May 8 is the 128th day of the year (129th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 237 days remain until the end of the year.
Contents
Events
Pre-1600
453 BC – 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.
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.
589 – Reccared I opens the Third Council of Toledo, marking the entry of Visigothic Spain into the Catholic Church.
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).
1373 – Julian of Norwich, a Christian mystic and anchoress, experiences the deathbed visions described in her Revelations of Divine Love.
1429 – The Hundred Years War: Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orléans, turning the tide of the war
1516 – A group of imperial guards, led by Trịnh Duy Sản, murder Emperor Lê Tương Dực and flee, leaving the capital Thăng Long undefended.
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).
1601–1900
1608 – A newly nationalized silver mine in Scotland at Hilderston, West Lothian is re-opened by Bevis Bulmer.
1639 – William Coddington founds Newport, Rhode Island.
1721 – In the Papal States, Cardinal Michelangelo dei Conti is elected Pope, and takes the name Innocent XIII.
1788 – King Louis XVI of France attempts to impose the reforms of Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne by abolishing the parlements.
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.
1821 – Greek War of Independence: The Greeks defeat the Turks at the Battle of Gravia Inn.
1842 – A train derails and catches fire in Paris, killing between 52 and 200 people.
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.
1877 – At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens.
1886 – Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine.
1898 – The first games of the Italian football league system are played.
1901–present
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.
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.
1921 – The creation of the Communist Party of Romania.
1924 – The Klaipėda Convention is signed formally incorporating Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory) into Lithuania. It would come back to Germany in 1939.
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.
1933 – Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast of self-purification and launched a one-year campaign to help the Harijan movement.
1941 – World War II: The German Luftwaffe launches a bombing raid on Nottingham and Derby.
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.
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.
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.
Births
Pre-1600
1326 – Joan I, Countess of Auvergne (died 1360)
1427 – John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester, Lord High Treasurer (died 1470)
1460 – Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (died 1536)
1492 – Andrea Alciato, Italian jurist and writer (died 1550)
1508 – Charles Wriothesley, English Officer of Arms (died 1562)
1521 – Peter Canisius, Dutch-Swiss priest and saint (died 1597)
1551 – Thomas Drury, English government informer and swindler (died 1603)
1587 – Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy (died 1637)
1601–1900
1622 – Claes Rålamb, Swedish politician (died 1698)
1628 – Angelo Italia, Sicilian Jesuit and architect (died 1700)
Victory in Europe Day, and its related observances (Europe):
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1945 – World War II: The German Instrument of Surrender signed at Berlin-Karlshorst comes into effect. This is commemorated as Victory in Europe Day.
1945 – End of the Prague uprising, celebrated now as a national holiday in the Czech Republic.
1945 – Hundreds of Algerian civilians are killed by French Army soldiers in the Sétif massacre.
1945 – The Halifax riot starts when thousands of civilians and servicemen rampage through Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1946 – Estonian schoolgirls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial which preceded the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn.
1950 – The Tollund Man is discovered in a peat bog near Silkeborg, Denmark.
1957 – South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem begins a state visit to the United States, his regime's main sponsor.
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.
1967 – The Philippine province of Davao is split into three: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, and Davao Oriental.
1970 – The Beatles release their 12th and final studio album Let It Be.
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.
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.
1976 – The rollercoaster The New Revolution, the first steel coaster with a vertical loop, opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
1978 – The first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler.
1980 – The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox.
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.
1984 – The Soviet Union announces a boycott upon the Summer Olympics at Los Angeles, later joined by 14 other countries.
1984 – The Thames Barrier is officially opened, preventing the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded except under extreme circumstances.
1987 – The SAS kills eight Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers and a civilian during an ambush in Loughgall, Northern Ireland.
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".
1997 – China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 crashes on approach into Bao'an International Airport, killing 35 people.
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.
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.
2025 – The 2025 papal conclave elects Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, taking the name Leo XIV as the 267th Pope of the Catholic Church.
1786 – John Vianney, French priest and saint (died 1859)
1815 – Edward Tompkins, American lawyer and politician (died 1872)
1818 – Samuel Leonard Tilley, Canadian pharmacist and politician, 3rd Premier of New Brunswick (died 1896)
1821 – William Henry Vanderbilt, American businessman and philanthropist (died 1885)
1824 – William Walker, American physician, lawyer, journalist and mercenary (died 1860)
1825 – George Bruce Malleson, English-Indian colonel and author (died 1898)
1828 – Henry Dunant, Swiss businessman and activist, co-founded the Red Cross, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1910)
1828 – Charbel Makhluf, Lebanese monk and saint (died 1898)
1829 – Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American pianist and composer (died 1869)
1835 – Bertalan Székely, Hungarian painter and academic (died 1910)
1839 – Adolphe-Basile Routhier, Canadian judge, author, and songwriter (died 1920)
1842 – Emil Christian Hansen, Danish physiologist and mycologist (died 1909)
1846 – Oscar Hammerstein I, American businessman and composer (died 1919)
1850 – Ross Barnes, American baseball player and manager (died 1915)
1853 – Dan Brouthers, American baseball player and manager (died 1932)
1856 – Pedro Lascuráin, Mexican politician (died 1952)
1858 – Heinrich Berté, Slovak-Austrian composer (died 1924)
1858 – J. Meade Falkner, English author and poet (died 1932)
1859 – Johan Jensen, Danish mathematician and engineer (died 1925)
1867 – Margarete Böhme, German novelist (died 1939)
1876 – Ludvig Karsten, Norwegian painter (died 1926)
1879 – Wesley Coe, American shot putter, discus thrower, and tug of war competitor (died 1926)
1884 – Harry S. Truman, American colonel and politician, 33rd President of the United States (died 1972)
1885 – Thomas B. Costain, Canadian journalist and author (died 1965)
1892 – Adriaan Pelt, Dutch journalist and diplomat (died 1981)
1893 – Francis Ouimet, American golfer (died 1967)
1893 – Edd Roush, American baseball player and coach (died 1988)
1893 – Teddy Wakelam, English rugby player and sportscaster (died 1963)
1895 – James H. Kindelberger, American businessman (died 1962)
1895 – Fulton J. Sheen, American archbishop (died 1979)
1895 – Edmund Wilson, American critic, essayist, and editor (died 1972)