TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

Today is Tuesday, March 8, the 67th day of 2011. There are 298 days left in the year.

1854 ― U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry's second trip to Japan

1858 ― Leoncavallo's opera ``I Pagliacci" is produced (Naples)

1911 ― International Women's Day (first celebrated)

1930 ― Babe Ruth signs two-year contract for $160,000 with New York Yankees, G.M. Ed Barrow wrongly predicts ``No one will ever be paid more than Ruth"

1930 ― Mahatma Gandhi starts civil disobedience in India

1957 ― Israeli troops leave Egypt; Suez Canal re-opened for minor ships

1965 ― First U.S. combat forces arrive in South Vietnam (3,500 Marines)

1979 ― China withdraws invasion troops from Vietnam

1983 ― President Reagan calls the USSR an ``Evil Empire"

1994 ― Defense Department announces smoking ban in workplaces