March 8: French aviator Elise Raymonde Deroche becomes the first woman to receive a pilot's license in a sport considered “male”

March 8 is International Women's Day, but also the day when French aviator Elise Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first woman to receive a pilot's license. At the same time, on a day of March 8, the famous Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappeared, which still remains shrouded in mystery.

Elise Deroche. PHOTO: X/@laurentalbaret

1910 – French aviator Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first woman to receive a pilot's license

The Frenchwoman Elise Raymonde Deroche (1882–1919) made history as the first woman in the world to obtain a pilot's license. In 1909, during a lunch with the French aviator Charles Voisin, he proposed that he teach her to fly an airplane. The idea excited her, especially since, since childhood, she had been attracted to considered sports “manly”, a passion he had temporarily given up to pursue an artistic career under a pseudonym “Raymond de La Roche”.

Flying lessons over Châlons-en-Champagne, given by Voisin himself, quickly became her new goal. On March 8, 1910, Deroche officially received his pilot's license from the French aero club, marking a historic moment for aviation.

Nicknamed the “Baroness de La Roche”, she participated in air demonstrations throughout Europe and set several women's altitude records, including the one in 1913 when she reached 4,785 meters.

During World War I, she volunteered to fly in the military, but restrictions on women prevented her from participating in combat missions. However, it contributed to the war effort by transporting aircraft and conducting reconnaissance missions.

On July 18, 1919, Elise Léontine Deroche would make her last flight. He was at Le Crotoy, in northern France, where he was building an experimental aircraft, a civilian version of the Caudron G.3 model. The aircraft lost altitude and crashed, an accident in which both Deroche and the pilot M. Barrault lost their lives. He was only 36 years old.

1910 – Prose writer Radu Tudoran, author of the famous novel “All sails up!” was born.

Radu Tudoran was born on March 8, 1910, in the commune of Blejoi, in the family of Alexandru Bogza, the same family that gave Romanian literature his older brother, Geo Bogza. Baptized Nicolae Bogza, the future writer would change his name to Radu Tudoran when he decided to pursue a literary career, to avoid possible confusion with his brother.

Radu Tudoran was born on March 8, 1910. PHOTO: archive

He published numerous novels that became best-sellers, and by 1977 the total circulation of his books – many reprinted several times – was well over 1,500,000 copies.

Radu Tudoran died in the morning of November 18, 1992, at the Fundeni Hospital, following an arterial disease. Several surgeries failed to save his life. A year later, his brother, Geo Bogza, would also die.

1970 – The Romanian men's handball team wins the title of world champion for the third time in a row

In 1970, at the seventh edition of the 1970 Men's World Handball Championship, held in France, the Romanian national team won the gold medal and became world champion for the third consecutive time.

In the final, the Romanian national team met the representative of the GDR, which it defeated at the limit, score 13-12, thus obtaining a new world title.

1971 – American film actor Harold Lloyd died (b. 20.04.1894)

Harold Lloyd (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer, known for his many appearances in comedy films during the silent film era.

Considered one of the most influential comedians of the silent film era, Lloyd made nearly 200 productions – both silent and sound – between 1914 and 1947. His iconic character, the ambitious and resourceful young man with round glasses, became symbolic of the optimistic and energetic spirit of the United States in the 1920s.

His films often included spectacular sequences with prolonged chases and daring stunts. One of the most famous images in the history of cinema captures him hanging from the tongues of a clock, high above the street, in the film “Safety Last!” (1923) – a scene that became iconic, the dangerousness of which was also amplified by the shooting angles. The scene can be watched below.

2014: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Mysteriously Disappears From Radar

12 years ago, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 mysteriously disappeared from radar, becoming one of the greatest enigmas of modern aviation. Although fragments of the aircraft have been discovered, the official conclusions remain unclear. The mystery continues to raise numerous questions: What were the plane's last moments in the air? Why was the wreckage not recovered? Do the authorities know more than they have made public?

On the night of March 8, 2014, at 00:41, the aircraft took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board. The destination was Beijing Capital International Airport, where he was due to land at 6:30 local time. But the plane never reached its destination.

At 1:07 a.m., the aircraft transmitted its last automatic position report, and at 1:19 a.m. air traffic controllers received the last voice communication from the cockpit: “Good night, Malaysian 3-7-0.” After that moment, the Boeing 777 disappeared without issuing any distress signal or SOS — a detail that fueled much speculation.

About an hour after the plane failed to arrive in Beijing on time, the airline officially announced its disappearance.

A government report published in 2018 indicated that the aircraft would have changed its direction of flight and the maneuvers performed would have been the result of a deliberate system intervention, not a technical failure.

The specialists reconstructed the possible route of the plane by analyzing data connections made hourly with a satellite. The main hypothesis is that the plane would have run out of fuel and crashed into the Indian Ocean.

International Women's Day

Women's Day was celebrated for the first time on February 28, 1909, in New York, in memory of a strike organized in 1908 by a women's union. Contrary to some information that appeared later, on March 8 there was, in reality, no strike in that context, according to historical data recorded by Wikipedia.

In August 1910, at the Congress of the Socialist International held in Copenhagen, the German activists Luise Zietz and Clara Zetkin proposed the establishment of an International Women's Day, but without fixing an exact date.

The first official celebration of International Women's Day took place on March 19, 1911. Since 1913, women in Russia began to mark this day on the last Sunday of February. In 1917, this date – calculated according to the old calendar – coincided with March 8 in the new calendar.

An important moment in the international recognition of women's day occurred in 1977, when the United Nations proclaimed the International Women's Year and declared the period 1976–1985 as the UN Decade for the Status of Women.