On This Day — 8 May
2000s
2025
The 2025 papal conclave elects Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, taking the name Leo XIV as the 267th Pope of the Catholic Church.
2025 conclave
2021
A car bomb explodes in front of a school in Kabul, capital city of Afghanistan killing at least 55 people and wounding over 150.
2021 Kabul school bombing
2019
British 17-year-old Isabelle Holdaway is reported to be the first patient ever to receive a genetically modified phage therapy to treat a drug-resistant infection.
Phage therapy
1900s
1997
China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 crashes on approach into Bao'an International Airport, killing 35 people.
China Southern Airlines Flight 3456
1988
A fire at Illinois Bell's Hinsdale Central Office triggers an extended 1AESS network outage once considered to be the "worst telecommunications disaster in US telephone industry history".
Illinois Bell
1987
The SAS kills eight Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers and a civilian during an ambush in Loughgall, Northern Ireland.
Special Air Service
1984
Corporal Denis Lortie enters the Quebec National Assembly and opens fire, killing three people and wounding 13. René Jalbert, Sergeant-at-Arms of the Assembly, succeeds in calming him, for which he will later receive the Cross of Valour.
Denis Lortie
1984
The Soviet Union announces a boycott upon the Summer Olympics at Los Angeles, later joined by 14 other countries.
Soviet Union
1984
The Thames Barrier is officially opened, preventing the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded except under extreme circumstances.
Thames Barrier
1980
The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox.
World Health Organization
1978
The first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler.
Mount Everest
1976
The rollercoaster The New Revolution, the first steel coaster with a vertical loop, opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
The Great American Revolution
1973
A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota ends with the surrender of the militants.
Wounded Knee Occupation
1972
Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his order to place naval mines in major North Vietnamese ports in order to stem the flow of weapons and other goods to that nation.
Vietnam War
1970
The Beatles release their 12th and final studio album Let It Be.
The Beatles
1967
The Philippine province of Davao is split into three: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, and Davao Oriental.
Davao (province)
1963
South Vietnamese soldiers under the Roman Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem open fire on Buddhists defying a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, killing nine and sparking the Buddhist crisis.
Huế Phật Đản shootings
1957
South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem begins a state visit to the United States, his regime's main sponsor.
Ngo Dinh Diem
1950
The Tollund Man is discovered in a peat bog near Silkeborg, Denmark.
Tollund Man
1946
Estonian schoolgirls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial which preceded the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn.
Aili Jõgi
1945
World War II: The German Instrument of Surrender signed at Berlin-Karlshorst comes into effect. This is commemorated as Victory in Europe Day.
German Instrument of Surrender
1945
End of the Prague uprising, celebrated now as a national holiday in the Czech Republic.
Prague uprising
1945
Hundreds of Algerian civilians are killed by French Army soldiers in the Sétif massacre.
Sétif and Guelma massacre
1945
The Halifax riot starts when thousands of civilians and servicemen rampage through Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Halifax riot
1942
World War II: The German 11th Army begins Operation Trappenjagd (Bustard Hunt) and destroys the bridgehead of the three Soviet armies defending the Kerch Peninsula.
11th Army (Wehrmacht)
1942
World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end with Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attacking and sinking the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington.
Battle of the Coral Sea
1942
World War II: Gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebel in the Cocos Islands Mutiny. Their mutiny is crushed and three of them are executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
1941
World War II: The German Luftwaffe launches a bombing raid on Nottingham and Derby.
World War II
1933
Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast of self-purification and launched a one-year campaign to help the Harijan movement.
Mahatma Gandhi
1927
Attempting to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, French war heroes Charles Nungesser and François Coli disappear after taking off aboard The White Bird biplane.
Transatlantic flight
1924
The Klaipėda Convention is signed formally incorporating Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory) into Lithuania. It would come back to Germany in 1939.
Klaipėda Convention
1921
The creation of the Communist Party of Romania.
Romanian Communist Party
1919
Edward George Honey proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate the Armistice of 11 November 1918 which ended World War I.
Edward George Honey
1902
In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast.
Mount Pelée
1800s
1898
The first games of the Italian football league system are played.
Italian football league system
1886
Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine.
John Stith Pemberton
1877
At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens.
Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
1846
Mexican–American War: American forces led by Zachary Taylor defeat a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande in the first major battle of the war.
Mexican–American War
1842
A train derails and catches fire in Paris, killing between 52 and 200 people.
Versailles rail accident
1821
Greek War of Independence: The Greeks defeat the Turks at the Battle of Gravia Inn.
Greek War of Independence
Before 1800
1794
Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the Ferme générale, is tried, convicted and guillotined in one day in Paris.
Reign of Terror
1788
King Louis XVI of France attempts to impose the reforms of Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne by abolishing the parlements.
Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne
1721
In the Papal States, Cardinal Michelangelo dei Conti is elected Pope, and takes the name Innocent XIII.
Papal States
1639
William Coddington founds Newport, Rhode Island.
William Coddington
1608
A newly nationalized silver mine in Scotland at Hilderston, West Lothian is re-opened by Bevis Bulmer.
Nationalization
1541
Hernando de Soto stops near present-day Walls, Mississippi, and sees the Mississippi River (then known by the Spanish as Río de Espíritu Santo, the name given to it by Alonso Álvarez de Pineda in 1519).
Hernando de Soto
1516
A group of imperial guards, led by Trịnh Duy Sản, murder Emperor Lê Tương Dực and flee, leaving the capital Thăng Long undefended.
Trần Cao rebellion
1429
The Hundred Years War: Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orléans, turning the tide of the war
Joan of Arc
1373
Julian of Norwich, a Christian mystic and anchoress, experiences the deathbed visions described in her Revelations of Divine Love.
Julian of Norwich
1360
The Hundred Years War: the Treaty of Brétigny is drafted between King Edward III of England and King John II of France (the Good).
Hundred Years' War
589
Reccared I opens the Third Council of Toledo, marking the entry of Visigothic Spain into the Catholic Church.
Reccared I
413
Emperor Honorius signs an edict providing tax relief for the Italian provinces Tuscia, Campania, Picenum, Samnium, Apulia, Lucania and Calabria, which were plundered by the Visigoths.
Honorius
-453
Spring and Autumn period: The house of Zhao defeats the house of Zhi, ending the Battle of Jinyang, a military conflict between the elite families of the State of Jin.
Spring and Autumn period