On This Day — 8 November

2020

Myanmar holds the 2020 general election, re-electing a government led by the National League for Democracy, which is deposed by the Burmese military the following February during the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état.

2020 Myanmar general election

2017

The Louvre Abu Dhabi was inaugurated by the French president Emmanuel Macron and then-crown prince of Abu Dhabi Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Louvre Abu Dhabi

2016

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly announces the withdrawal of ₹500 and ₹1000 denomination banknotes.

2016 Indian banknote demonetisation

2016

Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States, defeating Hillary Clinton, the first woman ever to receive a major party's nomination.

Donald Trump

2013

Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, strikes the Visayas region of the Philippines; the storm left at least 6,340 people dead with over 1,000 still missing, and caused $2.86 billion (2013 USD; equivalent to $3.95 billion in 2025) in damage.

Typhoon Haiyan

2011

The potentially hazardous asteroid 2005 YU55 passes 0.85 lunar distances from Earth (about 324,600 kilometres or 201,700 miles), the closest known approach by an asteroid of its brightness since 2010 XC15 in 1976.

Potentially hazardous object

2006

Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Israeli Defense Force kill 19 Palestinian civilians in their homes during the shelling of Beit Hanoun.

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

2004

Iraq War: More than 10,000 U.S. troops and a small number of Iraqi army units participate in a siege on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

Iraq War

2002

Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441: The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves a resolution on Iraq, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences".

Iraq disarmament crisis

1999

Bruce Miller is killed at his junkyard near Flint, Michigan. His wife Sharee Miller, who convinced her online lover Jerry Cassaday to kill him (before later killing himself) was convicted of the crime, in what became the world's first Internet murder.

Sharee Miller

1997

Eritrea adopts the nakfa as its official currency.

Eritrea

1994

Republican Revolution: On the night of the 1994 United States midterm elections, Republicans make historic electoral gains by securing massive majorities in both houses of Congress (54 seats in the House and eight seats in the Senate, additionally), thus bringing to a close four decades of Democratic domination.

Republican Revolution

1988

U.S. Vice President George H. W. Bush is elected as the 41st president.

Vice President of the United States

1987

Remembrance Day bombing: A Provisional IRA bomb explodes in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland during a ceremony honouring those who had died in wars involving British forces. Twelve people are killed and sixty-three wounded.

Remembrance Day bombing

1983

TAAG Angola Airlines Flight 462 crashes after takeoff from Lubango Airport killing all 130 people on board. UNITA claims to have shot down the aircraft, though this is disputed.

TAAG Flight 462

1981

Aeroméxico Flight 110 crashes near Zihuatanejo, Mexico, killing all 18 people on board.

Aeroméxico Flight 110

1977

Manolis Andronikos, a Greek archaeologist and professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, discovers the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina.

Manolis Andronikos

1973

The right ear of John Paul Getty III is delivered to a newspaper outlet along with a ransom note, convincing his father to pay US$2.9 million.

John Paul Getty III

1972

American pay television network Home Box Office (HBO) launches.

HBO

1968

The Vienna Convention on Road Traffic is signed to facilitate international road traffic and to increase road safety by standardising the uniform traffic rules among the signatories.

Vienna Convention on Road Traffic

1966

Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction.

Massachusetts

1966

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law an antitrust exemption allowing the National Football League to merge with the upstart American Football League.

Lyndon B. Johnson

1965

The British Indian Ocean Territory is created, consisting of Chagos Archipelago, Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches islands.

British Indian Ocean Territory

1965

The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 is given Royal Assent, formally abolishing the death penalty in the United Kingdom for almost all crimes.

Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965

1965

The 173rd Airborne is ambushed by over 1,200 Viet Cong in Operation Hump during the Vietnam War, while the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment fight one of the first set-piece engagements of the war between Australian forces and the Viet Cong at the Battle of Gang Toi.

173rd Airborne Brigade

1965

American Airlines Flight 383 crashes in Constance, Kentucky, killing 58.

American Airlines Flight 383 (1965)

1963

Finnair's Aero Flight 217 crashes near Mariehamn Airport in Jomala, Åland, killing 22 people.

Finnair

1960

John F. Kennedy is elected as the 35th President of the United States, defeating incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, who would later be elected president in 1968 and 1972.

John F. Kennedy

1957

Pan Am Flight 7 disappears between San Francisco and Honolulu. Wreckage and bodies are discovered a week later.

Pan Am Flight 7

1957

Operation Grapple X, Round C1: The United Kingdom conducts its first successful hydrogen bomb test over Kiritimati in the Pacific.

Operation Grapple

1942

World War II: French Resistance coup in Algiers, in which 400 civilian French patriots neutralize Vichyist XIXth Army Corps after 15 hours of fighting, and arrest several Vichyist generals, allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers.

World War II

1940

Greco-Italian War: The Italian invasion of Greece fails as outnumbered Greek units repulse the Italians in the Battle of Elaia–Kalamas.

Greco-Italian War

1939

Venlo Incident: Two British agents of SIS are captured by the Germans.

Venlo incident

1939

In Munich, Adolf Hitler narrowly escapes the assassination attempt of Georg Elser while celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch.

Munich

1937

The Nazi exhibition Der ewige Jude ("The Eternal Jew") opens in Munich.

Nazism

1936

Spanish Civil War: Francoist troops fail in their effort to capture Madrid, but begin the three-year Siege of Madrid afterwards.

Spanish Civil War

1933

Great Depression: New Deal: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than four million unemployed.

Great Depression

1932

Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected as the 32nd President of the United States, defeating incumbent president Herbert Hoover.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

1923

Beer Hall Putsch: In Munich, Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government.

Beer Hall Putsch

1920

Rupert Bear, illustrated by Mary Tourtel makes his first appearance in print.

Rupert Bear

1919

Eichenfeld massacre: Members of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine murder 136 Mennonite colonists at Jaskyowo, initiating a series of massacres that resulted in the deaths of 827 Ukrainian Mennonites.

Eichenfeld massacre

1917

The first Council of People's Commissars is formed, including Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin.

Council of People's Commissars

1901

Gospel riots: Bloody clashes take place in Athens following the translation of the Gospels into demotic Greek.

Gospel riots

1895

While experimenting with electricity, Wilhelm Röntgen discovers the X-ray.

Wilhelm Röntgen

1892

The New Orleans general strike begins, uniting black and white American trade unionists in a successful four-day general strike action for the first time.

1892 New Orleans general strike

1892

The Carmaux-Bons Enfants bombing marks the start of Émile Henry's attacks into the Ère des attentats (1892–1894).

Carmaux-Bons Enfants bombing

1889

Montana is admitted as the 41st U.S. state.

Montana

1861

American Civil War: The "Trent Affair": The USS San Jacinto stops the British mail ship Trent and arrests two Confederate envoys, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the UK and US.

American Civil War

1837

Mary Lyon founds Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, which later becomes Mount Holyoke College.

Mary Lyon

1745

Charles Edward Stuart invades England with an army of approximately 5,000 that would later participate in the Battle of Culloden.

Charles Edward Stuart

1644

The Shunzhi Emperor, the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, is enthroned in Beijing after the collapse of the Ming dynasty as the first Qing emperor to rule over China.

Shunzhi Emperor

1620

The Battle of White Mountain takes place near Prague, ending in a decisive Catholic victory in only two hours.

Battle of White Mountain

1614

Japanese daimyō Dom Justo Takayama is exiled to the Philippines by shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu for being Christian.

Daimyo

1605

Robert Catesby, ringleader of the Gunpowder Plotters, is killed.

Robert Catesby

1602

The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford is opened to the public.

Bodleian Library

1576

Eighty Years' War: Pacification of Ghent: The States General of the Netherlands meet and unite to oppose Spanish occupation.

Eighty Years' War

1520

After being crowned king of Sweden, Christian II gave the order to execute nearly 100 people, mostly noblemen, despite promises of general amnesty.

Monarchy of Sweden

1519

Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with a great celebration.

Hernán Cortés

1291

The Republic of Venice enacts a law confining most of Venice's glassmaking industry to the "island of Murano".

Republic of Venice

1278

Trần Thánh Tông, the second emperor of the Trần dynasty, decides to pass the throne to his crown prince Trần Khâm and take up the post of Retired Emperor.

Trần Thánh Tông

960

Battle of Andrassos: Byzantines under Leo Phokas the Younger score a crushing victory over the Hamdanid Emir of Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla.

Battle of Andrassos