On This Day 2026
Hello, … and welcome to day 67 of the year.

Sunday, March 8th

Today is National Retro Video Game Day, International Women’s Day and Daylight Saving Day. Your star sign is Pisces and your birthstone is Aquamarine.
2001 – Donald Campbell’s boat, Bluebird, was recovered from the bottom of Coniston Water in Cumbria. Campbell was killed on 4th January 1967 at more than 300 mph whilst attempting to break his own water speed record.
Donald Campbell's boat, Bluebird, was recovered from the bottom of Coniston Water in Cumbria. Campbell was killed on 4th January 1967 at more than 300 mph whilst attempting to break his own water speed record.
Today’s birthdays
1948 – Gyles Brandreth (78), British broadcaster (Great Canal Journeys, Wordaholics), writer and former politician, born in Wuppertal, Germany.

1954 – Cheryl Baker (72), English singer (Bucksfizz – “Making Your Mind Up”, “The Land of Make Believe”) and television presenter (Record Breakers), born in Bethnal Green, London.

1958 – Gary Numan (68), English singer and musician (“Are Friends Electric” – with Tubeway Army, “Cars” – solo), born in London.
1976 – Gaz Coombes (50), English musician and lead vocalist of alternative rock band, Supergrass (“Alright”), born in Oxford, Oxfordshire.
1976 – Freddie Prinze Jr. (50), American actor (Scooby Doo, I know What You Did Last Summer, She’s All That), born in Los Angeles, California, United States.
1979 – Tom Chaplin (47), English musician, co-founder and lead singer of alternative rock band, Keane (“Somewhere Only We Know”, “Everybody’s Changing”), born in Hastings.
Famous deaths
2007 – John Inman (b. 1935), English actor (Grace & Favour) best known for his role as Mr. Humphries in Are You Being Served?
2020 – Max von Sydow (b. 1929), Swedish actor (The Exorcist, Shutter Island, Minority Report, Escape to Victory).
The day today
1908 – The House of Commons turned down the women’s suffrage bill, thus denying the right for women to vote.
1910 – The Aéro-Club de France issued the world’s first pilot’s licenses, establishing a landmark in aviation history. Frenchwoman Elise Raymonde Deroche (often known as Baroness Raymonde de Laroche) became the first licensed female pilot. J.T.C. Moore-Brabazon was the first Englishman to receive a license from the Royal Aero Club (also in 1910).
1930 – Mahatma Gandhi launched the landmark Civil Disobedience campaign against British rule with the famous 1930 Salt March (Salt Satyagraha). Beginning on March 12, 1930, he walked 240 miles to Dandi, Gujarat, to produce salt, openly defying the British monopoly and tax. This campaign significantly boosted the Indian independence movement, drew international attention, and forced the British to recognise the need for negotiations.
1937 – The Road To Wigan Pier, George Orwell’s book depicting life during ‘The Depression’ in the north of England, was published. Wigan pier was simply a place for loading coal onto canal boats on the Leeds – Liverpool canal.
1950 – Rover unveiled the world’s first car to be powered with a gas turbine engine. Codenamed JET1 the two-seater model would be powered by the same kind of engine used in a jet aeroplane, with a fuel consumption of 5 to 7 miles per gallon.
1961 – Sir Thomas Beecham, the influential English conductor and founder of both the London Philharmonic Orchestra (1932) and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1946), died at age 81 from a cerebral thrombosis. A dominant force in 20th-century British music, he was renowned for his interpretations of Mozart, Delius, and Wagner, leaving behind a legacy of celebrated recordings.
1963 – The first Ford Anglia (specifically a 105E saloon) was ceremonially driven off the production line at the new Halewood, Liverpool plant by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Alderman David John Lewis. Ford bought the car back three years later and it is now part of the National Museums Liverpool collection.
1966 – A bomb planted by young Irish protesters destroyed Nelson’s Pillar in Dublin. No one was hurt by the explosion. Six days after the original damage, Irish Army engineers blew up the rest of the pillar after judging the structure to be too unsafe to restore. The planned demolition caused more destruction on O’Connell Street than the original blast, and broke many windows.
1971 – British postal workers returned to work ending a bitter 7-week national strike over pay that began on January 20. Over 200,000 members of the Union of Post Office Workers (UPW) voted 14-to-1 to accept a deal following a Committee of Enquiry, which later recommended a 9% pay increase.
1971 – Joe Frazier ends Muhammad Ali’s 31-fight winning streak at Madison Square Garden, NYC, retaining the heavyweight boxing title by unanimous points decision over 15 rounds in the “Fight of the Century”.
1973 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) undertakes its first operation in Great Britain, planting four car bombs in London. Ten members of PIRA are later arrested at Heathrow Airport while trying to leave the country.
1974 – Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), also known as Roissy Airport, officially opened in Roissy-en-France, northeast of Paris. Designed by architect Paul Andreu, it featured a futuristic, circular Terminal 1 to handle growing international air traffic. It became France’s largest airport, reducing pressure on the older Orly and Le Bourget airports.
1979 – Many volcanoes were discovered on one of planet Jupiter’s moons called Io. It was previously believed to be much like the surface of Earth’s moon until Voyager I came up close and spotted cloud plumes from volcanoes.
1986 – Martina Navratilova became the first tennis player to surpass the $10 million in career prize money. She achieved this milestone by winning the U.S. Indoors title.
2001 – Donald Campbell’s boat, Bluebird, was recovered from the bottom of Coniston Water in Cumbria. Campbell was killed on 4th January 1967 at more than 300 mph whilst attempting to break his own water speed record.
2014 – The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (known as Clare’s Law) came into effect across England and Wales. The scheme allowed people to find out from police if their partner has a history of domestic violence and was named after 36 year-old Clare Wood who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 2009.
2014 – Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 disappeared with 239 people on board. The flight was from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, and the last contact they had with air traffic control was around 38 minutes after takeoff. The plane was never found.
2017 – FC Barcelona in the largest comeback in UEFA Champions League history overturn a 4-0 deficit beating St-Germain 6-5 (on aggregate) at the Camp Nou in Barcelona to reach the Champions League quarter finals.
2022 – On International Women’s Day, the then-Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon issued a formal, posthumous apology to the roughly 4,000 people ‘mostly women’ accused, convicted, and often executed under Scotland’s Witchcraft Act of 1563. Sturgeon described the persecution as an “egregious historical injustice” driven by misogyny.

2022 – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invokes Winston Churchill speaking virtually to the UK parliament “We will not fail. We will fight till the end”.

2025 – More than 1,000 people, including at least 700 civilians, are killed in clashes between the Syrian security forces and former Assad loyalists in Latakia province; one of the highest death tolls in Syria since 2011.
Today in music
1962 – The Beatles made their radio debut on the BBC’s ‘Teenagers Turn’, (Here We Go), singing Roy Orbison’s ‘Dream Baby’. It was reportedly the first time The Beatles wore suits onstage.
1965 – David Bowie made his TV debut with The Manish Boys on a UK program called ‘Gadzooks! It’s All Happening’ when they performed their current single ‘I Pity The Fool.’
1969 – Small Faces split up after singer Steve Marriott announced he was leaving the band to form Humble Pie. Small Faces scored the hit songs ‘Itchycoo Park’, ‘Lazy Sunday’, ‘All or Nothing’, and ‘Tin Soldier’, as well as their concept album Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake. Members Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenny Jones linked up with Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart and formed the Faces.
1973 – Paul McCartney was fined £100 for growing cannabis at his farm in Campbeltown, Scotland. McCartney claimed some fans gave the seeds to him and that he didn’t know what they would grow into.
1986 – Diana Ross was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the ‘Chain Reaction.’ Written and produced by The Bee Gees (who also provided the backing vocals for the single). The single became her first No.1 single in the UK since ‘I’m Still Waiting’ in 1971.
1990 – Cher won the worst dressed female, and worst video for ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’, in The Rolling Stone Magazine’s awards, Donny Osmond won the most unwelcome comeback award.
2001 – It was reported that US manufactures Art Asylum planned to send over 100,000 Eminem dolls to shops in the UK. The lifelike figure had the rapper’s tattoos recreated in detail including the words ‘Cut Here’ on his neck.
2003 – Singer and actor Adam Faith died. He had the 1959 UK No.1 single ‘What Do You Want’, plus over 20 other UK Top 40 singles, and acting roles include the TV series ‘Love Hurts.’
2003 – Former Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler was injured when the Honda motorbike he was riding was involved in a collision with a Fiat Punto car. The 53-year-old singer and guitarist suffered a broken collar bone and six broken ribs in the accident which happened in London’s smart Belgravia district in mid-morning traffic.
2016 – AC/DC postponed the rest of their current US tour after singer Brian Johnson was warned he was going deaf. The band posted a statement on their website saying doctors had advised Johnson to stop touring immediately or risk total hearing loss.
2022 – UK band Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” achieved a historic milestone, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in its 59th week, setting a new record for the longest climb to the top. The sleeper hit surpassed the previous record of 35 weeks held by Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You”.
Today in history
1531 – King Henry VIII is recognized as the supreme head of the Church in England by the Convocation of Canterbury.
1702 – Anne Stuart, sister of Mary II, becomes Queen regant of England, Scotland, and Ireland after William III died in a riding accident. This gilded statue of William III is in Hull, as Hull was the first large city in Britain to swear their allegiance to the new King when he deposed James II in 1685. Despite seventeen pregnancies, Anne died without surviving children and was the last monarch of the House of Stuart. She was succeeded by her second cousin George I of the House of Hanover.
1765 – Britain’s House of Lords passed the Stamp Act to tax the American colonies.
1775 – An anonymous writer, thought by some to be the Norfolk born author Thomas Paine, published ‘African Slavery in America’, the first article in the American colonies calling for the equality of slaves and the abolition of slavery.
1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte’s forces capture the city of Jaffa from the Ottoman Empire in Palestine, after a 5 day siege.
1859 – The birth, in Edinburgh, of author Kenneth Grahame, most famous for The Reluctant Dragon and The Wind in the Willows, an enchanting story involving the characters Toad, Badger, Mole and Ratty.
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