Wikipedia:Main Page history/2022 March 8b

The hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus) is a large African antelope. Standing just over 1 m (3.3 ft) at the shoulder, it has a typical head-and-body length of 200 to 250 cm (80 to 90 in) and weighs 100 to 200 kg (220 to 440 lb). Coat colour varies among the eight subspecies, from the sandy brown of the western hartebeest to the chocolate brown of Swayne's hartebeest. Both sexes have an elongated forehead, back-curving horns, a short neck, pointed ears, and unusually long legs. Herds typically have up to 300 individuals, grazing mainly on grasses in dry savannas and wooded grasslands, and often moving to more arid places after rainfall. The hartebeest was formerly widespread in Africa, but populations have undergone drastic decline due to habitat destruction, hunting, human settlement, and competition with livestock for food. The species is extinct in Algeria, Egypt, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Somalia, and Tunisia, but has been reintroduced into Eswatini and Zimbabwe. (Full article...)

Antonette Wemyss Gorman

• ... that Antonette Wemyss Gorman (pictured), the first woman to fill a combat role in the Caribbean, was promoted to rear admiral and is Chief of Defence Staff of the Jamaica Defence Force?
• ... that Matilda Allison, blinded aged seven, "devoted her time instructing the blind" throughout America, thanks to a "wonderful education"?
• ... that British animal-welfare activist Shirley McGreal founded the International Primate Protection League, after seeing trafficked monkeys in cages at an airport in Thailand?
• ... that three former top-ranking Central Intelligence Agency officials appeared on ABC News Nightline to condemn the agency's treatment of Janine Brookner?
• ... that, between the ages of six and ten, Dorthe Emilie Røssell helped smuggle weapons and propaganda for the Danish resistance movement in her doll's pram?
• ... that Julie Croteau is credited as being the first woman to play National Collegiate Athletic Association men's college baseball?
• ... that South African nurse Stella Madzimbamuto filed an appeal in 1968 with the Privy Council of the United Kingdom that resulted in the Rhodesian government being declared illegal?
• ... that the popular artist's model Margaret Lemon tried to bite Anthony van Dyck's thumb off?

Shane Warne

• Australian cricketer Shane Warne (pictured) dies at the age of 52.
• An attack at a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, kills at least 63 people and injures more than 190 others.
• The Winter Paralympics open in Beijing, China.
• Russia's invasion of Ukraine is condemned by the United Nations General Assembly.
• An earthquake in West Sumatra, Indonesia, leaves fourteen people dead.

March 8: International Women's Day; Aurat March in Pakistan

Anne of Great Britain

• 1702 – Anne (pictured) became the Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland, succeeding her brother-in-law William III.
• 1736 – Nader Shah, the founder of the Afsharid dynasty, was crowned Shah of Iran.
• 1919 – During the Egyptian Revolution, British authorities arrested rebel leader Saad Zaghloul and exiled him to Malta.
• 1978 – BBC Radio 4 began broadcasting Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a science fiction radio series that was later adapted into novels, a television series, and other formats.
• 1983 – 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".
• 2017 – The Azure Window, a limestone natural arch in Gozo, Malta, collapsed during a storm.