08 May History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 1450    -    Jack Cade's Rebellion–Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI.
  • 1541    -    Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River which he calls Rio de Espiritu Santo.
  • 1559    -    An act of supremacy defines Queen Elizabeth I as the supreme governor of the church of England.
  • 1794    -    The United States Post Office is established.
  • 1846    -    The first major battle of the Mexican War is fought at Palo Alto, Texas.
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  • 1862    -    General 'Stonewall' Jackson repulses the Federals at the Battle of McDowell, in the Shenendoah Valley.
  • 1864    -    Union troops arrive at Spotsylvania Court House to find the Confederates waiting for them.
  • 1886    -    Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton invents Coca Cola.
  • 1895    -    China cedes Taiwan to Japan under Treaty of Shimonoseki.
  • 1904    -    U.S. Marines land in Tangier, North Africa, to protect the Belgian legation.
  • 1919    -    The first transatlantic flight by a navy seaplane takes-off.
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  • 1933    -    Hahatma Gandhi begins a hunger strike to protest British oppression in India.
  • 1940    -    German commandos in Dutch uniforms cross the Dutch border to hold bridges for the advancing German army.
  • 1942    -    The Battle of the Coral Sea between the Japanese Navy and the U.S. Navy ends.
  • 1945    -    The final surrender of German forces is celebrated as VE (Victory Europe) day.
  • 1952    -    Allied fighter-bombers stage the largest raid of the war on North Korea.
  • 1958    -    President Eisenhower orders the National Guard out of Little Rock as Ernest Green becomes the first black to graduate from an Arkansas public school.
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  • 1967    -    Boxer Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in U.S. Army.
  • 1984    -    The Soviet Union announces it will not participate in Summer Olympics planned for Los Angeles.
  • 1995    -    Jacques Chirac is elected president of France.

  • 08 May Birthdays

  • 1668    -    Alain Rene Lesage, French writer (The Adventures of Gil Blas, Turcaret).
  • 1753    -    Miguel Hidalgo, Mexican nationalist.
  • 1828    -    Jean Henri Dunant, Swiss philanthropist, founder of the Red Cross and YMCA, first recipient (jointly) of the Nobel Peace Prize.
  • 1829    -    Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American pianist.
  • 1884    -    Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States (1945-1953).
  • 1895    -    Edmund Wilson, American critic and essayist.
  • 1906    -    Roberto Rossellini, Italian film director.
  • 1910    -    Mary Lou Williams, jazz pianist and composer.
  • 1920    -    Sloan Wilson, American author (The man in the Gray Flannel Suit, A Summer Place).
  • 1928    -    Theodore Sorenson, advisor to John F. Kennedy.
  • 1930    -    Gary Snyder, beat poet.
  • 1937    -    Thomas Pynchon, novelist (Gravity's Rainbow).
  • 1940    -    Peter Benchley, novelist (Jaws, The Deep).
  • 1952    -    Beth Henley, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (Crimes of the Heart).