Today in History....March 8

On this day in …

* 1854, U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry made his second landing in Japan; within a month, he concluded a treaty with the Japanese

* 1862, during the Civil War, the ironclad CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack) rammed and sank the USS Cumberland and inflicted heavy damage on the USS Congress, both frigates, off Newport News, Va.

* 1917, the U.S. Senate voted to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule. ALSO: Russia's "February Revolution" (so called because of the Old Style calendar being used by Russians at the
time) began with rioting and strikes in Petrograd

* 1965, the United States landed its first combat troops in South Vietnam, about 3,500 Marines sent to defend the U.S. air base at Da Nang

* 1997, President Clinton, in keeping with his push for private businesses and churches to hire off welfare rolls, ordered federal agencies to do the same

* 2002, Kmart Corp. announced the closing of 284 stores and elimination of 22,000 jobs. ALSO: The U.S. Senate passed a bill cutting taxes and extending unemployment benefits

* 2006, Iran threatened the United States with "harm and pain" if the U.S. tried to use the U.N. Security Council to punish Tehran for its suspect nuclear program