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February 8: Today in History – Historical Events
Early Centuries – February 8 Historic Events – Before the 1700s
1. 8th Feb 1526: There was a heavy storm along the Dutch coast on this day. Many lost their lives in the storm.
2. 8th Feb 1575: University of Leiden was founded on this day. Its motto was “Presidium Libertatis”.
3. 8th Feb 1600: The Vatican on this day convicted scholar Giordano Bruno to death.
4. 8th Feb 1622: King James I on this day disbanded the English Parliament.
5. 8th Feb 1672: Physicist and Mathematician Isaac Newton on this day presented the 1st optics paper before the Royal Society in London.
6. 8th Feb 1690: French and Indian troops set the Schenectady settlement in New York on fire.
7. 8th Feb 1690: Lord Halifax on this day resigned as Lord Privy Seal.
18th Century – What Happened on February 8 – The 1700s
8. 8th Feb 1726: Supreme Privy Council was on this day established in Russia.
9. 8th Feb 1743: Comet C/1743 C1 comes within 0.0390 Aus of the earth’s orbit.
10. 8th Feb 1750: A minor earthquake strikes London on this day.
19th Century – February 8 This Day That Year – The 1800s
11. 8th Feb 1802: Banjo clock was patented by Simon Willard on this day.
12. 8th Feb 1807: The first battle between Napoleon and the Russian Empire, the Battle of Eylau ends on this day inconclusively.
13. 8th Feb 1809: Austria’s Franz I declared war on France on this day.
14. 8th Feb 1837: The Senate chooses Richard Johnson as the first VP.
15. 8th Feb 1849: It was on this day that the New Roman Republic was established.
16. 8th Feb 1861: On this day in Montgomery, Alabama, the Confederate States of America was organized.
17. 8th Feb 1865: Martin Robinson Delany was the first black to be appointed as a major in the US Army during the Civil War.
18. 8th Feb 1879: A proposal for the adoption of the Universal Standard Time was made by Standford Fleming at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute.
19. 8th Feb 1883: Experiments for the invention of the fountain pen were started by Louis Waterman on this day.
20. 8th Feb 1887: Aurora Ski Club of Red Wing, Minnesota became the 1st US Ski Club on this day.
21. 8th Feb 1887: Indians living apart from the tribe were granted citizenship under the Dawes Act.
22. 8th Feb 1887: The President of America was authorized to survey tribal land and divide it into individual allotments by the Dawes Act.
23. 8th Feb 1889: The Dutch coast was ravaged by floods.
24. 8th Feb 1894: Disenfranchising of blacks was made easier by repealing the Enforcement Act.
25. 8th Feb 1898: The first envelope folding and gumming machine was patented by John Ames Sherman on this day.
20th Century – Important Events On This Day February 8th – The 1900s
26. 8th Feb 1905: Tahiti and adjacent islands were hit by a cyclone killing around ten thousand people.
27. 8th Feb 1906: There was confusion created by the sudden attack of Japanese torpedo boats on Russian ships near the naval base at Port Arthur, Manchuria, without any warning. The confusion was caused because; there was no declaration of war.
28. 8th Feb 1909: France and Germany on this day sign a treaty about Morocco.
29. 8th Feb 1910: William D Boyce on this day incorporated the Boy Scouts of America.
30. 8th Feb 1911: United States on this day helped to overthrow the President of Honduras, Miguel Devila.
31. 8th Feb 1912: The first eastbound transcontinental flight landed on this day in Jacksonville, Florida.
32. 8th Feb 1914: General Zamon on this day became the President of Haiti.
33. 8th Feb 1916: “Admiral Charner” a French cruiser was torpedoed on this day off the coast of Syria killing 374 people.
34. 8th Feb 1918: “Stars & Stripes”, a weekly newspaper of the Armed Forces was first published on this day.
35. 8th Feb 1920: Swiss men on this day voted against women’s Suffrage.
36. 8th Feb 1922: President Warren G. Harding had a radio installed in the white house.
37. 8th Feb 1923: A coal mine explosion in Dawson, New Mexico occurred on this day killing 120 people.
38. 8th Feb 1924: Lethal gas was used for the first time in the United States for the execution of convicted murderer Gee Jon in Nevada State Prison on this day.
39. 8th Feb 1924: President General John Joseph Carty’s speech in Chicago was broadcast coast-to-coast by radio hook-up.
40. 8th Feb 1926: German Reichstag on this day decided to apply for membership in the League of Nations.
41. 8th Feb 1927: The treaty between Belgium and Switzerland was signed on this day.
42. 8th Feb 1928: The first transatlantic TV image was on this day received at Hartsdale, New York.
43. 8th Feb 1928: Colour TV was demonstrated by Scottish inventor Joh Logie Baird on this day.
44. 8th Feb 1931: Fire caused by a gas explosion in Fushun-coal mine in Manchuria kills at least 3,000 people.
45. 8th Feb 1933: This day marks the first flight of the metal Boeing 247.
46. 8th Feb 1934: The Export-Import Bank was organized on this day in Washington D.C.
47. 8th Feb 1934: A new French government was formed on this day under Gaston Doumergue.
48. 8th Feb 1936: Jawaharlal Nehru on this day succeeded Mahatma Gandhi as Chairman of the Indian National Congress Party.
49. 8th Feb 1937: Members of the Congress who were opposed to FDR’s current judicial reform program, pushed for a separate bill to be voted upon on this day.
50. 8th Feb 1940: Nazis on this day established the first large ghetto Lodz in Poland.
51. 8th Feb 1942: Armored Barges of Japan on this day crossed the Strait of Johor to attack Singapore during World War II.
52. 8th Feb 1943: After a long and bloody battle the Japanese troops evacuate Guadalcanal Island and leave it for US occupation.
53. 8th Feb 1944: German Submarine U-762 was sunk off Ireland on this day.
54. 8th Feb 1945: Allied forces launch an air strike on Goch/Kleef/Klakar/Reichswald on this day.
55. 8th Feb 1946: Opposition parties were on this day forbidden in Portugal by its Premier Salazar.
56. 8th Feb 1948: The 8th Winter Olympic Games came to a close on this day at St. Moritz in Switzerland.
57. 8th Feb 1949: Hungarian Cardinal Mindszenty was on this day sentenced to life in prison.
58. 8th Feb 1950: As of this date it is reported that undercover Russian activity in the US was at its all-time high.
59. 8th Feb 1951: After two days of a losing streak stock prices in the US rose sharply ranging between a few cents to two dollars per share.
60. 8th Feb 1952: Queen Elizabeth II was on this day formally proclaimed as the Queen of England, Scotland, Canada, Northern Ireland, Australia, New Zealand etc.
61. 8th Feb 1955: Malenkov resigned as Prime Minister of USSR. Bulganin replaced him.
62. 8th Feb 1955: The government of Sind on this day abolished the Jahirdari system in the province. One million acres of land acquired thus was to be allotted to the landless peasants.
63. 8th Feb 1956: Eight people were killed in a mine disaster in Quaregnon in Belgium on this day.
64. 8th Feb 1957: San Francisco’s public library on this day initiated its bookmobile in front of City Hall.
65. 8th Feb 1958: Garfield Todd on this day was succeeded by Edger Whitehead as Premier of Rhodesia.
66. 8th Feb 1958: French planes on this day bomber Sakiet Tunisia. 75 people died in the bombing.
67. 8th Feb 1960: Congress opens hearing about payola on this day.
68. 8th Feb 1960: An Order-in-Council was issued by Queen Elizabeth of the U.K. saying that she and her family would be known as the House of Winsor and their descendants will take the name “Mountbatten-Windsor”
69. 8th Feb 1962: U.S. performs nuclear test on this day at their Nevada test site
70. 8th Feb 1962: In a demonstration in Paris against independence for the French colony Algeria eight people were killed.
71. 8th Feb 1963: On this day the U.S. performed a nuclear test at their Nevada test site.
72. 8th Feb 1965: A DC-7B crashes into the Atlantic off Jones Beach New Jersey killing 84 people.
73. 8th Feb 1967: This day marks the closing down of the Pirate Radio UKGM in England.
74. 8th Feb 1967: A nuclear test was conducted by the US on this day at its Nevada test site.
75. 8th Feb 1969: A meteor weighing over 1 ton fell on this day in Chihuahua Mexico.
76. 8th Feb 1971: Invasion by South Vietnamese troops on Laos.
77. 8th Feb 1971: Stock market index Nasdaq debuted on this day.
78. 8th Feb 1973: Senate on this day named 7 members who would investigate the Watergate scandal.
79. 8th Feb 1974: Astronauts of Skylab 4 laded on this day after 85 days in space.
80. 8th Feb 1977: An earthquake of magnitude 5 strikes San Francisco the strongest since 1966.
81. 8th Feb 1978: Crown prince of Kuwait Sad Abdalla al-Salim Al Sabah becomes Prime Minister of Kuwait.
82. 8th Feb 1978: The proceedings of the US Senate were broadcast for the first time on this day.
83. 8th Feb 1979: U.S. on this day performed a nuclear test at its Nevada test site.
84. 8th Feb 1983: A new transatlantic sailboat record of 46 days from East to West was set by Eric Peters.
85. 8th Feb 1983: After an inquiry found that Ariel Sharon was indirectly responsible for killing hundreds of people in 1982, he resigned from the government of Israel.
86. 8th Feb 1984: The 14th Winter Olympic Games open at Sarajevo in Yugoslavia on this day.
87. 8th Feb 1985: The opposition leader Kim Dae Jung returned to South Korea on this day.
88. 8th Feb 1989: 145 people died when a Boeing 707 crashed into Santa Maria Mountain on this day.
89. 8th Feb 1994: Indian cricketer Kapil Dev sets world record for test cricket with 432 wickets.
90. 8th Feb 1999: The Senate listens to closing arguments in President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial.
21st Century – February 8 This Day In History – The 2000s
91. 8th Feb 2002: This day marks the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah.
92. 8th Feb 2005: In their attempt to end four years of violence in the Middle East Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon declared truce on this day.
93. 8th Feb 2008: On this day the Supreme Court of Nebraska ruled that using of electric chair for execution in the state is a violation of human dignity and therefore unconstitutional.
94. 8th Feb 2009: Swiss voters are going to the polls on this day to decide whether to continue E.U. citizen’s automatic right to work in Switzerland and also on a more controversial point of allowing free movement to the new E.U. members.
95. 8th Feb 2011: Three Senators and the Amtrak rail company proposed on this day building two new tunnels to be built under the Hudson River to connect New York and New Jersey.
96. 8th Feb 2012: Prince Henry has qualified to become an Apache helicopter pilot after completing training in the U.K. and the U.S.A.
97. 8th Feb 2013: A bombing in a market in Kalaya in Pakistan killed 16 people. Twenty-seven were injured.
98. 8th Feb 2013: A former Canadian Naval intelligence officer Jeffery Delisle, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to selling Nato information to Russia. A fine was also imposed on him.
99. 8th Feb 2014: McDonald’s on this day opened its first restaurant in the city of Ho Chi Minh in the communist country of Vietnam.
100. 8th Feb 2015: Ivory Costa on this day won the 2015 Africa Cup of the National Football Championship.
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