaire des Trois Glorieuses (Révolution de 1830). Pendant 10 ans il travaille sans arrêt composant, critiquant, dirigeant … Berlioz se consacra ensuite avec génie à l'art lyrique. Cependant, ses opéras " les Troyens à Carthage " (1856-1860, représenté en 1863), tiré de l'Énéide de Virgile, " Beatrix et Benedict " (1862), d'après " Beaucoup de bruit pour rien " de Shakespeare, ne rencontrèrent à Paris qu'un accueil réservé voire hostile, tandis que ses œuvres connaissaient un triomphe à l'étranger. La Damnation de Faust remporta un immense succès à Vienne en 1866. Incompris de la plupart de ses contemporains, Berlioz mourut frappé de congestion cérébrale le 8 mars 1869, à Paris. Romantique et dramatique, l'œuvre de Berlioz révèle un talent poétique et visionnaire. Décrié par certains de ses contemporains, il exerça une influence notable sur les plus grands compositeurs de son temps, notamment Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt et le groupe des Cinq en Russie.

1867 Kaspar Kaltenmoser, German artist born on 25 December 1806.
1862 USS Cumberland and USS Congress, destroyed by CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack).

1862 Many Union and Confederate soldiers at the battle of Pea Ridge (or Elkhorn Tavern), Arkansas, on its second day. ^top^
On 07 and 08 March, this was a bitterly fought American Civil War battle, during which 11'000 Union troops under General Samuel Curtis defeated 16'000 attacking Confederate troops led by Generals Earl Van Dorn, Sterling Price, and Ben McCulloch (who was killed on the first day). Following a fierce opening assault from the rear that almost overwhelmed Curtis' forces, the outnumbered Union troops rallied. After a desperate struggle with severe losses on both sides, Union forces counterattacked on March 8. The Confederates were forced to retreat, thus thwarting their hopes of regaining control of Arkansas.

1844 Alzados liberales en Alicante, España, reprimidos por Luis González Bravo.
1844 Carlos XIV, rey de Suecia y Noruega, antiguo mariscal de Napoleón.

1801 Soldiers, French, Ottoman, and some 1100 British in battle of Abukir ^top^
      During the Napoleonic Wars, combined British and Ottoman forces successfully establish a foothold in French-occupied Egypt at Abukir Bay. French forces at the strategic naval port are defeated but some 1100 British soldiers, including Sir Ralph Abercromby, the commander of the amphibious operation, perish.
      In the summer of 1798, French General Napoléon Bonaparte and his Army of the Orient landed at Abukir, an Egyptian bay between Alexandria and the Rosetta mouth of the Nile. Napoleon intended to capture Egypt as a launching point for his attacks on British interests in India. In July, his army won a brilliant victory over Egyptian forces at the Battle of the Pyramids, but in September, British Admiral Horatio Nelson destroyed the French fleet in Abukir Bay, trapping Napoléon’s forces in Egypt.
      The Ottoman Empire, of which Egypt was a province, subsequently allied itself with Great Britain and declared war on France. In July of 1799, the French repulsed Ottoman forces attempting to land at Abukir; however, later in the year, Napoléon abandoned his army, evaded the British Royal Navy blockade, and traveled back to France to join in a coup against the French revolutionary government.
      While Napoléon assumed the leadership of France and set about defending the country against a coalition of European powers, his Army of the Orient struggled to hold onto Egypt. In March of 1801, an Anglo-Turkish force successfully landed at Abukir Bay, and in September, Napoléon lost Malta to the British, compelling him to restore Egypt to the Ottoman Empire in 1802.

1702 William III of Orange, 51, king of England (1689-1702)
1688 Fabri, mathematician.
1669 Unas 20'000 personas, en erupción del volcán Etna, que arrasa parte de la ciudad de Catania y una docena de pueblos y aldeas.
1126 Urraca, reina de Castilla y León. Su hijo Alfonso VII es proclamado rey.

Births which occurred on a March 08:

1969 The Pontiac Firebird Trans Am is introduced.

1962 La camisa, de Lauro Olmo, es estrenado en el teatro Goya, de Madrid.

1945 Anselm Kiefer, German painter, born in Donaueschingen. — LINKS

1945 Sylvia Young [15 March 2002 photo >]. in Cape Town, South Africa, fifth child of mathematician Laurence Young [14 Jul 1905 – 24 Dec 2000] and of Joan Elizabeth Mary Dunnett [-1995], who would soon move with their children to Madison, Wisconsin. Sylvia would get her Ph.D. in math in 1971. She would marry mathematician Roger A. Wiegand, and both would teach at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, while running marathons as a hobby.

1942 Manuel Valdés, pintor y escultor español.

1935 Of Time and the River, by Thomas Wolfe, is published ^top^
      Scribner's publishes Thomas Wolfe's second novel, Of Time and the River. Wolfe started the novel, a sequel to his highly acclaimed debut novel, Look Homeward, Angel, in 1931, but it took him and his editor, Maxwell Perkins, years to edit the work. Wolfe was 6'5'' and couldn't sit comfortably at normal desks. He did most of his writing standing up, using the top of his refrigerator as a writing surface.
      Look Homeward, Angel, perhaps best remembered for its famous line "You can't go home again," was published in 1929 and brought Wolfe immediate acclaim as the "Great American Novelist." The semi-autobiographical book details the youth of young Eugene Gant in a North Carolina town modeled on Wolfe's own hometown of Asheville. The book was immensely popular but won Wolfe the anger of his family and friends back in Asheville for telling town secrets.
      Wolfe was born in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1900, one of eight children of a stonecutter. His mother bought a boarding house when Wolfe was five. The boy felt displaced by the constant parade of traveling salesmen, impoverished widows, and other boarders and later turned them into characters in his fiction. He entered the University of North Carolina in 1916 and finally went to Harvard College to study drama in the hopes of becoming a playwright.
      In 1923, he moved to New York and taught at NYU while writing plays. By 1929, he had devoted most of his efforts to his monumental first novel, which made him into one of the best-known writers of his time. The novel was later adapted for the stage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1958.

1933 Bodas de Sangre, drama de Federico García Lorca, es estrenado en el teatro Beatriz, de Madrid.
1926 Josefina Rodríguez de Aldecoa, escritora española.
1924 Anthony Caro, escultor británico. — LINKS
1920 George Batchelor, mathematician.
1907 Konstantinos Karamanlis, político griego.
1897 Josep Pla i Casadevall, prosista y periodista catalán.
1892 Juana de Ibarbourou, poetisa uruguaya.
1886 Edward Calvin Kendall, US Nobel Prize-winning chemist who died on 04 May 1972.
1879 Otto Hahn, German chemist, co-discoverer of nuclear fission, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. He died on 28 July 1968.
1865 Natalio Rivas Santiago, político e historiador español.
1865 Vessiot, mathematician.
1862 Merrimack Confederate ironclad is launched.
1859 Hans Zatzka “P. Ronsard”, Austrian painter who died in 1945. — A Classical Idyll — A Moment of Contemplation — A Water Idyll — The Harem Dancer — The Rose Bower — Paradise
1859 Manuel García Prieto, político español.
1858 Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Neapolitan opera composer famous for Pagliacci, which, by its sensational story from everyday life reacts against the quasi-historical plots of Romantic Italian opera and of Wagner. Leorcavallo died on 09 August 1919.
1856 William B. Booth, US “general” of the Salvation Army (1912-29) who died on 16 June 1929.
1851 George Chrystal, mathematician. He died in 1911.
1843 Ernest-Ange Duez, French painter who died in 1896. — LINKS — Honeymoon (1873)

1841 Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Massachusetts, US Supreme Court justice (1902-32), the "Great Dissenter," philosopher, writer. ^top^ Holmes died on 06 Mars 1935. HOLMES ONLINE:
Selected Works. The Common Law Elsie Venner The Guardian Angel The Last Leaf The Last Leaf	Medical Essays, 1842-1882 The Path of the Law Over the Teacups The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table The Poet at the Breakfast Table The Professor at the Breakfast Table	A Mortal Antipathy: First Opening of the New Portfolio Pages From an Old Volume of Life: A Collection of Essays page images: Poems (1853 edition) Illustrated Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes The Iron Gate, and Other Poems Grandmother's Story, and Other Poems

1838 Ernest Meisel (or Meissel), German artist who died on 24 September 1895.
1788 William Hamilton, mathematician.
1781 Juana Azurduy de Padilla, heroína de la independencia boliviana. Alcanzó el grado de coronel. Murió en 1862.
1748 Dirk Thierry Langendyk, Dutch artist who died on 15 December 1805.
1714 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, composer, son of J.S. Bach, who died on 14 December 1788.
1495 Giovanni Battista Rosso di Jacopo Fiorentino, Italian painter and decorator who died on 14 November 1540. — MORE ON ROSSO AT ART “4” MARCH — LINKS — Assumption of the Virgin — Madonna and Child with Putti — Madonna Enthroned with Four Saints — Madonna Enthroned between Two Saints — Madonna Enthroned and Ten Saints — Marriage of the Virgin _ detail 1 . _ detail 2 — Musician Angel — Descent from the Cross _ detail 1 . _ detail 2 . _ detail 3 — Deposition from the Cross — Pietà — Dead Christ with Angels — Risen Christ — Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro — Young Man

Holidays China, Cuba, Mauritania, Mongolia, USSR : International Women's Day / Egypt, Libya, Syria : Syrian Revolution Day (1963)

Religious Observances RC : St John of God, confessor (opt) / Santos Juan de Dios, Cirilo, Apolonio, Urbano y Silvano./ Saint Jean de Dieu, né en 1495, le petit Cidade est un enfant portugais enlevé à ses parents et élevé par un berger. Il devient lui-même berger puis soldat. Sa conversion spectaculaire lui vaut d'être interné dans un asile! A sa sortie, sous le nom de Jean-de-Dieu, il se dévoue aux malades avec une immense compassion et fonde l'ordre des Frères hospitaliers. L'Eglise catholique l'a déclaré patron céleste des malades ainsi que des infirmiers.
Ash Wednesday in 2000

TO THE TOP

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO WRITE TO “HISTORY 4 2DAY”
http://h42day.0catch.com/history/h4mar/h4mar08.html
http://members.xoom.virgilio.it/all42day/history/h4mar/h4mar08.html
updated Wednesday 05-Mar-2003 15:26 UT

site safe for children