On March 8, 1765, the British House of Lords passed the Stamp Act to tax the American colonies.
In 1854 U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry made his second landing in Japan; within a month, he concluded a treaty with the Japanese.
In 1894 New York state enacted the nation’s first dog-licensing law.
In 1917 the U.S. Senate voted to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.
In 1946 the Civil Aeronautics Administration granted the New York Journal-American a license for a helicopter to cover news and deliver photographs.
In 1948 the Supreme Court ruled that religious instruction in public schools violates the Constitution.
In 1965 the United States landed about 3,500 Marines in South Vietnam.
In 1974 President Richard Nixon proposed to lead a cleanup of political campaigns, including financing.
In 1983 President Ronald Reagan denounced the Soviet Union as an “evil empire.”
In 1986 NASA released a memo written March 4 by chief astronaut John Young, who said the space agency had long accepted risky conditions in the shuttle program.
In 1993 singer-bandleader Billy Eckstine died in Pittsburgh; he was 78.
In 1999 New York Yankees baseball star Joe DiMaggio died in Hollywood, Fla.; he was 84.
In 2001 the Republican-controlled House voted for an across-the-board tax cut of nearly $1 trillion over the next decade, handing President George W. Bush a major victory only 48 days into his term.
