March eighth

Today's Highlight in History:
On March eighth, 1854, US Commodore Matthew C. Perry made his second landing in Japan. Within a month, he concluded a treaty with the Japanese.

On this date:
In 1702, England's Queen Anne ascended the throne upon the death of King William the Third.

In 1841, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior, the "Great Dissenter," was born in Boston.

In 1874, the 13th president of the United States, Millard Fillmore, died in Buffalo, New York.

In 1917, Russia's "February Revolution" (so called because of the Old Style calendar used by Russians at the time) began with rioting and strikes in St. Petersburg.

In 1917, the US Senate voted to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.

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

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

In 1944, US bombers resumed bombing Berlin.

In 1965, the United States landed about 3500 Marines in South Vietnam.

In 1986, four French television crew members were abducted in west Beirut; a caller claimed Islamic Jihad was responsible. (All four were eventually released.)

Ten years ago: Opening arguments were heard in the Iran-Contra trial of former national security adviser John M. Poindexter.

Five years ago: Two United States diplomats were killed, one injured, when their car was ambushed as they were driving to the US Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. The plummeting dollar stabilized after Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan called the decline unwarranted.

One year ago: New York Yankees baseball star Joe DiMaggio died in Hollywood, Florida, at age 84. The Clinton administration directed the firing of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory because of alleged security violations. President Clinton began a tour of Central America.

"We do not acquire humility. There is humility in us -- only we humiliate ourselves before false gods."

-- Simone Weil, French philosopher (1909-1943).