May 8Birthdays & History

On this day: May 8 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 453 BCSpring 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.Asia
2. 413Emperor 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.Europe
3. 589Reccared I opens the Third Council of Toledo, marking the entry of Visigothic Spain into the Catholic Church.Europe
4. 1360The Hundred Years War: the Treaty of Brétigny is drafted between King Edward III of England and King John II of France (the Good).Europe
5. 1373Julian of Norwich, a Christian mystic and anchoress, experiences the deathbed visions described in her Revelations of Divine Love.Europe
6. 1429The Hundred Years War: Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orléans, turning the tide of the warEurope
7. 1516A group of imperial guards, led by Trịnh Duy Sản, murder Emperor Lê Tương Dực and flee, leaving the capital Thăng Long undefended.Asia
8. 1541Hernando 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).North AmericaEurope
9. 1608A newly nationalized silver mine in Scotland at Hilderston, West Lothian is re-opened by Bevis Bulmer.Europe
10. 1639William Coddington founds Newport, Rhode Island.North America
11. 1721In the Papal States, Cardinal Michelangelo dei Conti is elected Pope, and takes the name Innocent XIII.Europe
12. 1788King Louis XVI of France attempts to impose the reforms of Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne by abolishing the parlements.Europe
13. 1794Branded 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.Europe
14. 1821Greek War of Independence: The Greeks defeat the Turks at the Battle of Gravia Inn.EuropeMiddle East
15. 1842A train derails and catches fire in Paris, killing between 52 and 200 people.Europe
16. 1846Mexican–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.Latin AmericaNorth America
17. 1877At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens.North AmericaEurope
18. 1886Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine.North America
19. 1898The first games of the Italian football league system are played.Europe
20. 1902In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast.Latin America
21. 1919Edward George Honey proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate the Armistice of 11 November 1918 which ended World War I.Europe
22. 1921The creation of the Communist Party of Romania.Europe
23. 1924The Klaipėda Convention is signed formally incorporating Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory) into Lithuania. It would come back to Germany in 1939.Europe
24. 1927Attempting 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.EuropeNorth America
25. 1933Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast of self-purification and launched a one-year campaign to help the Harijan movement.Asia
26. 1941World War II: The German Luftwaffe launches a bombing raid on Nottingham and Derby.Europe
27. 1942World 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.AsiaEurope
28. 1942World 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.AsiaNorth America
29. 1942World War II: The German 11th Army begins Operation Trappenjagd (Bustard Hunt) and destroys the bridgehead of the three Soviet armies defending the Kerch Peninsula.Europe
30. 1945The Halifax riot starts when thousands of civilians and servicemen rampage through Halifax, Nova Scotia.North America
31. 1945Hundreds of Algerian civilians are killed by French Army soldiers in the Sétif massacre.AfricaEurope
32. 1945End of the Prague uprising, celebrated now as a national holiday in the Czech Republic.Europe
33. 1945World War II: The German Instrument of Surrender signed at Berlin-Karlshorst comes into effect. This is commemorated as Victory in Europe Day.Europe
34. 1946Estonian schoolgirls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial which preceded the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn.Europe
35. 1950The Tollund Man is discovered in a peat bog near Silkeborg, Denmark.Europe
36. 1957South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem begins a state visit to the United States, his regime's main sponsor.AsiaNorth America
37. 1963South 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.AsiaEurope
38. 1967The Philippine province of Davao is split into three: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, and Davao Oriental.Asia
39. 1970The Beatles release their 12th and final studio album Let It Be.Europe
40. 1972Vietnam 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.AsiaNorth America
41. 1973A 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.North America
42. 1976The rollercoaster The New Revolution, the first steel coaster with a vertical loop, opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain.North America
43. 1978The first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler.Asia
44. 1980The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox.World
45. 1984Corporal 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.North America
46. 1984The Thames Barrier is officially opened, preventing the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded except under extreme circumstances.Europe
47. 1984The Soviet Union announces a boycott upon the Summer Olympics at Los Angeles, later joined by 14 other countries.EuropeNorth America
48. 1987The SAS kills eight Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers and a civilian during an ambush in Loughgall, Northern Ireland.Europe
49. 1988A 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".North America
50. 1997China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 crashes on approach into Bao'an International Airport, killing 35 people.Asia
51. 2019British 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.Europe
52. 2021A car bomb explodes in front of a school in Kabul, capital city of Afghanistan killing at least 55 people and wounding over 150.Asia
53. 2025The 2025 papal conclave elects Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, taking the name Leo XIV as the 267th Pope of the Catholic Church.Europe

Source: Wikipedia "May 8" / CC BY-SA 4.0