TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Monday, March 8, the 67th day of 2021. There are 298 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight in history

On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 with 239 people on board, vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, setting off a massive and ultimately unsuccessful search.

On this date

In 1618, German astronomer Johannes Kepler devised his third law of planetary motion.

In 1817, the New York Stock & Exchange Board, which had its beginnings in 1792, was formally organized; it later became known as the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1930, the 27th president of the United States, William Howard Taft, died in Washington at age 72.

In 1948, the Supreme Court, in McCollum v. Board of Education, struck down voluntary religious education classes in Champaign, Ill., public schools, saying the program violated separation of church and state.

In 1960, Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon won the New Hampshire presidential primary.

In 1965, the United States landed its first combat troops in South Vietnam as 3,500 Marines arrived to defend the U.S. air base at Da Nang.

In 1979, Philips demonstrated a prototype compact disc player during a news conference in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

In 1983, in a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals convention in Orlando, Fla., President Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an “evil empire.”

In 1988, 17 soldiers were killed when two Army helicopters from Fort Campbell, Ky., collided in midflight.

In 1999, baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio died in Hollywood, Fla., at age 84.

In 2008, President George W. Bush vetoed a bill that would have banned the CIA from using simulated drowning and other coercive interrogation methods to gain information from suspected terrorists.

Today’s birthdays

Songwriter Carole Bayer Sager is 77. Actor-director Micky Dolenz (The Monkees) is 76. Singer-musician Randy Meisner is 75. Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Rice is 68. Singer Gary Numan is 63. NBC News anchor Lester Holt is 62. Actor Aidan Quinn is 62. Actor Camryn Manheim is 60. Singer Shawn Mullins is 53. Actor Freddie Prinze Jr. is 45. Actor James Van Der Beek is 44.