Today in history 101 #

Here are some significant events that occurred on this day in history:

March 8th

• 1917: The United States declares war on Germany, entering World War I.
• 1965: The first spacewalk is performed by Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who spends 12 minutes outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft.
• 1971: The first Earth Day is celebrated, marking the beginning of the modern environmental movement.
• 1983: The first mobile phone call is made by Martin Cooper, an engineer at Motorola, who calls a rival telecommunications company to declare that he is speaking from a cell phone.
• 1997: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 8,000 for the first time, marking a major milestone in the stock market.

Birthdays

• 1874: Marie Curie, Polish-born physicist and chemist who won two Nobel Prizes (physics and chemistry) for her work on radioactivity.
• 1929: John Glenn, American astronaut and politician who became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.
• 1942: Aretha Franklin, American singer, songwriter, and pianist known as the "Queen of Soul".
• 1965: Chris Cornell, American musician and singer-songwriter who was the lead vocalist of Soundgarden and Audioslave.

Deaths

• 1917: Albert I, King of Belgium, who ruled the country during World War I.
• 1984: Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer and founder of the Magnum Photos agency.
• 2016: Harper Lee, American author who wrote the classic novel "To Kill a Mockingbird".

These are just a few of the many events that have occurred on this day in history.