February 8 - Events

Events

• 421 – Constantius III becomes co-Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
• 1575 – Universiteit Leiden is founded, and given the motto Praesidium Libertatis.
• 1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.
• 1601 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, rebels against Queen Elizabeth I – the revolt is quickly crushed.
• 1622 – King James I of England disbands the English Parliament.
• 1692 – A doctor in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony suggests that two girls in the family of the village minister may be suffering from bewitchment, leading to the Salem witch trials.
• 1693 – The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is granted a charter by King William IIIand Queen Mary II.
• 1726 – The Supreme Privy Council is established in Russia.
• 1807 – Battle of Eylau – Napoleon defeats Russians under General Benigssen.
• 1817 – Las Heras crosses the Andes with an army to join San Martín and liberate Chile from Spain.
• 1837 – Richard Johnson becomes the first Vice President of the United States chosen by the United States Senate.
• 1855 – The Devil's Footprints mysteriously appear in southern Devon.
• 1856 – Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbei abolishes slavery in Wallachia.
• 1865 – In the United States, Delaware voters reject the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and vote to continue the practice of slavery. (Delaware finally ratifies the amendment on February 12, 1901.)
• 1867 – The Ausgleich results in the establishment of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary.
• 1879 – Sandford Fleming first proposes adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute.
• 1879 – The England cricket team led by Lord Harris is attacked during a riot during a match in Sydney.
• 1887 – The Dawes Act authorizes the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.
• 1900 – British troops are defeated by Boers at Ladysmith, South Africa.
• 1904 – Battle of Port Arthur: A surprise torpedo attack by the Japanese at Port Arthur, China starts the Russo-Japanese War.
• 1910 – The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce.
• 1915 – D.W. Griffith's controversial film The Birth of a Nation premieres in Los Angeles.
• 1918 – The Stars and Stripes newspaper is published for the first time.
• 1922 – President Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio in the White House.
• 1924 – Capital punishment: The first state execution in the United States by gas chamber takes place in Nevada.
• 1949 – Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary is sentenced for treason.
• 1952 – Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the UK.
• 1955 – The Government of Sindh abolished Jagirdari system in the province. One million acres (4000 km²) of land thus acquired is to be distributed among the landless peasants.
• 1960 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as theHouse of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name "Mountbatten-Windsor".
• 1962 – Charonne massacre. Nine trade unionists are killed by French police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Paris Prefecture of Police.
• 1963 – Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedyadministration.
• 1966 – The National Hockey League awards Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania a second NHL franchise, the Pittsburgh Penguins.
• 1968 – American civil rights movement: The Orangeburg massacre, an attack that left three or four dead in Orangeburg, South Carolina on black students from South Carolina State University who were protesting racial segregation at the town's only bowling alley.
• 1969 – Allende meteorite falls near Pueblito de Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico.
• 1971 – The NASDAQ stock market index opens for the first time.
• 1971 – South Vietnamese ground troops launches an incursion into Laos to try and cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail and stop communist infiltration.
• 1974 – After 84 days in space, the crew of the first American space station Skylab returns to Earth.
• 1974 – Military coup in Upper Volta.
• 1978 – Proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast on radio for the first time.
• 1979 – Denis Sassou-Nguesso becomes the President of the Republic of the Congo for the first time.
• 1983 – The Melbourne dust storm hits Australia's second largest city. The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, a 320 metres (1,050 ft) deep dust cloud envelops the city, turning day to night.
• 1989 – An Independent Air Boeing 707 crashes into Santa Maria mountain in Azores Islands off the coast of Portugal, killing 144.
• 1993 – General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigs two crashes intended to demonstrate that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the next day.
• 1996 – The U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act.
• 1996 – The massive Internet collaboration "24 Hours in Cyberspace" takes place.