TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Sunday, March 8, the 68th day of 2020.

Today’s highlight in history

On March 8, 1979, technology firm Philips demonstrated a prototype compact disc player during a news conference in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

On this date

In 1618, German astronomer Johannes Kepler devised his

third law of planetary motion.

In 1702, England’s Queen Anne acceded to the throne upon the death of King William III.

In 1862, during the Civil War, the ironclad CSS Virginia rammed and sank the USS Cumberland and heavily damaged the USS Congress, both frigates, off Newport News, Va.

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 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 mid-flight.

In 1999, baseball Hall of Famer Joe Dimaggio died at age 84.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton submitted to Congress legislation to establish permanent normal trade relations with China. (The U.S. and China signed a trade pact in November 2000.)

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.

In 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 search. (The fate of the jetliner and its occupants has yet to be determined.)

One year ago: A grand jury in Chicago indicted actor Jussie Smollett on 16 felony counts related to making a false report that he was attacked by two men who shouted racial and homophobic slurs. (Prosecutors dropped the case in March, but a grand jury revived it in February 2020, indicting Smollett on charges of lying to police about the alleged attack.)

Today’s birthdays

Musician George Coleman is 85. Actress Sue Ane Langdon is 84. College Football Hall of Famer Pete Dawkins is 82. Songwriter Carole Bayer Sager is 76. Actor-musician Micky Dolenz (The Monkees) is 75. Singer-musician Randy Meisner is 74. Singer Peggy March is 72. Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Rice is 67. Singer Gary Numan is 62. NBC News anchor Lester Holt is 61. Actor Aidan Quinn is 61. Actress Camryn Manheim is 59. Actor Freddie Prinze Jr. is 44. Actor James Van Der Beek is 43.