Apart from being International Women’s Day, March 8 is notable for several more occasions. RT’s Historama brings you more.

Legend of Soviet Cinema

One of the biggest stars of Soviet cinema and theater, Andrey Mironov, was born on this day in 1944.

Mironov's diverse talents allowed him successfully to tackle both dramatic and comic roles. However, he is best known for his supporting role as Kozodoyev, a jewel-smuggler, in the popular comedy “The Diamond Arm,” which was the Soviet Union's biggest ever box-office smash.

In 1987, while performing the lead role in “The Marriage of Figaro” in Latvia, he suffered a heart attack and died two days later.

“Evil Empire”

On this day in 1983, President Ronald Reagan introduced the term “evil empire” to describe the Soviet Union.

Reagan urged the world to “pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness.” The Soviet Union, for its part, accused the United States of being the center of imperialism.

Three years later, Reagan paid a visit to new party leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow.
When asked by a reporter whether he still thought of the Soviet Union as an “evil empire,” Reagan admitted he no longer did.

Tragedy in air

The Ovechkin family

On this day in 1988, a Russian woman and her 10 children, the youngest aged just 9, attempted to hijack a flight from Irkutsk to Leningrad in a bid to flee the Soviet Union.

All were members of the Ovechkin family musical ensemble, founded in 1983 and hugely popular in the Soviet Union and even abroad.

The musicians hid guns and a bomb in their instrument cases and demanded that the flight destination be changed to London.

The plane, however, landed near the Finnish border to refuel, where it was besieged by Soviet security forces.