18 Esfand 1402

Events

• 1722 (304 years ago) The Safavid Empire of Iran is defeated by an army from Afghanistan at the Battle of Gulnabad.
• 1844 (182 years ago) The Althing, the parliament of Iceland, is reopened after 45 years of closure.
• 1916 (110 years ago) World War I: A British force unsuccessfully attempts to relieve the siege of Kut (present-day Iraq) in the Battle of Dujaila.
• 1942 (84 years ago) World War II: Imperial Japanese Army forces capture Rangoon, Burma from the British.
• 1949 (77 years ago) President of France Vincent Auriol and ex-Vietnamese emperor Bảo Đại sign the Élysée Accords, giving Vietnam greater independence from France and creating the State of Vietnam to oppose Viet Minh-led Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
• 1963 (63 years ago) The Ba'ath Party comes to power in Syria in a coup d'état.
• 2004 (22 years ago) A new constitution is signed by Iraq's Governing Council.
• 2017 (9 years ago) The Azure Window, a natural arch on the Maltese island of Gozo, collapses in stormy weather.

Births

• 1714 (312 years ago) Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German pianist and composer (died 1788)
• 1822 (204 years ago) Ignacy Łukasiewicz, Polish inventor and businessman, invented the Kerosene lamp (died 1882)
• 1879 (147 years ago) Otto Hahn, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1968)
• 1886 (140 years ago) Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1972)
• 1922 (104 years ago) Cyd Charisse, American actress and dancer (died 2008)
• 1937 (89 years ago) Juvénal Habyarimana, Rwandan politician, President of Rwanda (died 1994)
• 1977 (49 years ago) James Van Der Beek, American actor (died 2026)
• 1990 (36 years ago) Petra Kvitová, Czech tennis player

Deaths

• 1403 (623 years ago) Bayezid I, Ottoman sultan (born 1360)
• 1702 (324 years ago) William III of England,
• 1723 (303 years ago) Christopher Wren, English architect, designed St. Paul's Cathedral (born 1632)
• 1869 (157 years ago) Hector Berlioz, French composer, conductor, and critic (born 1803)
• 1874 (152 years ago) Millard Fillmore, American lawyer and politician, 13th President of the United States (born 1800)
• 1923 (103 years ago) Johannes Diderik van der Waals, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1837)
• 1930 (96 years ago) William Howard Taft, American politician, 27th President of the United States (born 1857)
• 1942 (84 years ago) José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player (born 1888)

All 253 events, births and deaths of March 8