Reuters historical calendar - March 8

LONDON, Mar 7 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on March 8 since 1900: 1917 - Riots and strikes in St. Petersburg marked the start of the ''February Revolution'' that overthrew the Tsar in Russia.

1920 - Denmark joined the League of Nations.

1921 - French troops occupied Duesseldorf and towns in the Ruhr area following Germany's failure to pay reparations from World War One.

1921 - Spanish Prime Minister Eduardo Dato was assassinated by anarchists near his home in Madrid.

1950 - The Soviet Union said it was in possession of the atomic bomb.

1958 - The Chinese government imposed martial law on the restive Tibetan capital of Lhasa.

1963 - A group of officers led by Colonel Ziad Hariri overthrew the Syrian government and established a National Council of Revolution.

1973 - IRA car bombs exploded outside the Old Bailey courthouse and Scotland Yard police headquarters in London, killing one and injuring 238.

1983 - William Walton, British composer, died. His orchestral piece ''Facade'' is regarded as his most popular work.

1994 - 64 people were killed and 370 injured when a train packed with mainly black commuters was derailed near Durban, South Africa.

1999 - Joe DiMaggio, New York Yankees baseball legend, died. He was 84.

2000 - China executed former vice provincial governor Hu Changqing for bribery, the most senior official to be executed in 50 years.

2001 - A Chilean appeals court ruled 2-1 that former dictator Augusto Pinochet can be tried for human rights abuses that occurred after his 1973 coup.

2001 - Dame Ninette de Valois, ballerina and founder of Britain's Royal Ballet School who launched dancer Margot Fonteyn on the road to stardom, died. She was 102.

2002 - Israeli forces inflicted the bloodiest losses on Palestinians on any single day of the fighting, killing 38 in raids after an attack on a Jewish settlement in Gaza killing 5 students.

2004 - Actor and storyteller Spalding Gray, best known for writing and starring in the autobiographical film monologue, ''Swimming to Cambodia'', was confirmed dead after having gone missing for nearly two months.

2005 - Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov was killed by Russian troops fighting to quell a long rebellion in the mainly Muslim Caucasus region.

REUTERS SI PM0937