On March 8

On this day in ...
... 1775, the Pennsylvania Journal and the Weekly Advertiser published African Slavery In America, by Thomas Paine (right), a recent emigrant from England who'd become in America "one of the earliest and most influential" advocates for the abolition of slavery. "[T]he sentiments of JUSTICE AND HUMANITY," he argued in the essay, compelled abolition. Just 5 weeks later, America's 1st anti-slavery society formed in Philadelphia, with Paine as a member.
... 1917, hunger and cold caused rioting in St. Petersburg, Russia. A report cabled to The New York Times predicted: "I do not personally believe there can be serious trouble while the Duma is sitting." Days later, however, Russia's ruler dissolved that parliamentary body; in response, the Duma forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate. (credit for portrait of 1896 coronation of tsar and tsarina)

(Prior March 8 posts are here and here.)

On July 16

On this day in ...
... 1918 (90 years ago today), overnight, Bolsheviks executed the Russian royal family at Yekaterinburg. Four days later the New York Times reported that only "Nicholas Romanoff, ex-Czar of Russia," had been killed, and that "[t]he former Empress and Alexis Romanoff, the young heir, have been sent to a place of security." In point of fact, all 3, plus 3 Romanoff daughters, their physician, and 3 servants, were executed at the same time. Just yesterday, the Russian Orthodox Church called upon authorities to "state that assassination of the tsar family was a crime and condemn it in compliance with people's will." Meanwhile, Tsar Nicholas II and former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, are "neck and neck," "battling ... for first place" in an online popularity contest. (credit for 1913 photo of Russian royal family)
... 1945, "[a]t precisely 5:30 a.m." on a Monday in the New Mexico desert, "the nuclear age began" as the scientists of the Manhattan Project watched the 1st successful test -- named the Trinity Test -- of the atomic bomb.