Today in history

On March 8, 1702, England’s Queen Anne ascended the throne upon the death of King William III.

In 1765 the British House of Lords passed the Stamp Act to tax the American colonies.

In 1854 U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry made his second landing in Japan; within a month, he concluded a treaty with the Japanese.

In 1874 the 13th U.S. president, Millard Fillmore, died in Buffalo.

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

Also in 1917 the U.S. Senate voted to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.

In 1930 the 27th U.S. president, William Howard Taft, died in Washington.

In 1942 Japanese forces captured Rangoon, Burma, during World War II.

In 1948 the Supreme Court ruled that religious instruction in public schools violates the Constitution.

In 1950 Soviet Marshal Voroshilov announced that Russia had the atomic bomb.

In 1958 the Chinese government imposed martial law on Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.

In 1965 the United States landed about 3,500 Marines in South Vietnam.

In 1973 Northern Ireland violence spread to London, where automobile bombs exploded outside the Old Bailey, killing one person and injuring many others.

In 1983 President Ronald Reagan denounced the Soviet Union as an “evil empire.”

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

In 1999 New York Yankees baseball star Joe DiMaggio died in Hollywood; he was 84.