What Happened This Day In History May 8

Today in History
May 8

1450		Jack Cade's Rebellion–Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI.
1541		Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River which he calls Rio de Espiritu Santo.
1559		An act of supremacy defines Queen Elizabeth I as the supreme governor of the church of England.
1794		The United States Post Office is established.
1846		The first major battle of the Mexican War is fought at Palo Alto, Texas.
1862		General 'Stonewall' Jackson repulses the Federals at the Battle of McDowell, in the Shenendoah Valley.
1864		Union troops arrive at Spotsylvania Court House to find the Confederates waiting for them.
1886		Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton invents Coca Cola.
1895		China cedes Taiwan to Japan under Treaty of Shimonoseki.
1904		U.S. Marines land in Tangier, North Africa, to protect the Belgian legation.
1919		The first transatlantic flight by a navy seaplane takes-off.
1933		Hahatma Gandhi begins a hunger strike to protest British oppression in India.
1940		German commandos in Dutch uniforms cross the Dutch border to hold bridges for the advancing German army.
1942		The Battle of the Coral Sea between the Japanese Navy and the U.S. Navy ends.
1945		The final surrender of German forces is celebrated as VE (Victory Europe) day.
1952		Allied fighter-bombers stage the largest raid of the war on North Korea.
1958		President Eisenhower orders the National Guard out of Little Rock as Ernest Green becomes the first black to graduate from an Arkansas public school.
1967		Boxer Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in U.S. Army.
1984		The Soviet Union announces it will not participate in Summer Olympics planned for Los Angeles.
1995		Jacques Chirac is elected president of France.
Born on May 8
1668		Alain Rene Lesage, French writer (The Adventures of Gil Blas, Turcaret).
1753		Miguel Hidalgo, Mexican nationalist.
1828		Jean Henri Dunant, Swiss philanthropist, founder of the Red Cross and YMCA, first recipient (jointly) of the Nobel Peace Prize.
1829		Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American pianist.
1884		Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States (1945-1953).
1895		Edmund Wilson, American critic and essayist.
1906		Roberto Rossellini, Italian film director.
1910		Mary Lou Williams, jazz pianist and composer.
1920		Sloan Wilson, American author (The man in the Gray Flannel Suit, A Summer Place).
1928		Theodore Sorenson, advisor to John F. Kennedy.
1930		Gary Snyder, beat poet.
1937		Thomas Pynchon, novelist (Gravity's Rainbow).
1940		Peter Benchley, novelist (Jaws, The Deep).
1952		Beth Henley, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (Crimes of the Heart).