February 8

2024 Calendar

February 8 is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 326 days remaining until the end of the year (327 in leap years).

Events

Up to 1900

421 - Constantius III becomes co-Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
1238 - Mongols burn the Russian city of Vladimir.
1347 - End of the Byzantine Empire's civil war of 1341 to 1347.
1575 - The University of Leiden in the Netherlands is founded.
1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots is executed.
1601 - Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex fails in an attempt to take over England from Elizabeth I.
1676 - Tsar Alexis of Russia dies. His son, Feodor III of Russia, becomes Tsar.
1725 – Tsar Peter I of Russia dies.
1807 - Napoleonic Wars: In the Battle of Eylau in present-day Poland, Napoleon Bonaparte's French troops defeat the Russians under General Levin August, Count of Bennigsen.
1817 - Juan Gregorio de las Heras crosses the Andes with an army to join Jose de San Martin in liberating Chile from Spain.
1837 - The United States Senate chooses Richard Mentor Johnson to become Vice President of the United States.
1853 - The Oregon Territory is split up, as the northern part becomes the Washington Territory. Oregon becomes a US State in 1859, with Washington doing the same in 1889.
1855 - The Devil's Footprints mysteriously appear in Devon.
1865 - Delaware votes to continue with the practice of slavery, though it bans it in 1901.
1879 - Sandford Fleming proposes the idea of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institution.
1879 - England's national cricket team is attacked in a riot in Sydney, Australia.
1885 - The first Japanese immigrants to be allowed in by the then-Hawaiian government, arrive in Hawaii.
1887 - The Henry L. Dawes Act allows the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land.

1901 – 1950

1904 - A surprise Japanese torpedo attack at Port Arthur, China, starts the Russo-Japanese War.
1910 - The Boy Scouts of America is founded by William D. Boyce.
1915 - D. W. Griffith's racist silent movie Birth of a Nation is first screened in Los Angeles, California.
1922 - Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio in the White House.
1924 - The first state execution by gas chamber takes place in Nevada.
1937 - The Massacre of Malaga during the Spanish Civil War begins. Over the next few days, an estimated 10,000 people are killed.
1942 - World War II: Japan invades Singapore.
1945 - World War II: The United Kingdom and Canada start Operation Veritable to occupy the west bank of the Rhine.
1946 - The first portion of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible is published.
1948 - Official creation of the Korean People's Army in North Korea.
1950 - The Stasi, East Germany's secret police, is founded.

1951 – 2000

1952 – Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Queen after the death of her father, King George VI of the United Kingdom, two days earlier.
1960 - Queen Elizabeth II issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants would carry the name Mountbatten-Windsor.
1960 - The first eight brass star plaques are installed at the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1962 - Charonne massacre: Nine Trade unionists are killed by French police, which had been allowed by the-then chief of Paris police, Maurice Papon.
1963 - Travel, financial and commercial transactions by US citizens in Cuba are banned by the John F. Kennedy administration.
1963 - The first full-color television programme is broadcast in Mexico City.
1963 - Iraq's Prime Minister, Brigadier-General Abdul-Karim Qassem is overthrown by the Ba'ath Party.
1965 - Eastern Airlines Flight 663 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after take-off from New York John F. Kennedy International Airport, after trying to avoid a mid-air collision. All on board are killed.
1968 - An attack on African American students from South Carolina State University, protesting in Orangeburg, South Carolina, kills 3 or 4.
1969 - The so-called Allende meteorite lands in Chihuahua State, Mexico.
1971 - South Vietnamese ground forces enter Laos.
1971 – The NASDAQ stock market index opens.
1974 - After 84 days in space, the crew of Skylab 4 returns to Earth.
1974 - A military coup occurs in Upper Volta, present-day Burkina Faso.
1978 - United States Senate proceedings are broadcast on radio for the first time.
1979 - Denis Sassou-Nguesso is elected President of the Republic of the Congo.
1981 - 21 football fans are trampled to death in Neo Faliro, Greece, after a match between Olympiakos and AEK Athens.
1983 - After a record-breaking drought, the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia is affected by a dust storm, and a red dust cloud hangs over the city.
1984 - The 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo begin.
1986 - The Hinton train collision in southern Alberta, Canada, kills 23 people.
1989 - An Independent Air Boeing 707 crashes into Pico Alto Mountain on Santa Maria island, Azores.
1992 - The 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, begin.
1993 – A plane crash in Tehran kills 115 people.
1996 - The massive internet collaboration "24 Hours in Cyberspace" takes place.

From 2001

2002 - The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, begin.
2010 - A freak storm in the Hindu Kush, Afghanistan, causes a series of at least 36 avalanches, killing at least 172 people, and trapping many travelers in the region.
2013 - A strong winter storm affects the northeastern United States.