On This Day — 8 February

2000s

📅

2023

Two children are killed and six others are injured when a bus crashes into a daycare centre in Laval, Quebec, Canada. The driver is arrested and charged with homicide and dangerous driving.

Laval daycare bus crash

2020

A soldier opens fire in a military camp and a shopping center in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, killing 29 people and injuring 58 others before being shot dead by police the next day. It is considered the deadliest mass shooting in the country's history.

Nakhon Ratchasima shootings

2014

A hotel fire in Medina, Saudi Arabia, kills 15 Egyptian pilgrims with 130 others injured.

2014 Medina hotel fire

2013

A blizzard kills at least 18 and leaves hundreds of thousands of people without electricity in the northeastern United States and parts of Canada.

February 2013 North American blizzard

2010

Over 2 miles (3.2 km) of road are buried after a storm in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan triggers a series of avalanches, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000 others.

Hindu Kush

1900s

1993

An Iran Air Tours Tupolev Tu-154 and an Iranian Air Force Sukhoi Su-24 collide mid-air near Qods, Iran, killing all 133 people on board both aircraft.

Iran Airtour

1989

Independent Air Flight 1851 strikes Pico Alto mountain while on approach to Santa Maria Airport in the Azores, killing all 144 passengers on board.

Independent Air Flight 1851

1986

Twenty-three people are killed when a VIA Rail passenger train collides with a Canadian National freight train near the town of Hinton, Alberta, making it one of the worst rail accidents in Canada.

Via Rail

📅

1983

A dust storm hits Melbourne, resulting in the worst drought on record and severe weather conditions in the city.

1983 Melbourne dust storm

1974

The crew of Skylab 4, the last mission to visit the American space station Skylab, returns to Earth after 84 days in space.

Skylab 4

1971

South Vietnamese ground troops launch an incursion into Laos to try to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail and stop communist infiltration into the country.

Army of the Republic of Vietnam

1968

American civil rights movement: An attack on Black students from South Carolina State University who are protesting racial segregation leaves three dead and 28 injured in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

Civil rights movement

1965

Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean and explodes, killing all 84 people on board.

Eastern Air Lines Flight 663

1963

The regime of Prime Minister of Iraq Abd al-Karim Qasim is overthrown by the Ba'ath Party.

Prime Minister of Iraq

1962

Nine protestors are killed at Charonne station, Paris, by French police under the command of ex-Vichy official and Parisian Prefect of Police Maurice Papon.

Charonne subway massacre

1960

Queen Elizabeth II issues an Order-in-Council, proclaiming the House of Windsor and declaring that her descendants will take the name Mountbatten-Windsor.

Elizabeth II

1950

The Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, is established.

Stasi

1946

The People's Republic of Korea is dissolved in the North and replaced by the communist-controlled Provisional People's Committee of North Korea.

People's Republic of Korea

1945

World War II: British and Canadian forces commence Operation Veritable to occupy land between the Maas and Rhine rivers.

British Armed Forces

1945

World War II: Mikhail Devyataev escapes with nine other Soviet POWs from a Nazi concentration camp in Peenemünde, Usedom.

Mikhail Devyataev

1942

World War II: Japan invades Singapore.

World War II

1937

Spanish Civil War: Republican forces establish the Interprovincial Council of Santander, Palencia and Burgos in Cantabria.

Spanish Civil War

1924

The first state execution in the United States by gas chamber takes place in Nevada.

Capital punishment in the United States

1910

The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce.

Scouting America

1904

Japanese forces launch a surprise attack against Russian-controlled Port Arthur, marking the start of the Russo-Japanese war.

Empire of Japan

1904

The Dutch Colonial Army's Marechaussee regiment led by General G.C.E. van Daalen launch a military campaign in the Dutch East Indies' Northern Sumatra region, leading to the deaths of thousands of civilians.

Royal Netherlands East Indies Army

1800s

1887

The Dawes Act is enacted, authorizing the U.S. President to divide Native American tribal land into individual allotments.

Dawes Act

1885

The first Japanese immigrants arrive in Hawaii.

Japanese in Hawaii

1879

Sandford Fleming first proposes the adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute.

Sandford Fleming

1879

England's cricket team, led by Lord Harris, is attacked in a riot during a match in Sydney.

England cricket team

1865

Delaware refuses to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, delaying the criminalization of slavery until the amendment's national adoption on December 6, 1865. The amendment is ultimately ratified by Delaware on February 12, 1901, the 92nd anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth.

Delaware

1837

Richard Johnson becomes the first and only Vice President of the United States chosen by the Senate.

Richard Mentor Johnson

1817

An army led by Grand Marshal Las Heras crosses the Andes to join San Martín in the liberation of Chile from Spain.

Army of the Andes

1807

Napoleon defeats the coalition forces of Russian General Bennigsen and Prussian General L'Estocq at the Battle of Eylau.

Napoleon

Before 1800

1693

The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, the second-oldest institution of higher education in the Thirteen Colonies, is granted a charter by King William III and Queen Mary II.

College of William & Mary