Browse events, births, deaths and holidays on May 8 throughout history.
A conclave was held on 7 and 8 May 2025 to elect a new pope to succeed Francis, who had died on 21 April 2025. Of the 135 eligible cardinal electors, all but two attended. On the …
The 2025 papal conclave elects Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, taking the name Leo XIV as the 267th Pope of the Catholi
On 8 May 2021, a car bombing followed by two more improvised explosive device (IED) blasts occurred in front of Sayed al-Shuhada High School in Dashte Barchi, a predominantly Shia…
A car bomb explodes in front of a school in Kabul, capital city of Afghanistan killing at least 55 people and wounding o
Phage therapy, viral phage therapy, or phagotherapy is the therapeutic use of bacteriophages for the treatment of pathogenic bacterial infections. This therapeutic approach emerge…
British 17-year-old Isabelle Holdaway is reported to be the first patient ever to receive a genetically modified phage t
China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport to Shenzhen Huangtian Airport. On 8 May 1997, the Boein…
China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 crashes on approach into Bao'an International Airport, killing 35 people
Illinois Bell Telephone Company, LLC is the Bell Operating Company serving Illinois. It is owned by AT&T through AT&T Teleholdings, formerly Ameritech.
A fire at Illinois Bell's Hinsdale Central Office triggers an extended 1AESS network outage once considered to be the "w
The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling, and in 1950 it was reconstituted as a corps. Th…
The SAS kills eight Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers and a civilian during an ambush in Loughgall, Northern
Denis Lortie is a former Canadian Forces corporal. In 1984, he stormed into the Parliament Building in Quebec City and opened fire with several firearms, killing three government …
Corporal Denis Lortie enters the Quebec National Assembly and opens fire, killing three people and wounding 13
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. I…
The Soviet Union announces a boycott upon the Summer Olympics at Los Angeles, later joined by 14 other countries
The Thames Barrier is a retractable barrier system built to protect the floodplain of most of Greater London from exceptionally high tides and storm surges moving up from the Nort…
The Thames Barrier is officially opened, preventing the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded except u
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is hea…
The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox
Mount Everest is the highest mountain on Earth above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at its summit. …
The first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler
The Great American Revolution(formerly known as Revolution, The New Revolution and La Revolución) is a steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, Califo…
The rollercoaster The New Revolution, the first steel coaster with a vertical loop, opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain
The Wounded Knee Occupation, also known as Second Wounded Knee, began on February 27, 1973, when approximately 200 Oglala Lakota and followers of the American Indian Movement (AIM…
A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservat
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Uni…
Vietnam War: U
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most i…
The Beatles release their 12th and final studio album Let It Be
Davao, officially the Province of Davao, was a province in the Philippines on the island of Mindanao. The old province is coterminous with the present-day Davao Region or Region X…
The Philippine province of Davao is split into three: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, and Davao Oriental
On 8 May 1963, nine unarmed Buddhist civilians were shot by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and security forces in Huế, South Vietnam. The army and police fired guns and launc…
South Vietnamese soldiers under the Roman Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem open fire on Buddhists defying a ban on the f
Ngô Đình Diệm was a South Vietnamese politician who was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955) and later the first president of South Vietnam from 1955 until…
South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem began a state visit to the United States, his regime's main sponsor
The Tollund Man is a naturally mummified corpse of a man who lived during the 5th century BC, during the period characterised in Scandinavia as the Pre-Roman Iron Age. He was foun…
The Tollund Man was discovered in a peat bog near Silkeborg, Denmark
Aili Jõgi was an Estonian schoolgirl who on the night of 8 May 1946, together with her school friend Ageeda Paavel, blew up a Soviet War reburial monument : the preceding monument…
Estonian schoolgirls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial which preceded the Bronze Soldier of Tallin