08 May History
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).