On this day: 8 March

Ferdowsi completes his epic poem Shahnameh.

Battle of Hausbergen between bourgeois militias and the army of the bishop of Strasbourg.

The city of Pori (Swedish: Björneborg) is founded by Duke John on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia.

A Spanish colonial officer wrote a letter to King Philip II containing the first known mention of the Maya ruins of Copán in present-day Honduras.

The court of Northampton County, Virginia, issued a ruling that made John Casor the first person of African descent in the Thirteen Colonies to be declared a slave for life as a result of a civil suit.

After a devastating defeat in the Second Northern War, King Frederick III of Denmark–Norway was forced to give up nearly half his Danish territory to Sweden to save the remainder.

The Safavid Empire of Iran is defeated by an army from Afghanistan at the Battle of Gulnabad.

Nader Shah, the founder of the Afsharid dynasty, was crowned Shah of Iran.

The Althing, the parliament of Iceland, is reopened after 45 years of closure.

King Oscar I ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway.

French aviator Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman to receive a pilot's licence.

International Women's Day protests in Petrograd mark the beginning of the February Revolution (February 23 in the Julian calendar).

The United States Senate votes to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.

Daytona Beach and Road Course holds its first oval stock car race.

Spanish Civil War: The Battle of Guadalajara begins.

World War II: The Dutch East Indies surrender Java to the Imperial Japanese Army.

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.

The iconic Volkswagen Type 2 "Bus" begins production.

The Ba'ath Party came to power in a coup d'état by a clique of quasi-leftist Syrian Army officers calling themselves the National Council for the Revolutionary Command.

Vietnam War: US Marines arrive at Da Nang.

Images taken by Voyager 1 proved the existence of volcanoes on Io (pictured), a moon of Jupiter.

Philips demonstrates the compact disc publicly for the first time.

Cold War: In a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, U.S. president Ronald Reagan described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire".

Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-102, carrying the Expedition 2 crew to the International Space Station.

A new constitution is signed by Iraq's Governing Council.

Headlined by Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, TNA Wrestling moves its flagship program, TNA Impact!, to Monday night. This effort to go "big time live" failed but is notable in the history of professional wrestling television.

The Azure Window, a limestone natural arch in Gozo, Malta, collapsed during a stor

The first Aurat March (social/political demonstration) is held on International Women's Day in Karachi, Pakistan, since then held annually across Pakistan, and the feminist slogan "Mera Jism Meri Marzi" (My body, my choice), in demand for women's right to bodily autonomy and against gender-based violence, came into vogue in Pakistan.

Twenty-eight political institutions in Myanmar establish the National Unity Consultative Council, a historic alliance of ethnic armed organizations and democratically elected leaders, in response to the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état.