Did you know
In 1663, Portuguese Restoration War: Portuguese victory at the Battle of Ameixial ensures Portugal's independence from Spain. This featured entry focuses on the immediate decision and its direct historical impact.
June 8 in History
1663 — Portuguese Restoration War: Portuguese victory at the Battle of Ameixial ensures Portugal's independence from Spain
June 8 spans 50 recorded events across recorded history, from 218 to 2023. Below is a curated digest of the most significant moments tied to this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Historical Events
50 events
218 – 2023
Today in history
More major events on June 8
The featured story and these ranked highlights form a quick summary. Every recorded event remains available in the chronology below.
- 1906 Theodore Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act into law, authorizing the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value. Source
- 2007 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-117 carrying two truss segments and solar arrays to the International Space Station. Source
- 1987 New Zealand's Labour government establishes a national nuclear-free zone under the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987. Source
Did you know
The Restoration War between Portugal and Spain began with the Portuguese revolution of 1640 and ended with the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668, bringing a formal end to the Iberian Union. This helps explain why the event mattered beyond the initial announcement.
Did you know
The period from 1640 to 1668 was marked by periodic skirmishes between Portugal and Spain, as well as short episodes of more serious warfare, much of it occasioned by Spanish and Portuguese entanglements with non-Iberian powers. This clarifies the institutional and public response around the event.
Did you know
Spain was involved in the Thirty Years' War until 1648 and the Franco-Spanish War until 1659, while Portugal was involved in the Dutch–Portuguese War until 1663. This shows how the event shaped policy and public communication in the same period.
Did you know
In 1663, Portuguese Restoration War: Portuguese victory at the Battle of Ameixial ensures Portugal's independence from Spain had consequences that extended beyond the first headline. The key context is the institutions involved, the policy shift, and how the public response evolved afterward.
218
Battle of Antioch: With the support of the Syrian legions, Elagabalus defeats the forces of emperor Macrinus.
Roman battle between rivals for the throne
452
Attila leads a Hun army in the invasion of Italy, devastating the northern provinces as he heads for Rome.
Ruler of the Hunnic Empire from 434 to 453
536
Election of pope Silverius following the death of pope Agapetus I earlier that year.
Head of the Catholic Church from 536 to 537
793
Vikings raid the abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria, commonly accepted as the beginning of Norse activity in the British Isles.
Tidal island in northeast England
1042
Edward the Confessor becomes King of England – the country's penultimate Anglo-Saxon king.
King of the English from 1042 to 1066
1057
The Byzantine general Isaac Komnenos is proclaimed Byzantine Emperor in opposition to reigning emperor Michael VI Bringas.
Byzantine emperor from 1057 to 1059
1191
English forces under King Richard I arrive in Acre, joining the already arrived French and German forces of the Third Crusade.
King of England from 1189 to 1199
1772
Alexander Fordyce flees to France to avoid debt repayment, triggering the credit crisis of 1772 in the British Empire and the Dutch Republic.
Scottish banker (1729–1789)
1776
American Revolutionary War: Continental Army attackers are driven back at the Battle of Trois-Rivières.
1775–1783 conflict in North America
1783
Laki, a volcano in Iceland, begins an eight-month eruption which kills over 9,000 people and starts a seven-year famine.
Volcanic fissure in Iceland
1789
James Madison introduces twelve proposed amendments to the United States Constitution in Congress.
Founding Father, U.S. president from 1809 to 1817
1794
Maximilien Robespierre inaugurates the French Revolution's new state religion, the Cult of the Supreme Being, with large organized festivals all across France.
French revolutionary, lawyer and politician (1758–1794)
1856
A group of 194 Pitcairn Islanders, descendants of the mutineers of HMS Bounty, arrives at Norfolk Island, commencing the Third Settlement of the Island.
British Overseas Territory in the South Pacific
1861
American Civil War: Tennessee secedes from the Union.
1861–1865 conflict in the United States
1862
American Civil War: A Confederate victory by forces under General Stonewall Jackson at the Battle of Cross Keys, along with the Battle of Port Republic the next day, prevents Union forces from reinforcing General George B.
McClellan in his Peninsula campaign.
1867
Coronation of Franz Joseph as King of Hungary following the Austro-Hungarian compromise (Ausgleich).
Emperor of Austria from 1848 to 1916
1887
Herman Hollerith applies for US patent #395,781 for the 'Art of Compiling Statistics', which was his punched card calculator.
American statistician and inventor
1906
Theodore Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act into law, authorizing the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value.
President of the United States from 1901 to 1909
1924
British Mount Everest expedition: British mountaineers Andrew Irvine and George Mallory go missing.
Attempt at first ascent of Mount Everest in 1924
1928
Second Northern Expedition: The National Revolutionary Army captures Beijing, whose name is changed to Beiping ("Northern Peace").
1926–1928 Kuomintang military campaign
1929
Margaret Bondfield is appointed Minister of Labour.
She is the first woman appointed to the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.
1940
World War II: The completion of Operation Alphabet, the evacuation of Allied forces from Narvik at the end of the Norwegian campaign.
Global conflict (1939–1945)
1941
World War II: The Allies commence the Syria–Lebanon Campaign against the possessions of Vichy France in the Levant.
Military coalition of World War II
1942
World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy submarines I-21 and I-24 shell the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle.
Navy of Japan between 1868 and 1945
1943
World War II: The two-day Battle of Porta between the Royal Italian Army and the Greek People's Liberation Army begins.
Part of the Greek Resistance during World War II
1949
George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is published in the United States
English author and journalist (1903–1950)
1953
An F5 tornado hits Beecher, Michigan, United States, killing 116, injuring 844, and destroying 340 homes.
U.S. natural disaster
1953
The United States Supreme Court rules in District of Columbia v.
John R. Thompson Co. that restaurants in Washington, D.C., cannot refuse to serve black patrons.
1959
USS Barbero and the United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.
Submarine of the United States
1961
Marriage of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent to Katharine Worsley at York Minster.
1961 British royal wedding
1966
An F-104 Starfighter collides with XB-70 Valkyrie prototype no.
2, destroying both aircraft during a photo shoot near Edwards Air Force Base. Joseph A. Walker, a NASA test pilot, and Carl Cross, a United States Air Force test pilot, are both killed.
1966
Topeka, Kansas, United States is devastated by a tornado that registers as an "F5" on the Fujita scale, exceeding US$200 million in damages.
Seventeen people are killed, over five hundred more injured, and thousands of homes damaged or destroyed.
1967
Six-Day War: The USS Liberty incident: A United States Navy spy ship is attacked by the Israeli Air Force and Navy, resulting in 34 deaths and 171 wounded.
1967 war between Israel and Arab states
1968
James Earl Ray, the man who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr.
is arrested at London Heathrow Airport.
1972
Vietnam War: Nine-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc is burned by napalm, an event captured in a photograph moments later while the young girl is seen running naked down a road, in what would become an iconic, Pulitzer Prize-winning photo.
1955–1975 war in Southeast Asia
1982
Bluff Cove Air Attacks during the Falklands War: Fifty-six British servicemen are killed by an Argentine air attack on two landing ships, RFA Sir Galahad and RFA Sir Tristram.
1982 aerial operation of the Falklands War
1982
VASP Flight 168 crashes in Pacatuba, Ceará, Brazil, killing 128 people.
1982 aviation accident in Brazil
1983
Reeve Aleutian Airways Flight 8 loses one of its propellers in flight resulting in damage to the flight controls.
The Lockheed L-188 Electra makes an emergency landing at Anchorage International Airport and there are no injuries.
1984
Homosexuality is decriminalized in the Australian state of New South Wales.
Attraction between people of the same sex or gender
1987
New Zealand's Labour government establishes a national nuclear-free zone under the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987.
Island country in the Pacific Ocean
1992
The first World Oceans Day is celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Observance day on or around June 8
1992
GP Express Airlines Flight 861 crashes on approach to Anniston Regional Airport in Anniston, Alabama, killing three.
1992 aviation accident
1995
Downed U.S.
Air Force pilot Captain Scott O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines in Bosnia.
2001
Mamoru Takuma kills eight and injures 15 in a mass stabbing at an elementary school in the Osaka Prefecture of Japan.
Japanese mass murderer responsible for the 2001 Ikeda school massacre
2004
The first Venus Transit in well over a century takes place, the previous one being in 1882.
Astronomical event on 8 June 2004
2007
Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, is hit by the State's worst storms and flooding in 30 years, resulting in the death of nine people and the grounding of a trade ship, the MV Pasha Bulker.
City in New South Wales, Australia
2007
Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-117 carrying two truss segments and solar arrays to the International Space Station.
Space Shuttle orbiter (1985–2011)
2008
Seven people are killed and 11 more are injured in a massacre in Akihabara.
2008 civilian attack in Tokyo
2023
Former US President Donald Trump is indicted on federal charges of misusing classified information.
President of the United States (2017–2021; since 2025)