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8th May: Find Out What Happened On This Day In History

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8th May is the 128th day of the year (129th in leap years). 237 days remain until the end of the year. Today also marks World Red Cross and International Red Crescent Day. Find out some of the important events that occurred on this day in history.

 

Historical events

535 — John II’s reign as Catholic Pope ends.

1360 — Treaty of Brétigny signed by English and French, ending the first phase of the Hundred Years’ War.

1521 — Parliament of Worms installs edict against Martin Luther. His 95 theses publication began the Protestant Reformation in Europe.

1541 — Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River.

1784 — Only known deaths by hailstones in the US (Winnsborough, South Carolina).

1840 — Alexander Wolcott patents the Photographic Process.

1842 — Versailles to Paris train catches fire; 50 die.

1847 — Scot Robert Thompson patents rubber tyre.

1879 — George Selden applies for the first automobile patent.

1858 — Abolitionist John Brown holds an antislavery convention.

1878 — Inventor David Edward Hughes’ paper on the idea for a microphone is read before the Royal Society of London by Thomas Henry Huxley.

1879 — George Selden files for the first patent for a gasoline-driven automobile.

1886 — Pharmacist Dr John Styth Pemberton invented what we would later know as “Coca-Cola.” Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta sells the first bottle. It contained cocaine.

1899 — Ernest Rutherford publishes his discovery of two different kinds of radiation (Alpha and Beta Particles).

 

8th May in the 20th Century

1909 — Albert Raines runs world record marathon (2:46:04.6).

1909 — Frederick Barrett runs world record marathon (2:42:31).

1912 — Film and television production and distribution studio Paramount Pictures is founded.

1919 — The first transatlantic flight take-off by a navy seaplane.

1921 — Sweden abolished capital punishment.

1929 — Soviet government contract Architect of Detroit Albert Kahn Associates architectural firm to design the USSR’s first tractor plant.

1947 — Polish resistance fighter Witold Pilecki, who had volunteered to be imprisoned in Auschwitz to gain information about the Holocaust, is arrested by Polish communist police.

1949 — West German constitution approved.

1958 — “Dracula” film starring actor Christopher Lee as the eponymous vampire, directed by Terence Fisher is the first Hammar Horror film released.

1962 — The first Atlas Centaur Launch.

1962 — London trolley buses (electrically powered buses using overhead supply) go out of service.

1980 — World Health Organisation announces eradication of smallpox.

1985 — “New Coke” released to the public on the 99th anniversary of Coca-Cola.

1988 — Heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson crashes his $183,000 Bently on Varick St in New York City.

1996 — South Africa’s Constitutional Assembly adopts a permanent post-apartheid constitution.

1997 — Larry King received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

 

8th May in the 21st Century

2016 — Sadiq Khan (L) elected Mayor of London. He is the first Muslim mayor of a major Western city.

2018 — Ebola outbreak declared in north-west Democratic Republic of Congo with 2 confirmed cases and 17 deaths.

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