March 8 is the 67th day of the year (68th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 298 days remaining until the end of the year.

• 1576 – Spanish explorer Diego García de Palacio first sights the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Copán.

• 1775 – An anonymous writer, thought by some to be Thomas Paine, publishes "African Slavery in America", the first article in the American colonies calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery.

• 1868 – Sakai incident: Japanese samurai kill 11 French sailors in the port of Sakai near Osaka.

• 1917 – The United States Senate votes to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.

• 1936 – Daytona Beach Road Course holds its first oval stock car race.

• 1957 – Egypt re-opens the Suez Canal after the Suez Crisis.

• 1974 – Charles de Gaulle Airport opens in Paris, France.

• 1983 – President Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire".

• 1999 – The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the murder convictions of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing.