Five Things That Happened On March 8 In Soap History

In 1967, Robin Strasser debuted on Another World in the iconic role of Rachel, which she played until 1972. Upon Strasser's departure, the role was recast with Victoria Wyndham, who remained with the show until its cancellation in 1999, while Strasser went on to Daytime Emmy-winning success as Dorian Lord on One Life to Live. The character of Rachel was created by Agnes Nixon, then AW's head writer, who later said that All My Children's Erica Kane was her inspiration for Rachel. (While AMC would not debut until 1970, Nixon had written the bible for the show several years before it made it to the airwaves.)

In 1984, Adam Chandler (David Canary) and Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) wed on All My Children. This was Adam's first marriage on the show and Erica's fourth. Erica did not marry Adam for love; she said, "I do" to the mogul because she believed he could make her a star. At the time of the marriage, Erica's beloved, journalist Mike Roy, was away on assignment in Tibet. The union crashed and burned, with Adam faking his death to test his bride's loyalty and Erica cheated on Adam with Mike.

In 2006, General Hospital lovebirds Robin Scorpio (Kimberly McCullough) and Patrick Drake (Jason Thompson) shared their first kiss. After they smooched, Patrick assured Robin that he wasn't concerned about kissing her in light of her HIV-positive status, then declared, "I'm just glad you got out of your own way and did what you've been wanting to do since we met." The duo went on to marry two times (once in 2008, once in 2016) and welcome two children, Emma and Noah.

In 2019 on Young and Restless, Victoria Newman (Amelie Heinle) testified about the physical abuse she had been subjected to by her ex-husband, JT Hellstrom as she was questioned by her defense attorney, Michael Baldwin (Christian J. LeBlanc). Victoria explained that at the time, she hadn't told anyone what was going on. "I was too ashamed," she said. "And he said that it would stop. But it didn't."

In 2019, General Hospital's Ava was in for a devastating shock. For months, she had been sleeping with Kevin Collins — or so she thought. In actuality, the man she'd fallen in love with was Kevin's psychopath identical twin, Ryan Chamberlain, who had taken over his brother's life. "Kevin" convinced Ava to cross the border into Canada with him to elope, but Kevin's wife, Laura, as well as Jason, caught up to them on a bridge. Jason shot Ryan in the shoulder as Laura tried to get Ava to accept the horrible truth about her lover's identity. Ryan drew Ava into a passionate kiss. “I’m sorry we won’t have our happily ever after,” he told her. “But we will have our happy ending.” He then hurled both of their bodies over the side of the bridge!