May 8
1096 - Peter the Hermit and his army reached Hungary. They passed through without incident.
1450 - Jack Cade's Rebellion-Kentishmen revolted against King Henry VI.
1541 - Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River. He called it Rio de Espiritu Santo.
1794 - Antoine Lavoisier was executed by guillotine. He was the French chemist that discovered oxygen.
1794 - The United States Post Office was established.
1846 - The first major battle of the Mexican War was fought. The battle occurred in Palo Alto, TX. U.S. General Zachary Taylor beat back the Mexican forces.
1847 - The rubber tire was patented by Robert W. Thompson.
1879 - George Selden applied for the first automobile patent.
1886 - Pharmacist Dr. John Styth Pemberton invented what would later be called "Coca-Cola."
1914 - The U.S. Congress passed a Joint Resolution that designated the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.
1915 - H.P. Whitney's Regret became the first filly to win the Kentucky Derby.
1919 - The U.S. Navy's first transatlantic flight took off with three Curtiss NC flying boats.
1921 - Sweden abolished capital punishment.
1933 - Gandhi began a hunger strike to protest British oppression in India.
1939 - Clay Puett's electric starting gate was used for the first time.
1943 - The Germans suppressed a revolt by Polish Jews and destroyed the Warsaw Ghetto.
1945 - U.S. President Harry Truman announced that World War II had ended in Europe.
1954 - Parry O'Brien became the first to toss a shot put over 60 feet. O'Brien achieved a distance of 60 feet 5 1/4 inches.
1956 - Alfred E. Neuman appeared on the cover of "Mad Magazine" for the first time.
1958 - U.S. President Eisenhower ordered the National Guard out of Little Rock as Ernest Green became the first black to graduate from an Arkansas public school.
1959 - Mike and Marian Ilitch founded "Little Caesars Pizza Treat".
1960 - Diplomatic relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union resumed.
1961 - New Yorkers selected a new name for their new National League baseball franchise. They chose the Mets.
1970 - Construction workers broke up an anti-war protest on New York City's Wall Street.
1973 - In South Dakota, militant American Indians who had held the hamlet of Wounded Knee for 10 weeks surrendered.
1984 - The Soviet Union announced that they would not participate in the 1984 Summer Olympics Games in Los Angeles.
1984 - Joanie (Erin Moran) and Chachi (Scott Baio) got married on ABC-TV's "Happy Days."
1985 - "New Coke" was released to the public on the 99th anniversary of Coca-Cola.
1986 - Reporters were told that 84,000 people had been evacuated from areas near the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Soviet Ukraine.
1993 - The government of Bosnia-Herzegovina and rebel Bosnian Serbs signed an agreement for a nationwide cease-fire.
1996 - South Africa adopted a constitution that guaranteed equal rights for black and white people.
1997 - Larry King received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1998 - A pipe burst leaving a million residents without water in Malaysia's capital area. This added to four days of shortages that 2 million already faced.
1999 - The first female cadet graduated from The Citadel military college.
2003 - The U.S. Senate unanimously endorsed adding seven former communist nations to NATO. The countries were Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
2018 - U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear accord with Iran and restored harsh sanctions.
2020 - In the U.S., it was reported that the unemployment level had reachd 14.7%. It was the highest level seen since the Great Depression.
