May 8 in History

Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne was a French clergyman, bishop, cardinal, politician and finance minister of King Louis XVI.

The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence fought by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire from 1821 to 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted by the British Empire, the Kingdom of France, and the Russian Empire, while the Ottomans were aided by their vassals, especially by the Eyalet of Egypt. The war led to the formation of modern Greece, which in subsequent years would be expanded to its current size. The revolution is commemorated by the Greek diaspora as independence day on 25 March.

The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, was an invasion of Mexico by the United States. It followed the 1845 American annexation of Texas, which Mexico still considered its territory because it refused to recognize the Treaties of Velasco, signed by President Antonio López de Santa Anna after he was captured by the Texian Army during the 1836 Texas Revolution. The Republic of Texas was de facto an independent country, but most of its Anglo-American citizens who had moved from the United States to Texas after 1822 wanted to be annexed by the United States.

John Stith Pemberton was an American pharmacist, chemist, and Confederate States Army officer who is best known as the inventor of Coca-Cola. On May 8, 1886, he developed an early version of a beverage that would later become Coca-Cola, but sold the rights to Asa Griggs Candler for roughly 2,300 dollars shortly before his death in 1888.

Mount Pelée or Mont Pelée is an active stratovolcano at the northern end of Martinique, an island and French overseas department in the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc of the Caribbean. Its volcanic cone is composed of stratified layers of hardened ash and solidified lava. Its most recent eruption was in 1932.

The Romanian Communist Party was a communist party in Romania. It was founded in 1921 and became the founding and ruling party of the Communist Socialist Republic of Romania in 1947. From then, until its overthrow in the Romanian revolution in 1989, it was effectively the only legal party in the country. Ideologically committed to Marxism–Leninism, the party oversaw Romania's departure from Soviet satellite status and incorporation of national communism.

A transatlantic flight (TATL) is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, South America, or vice versa. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing aircraft, airships, balloons and other aircraft. The distance of contemporary flights varies between 3,000km to 15,000km.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the battle was the first naval action in which the opposing fleets neither sighted nor fired upon one another, attacking over the horizon from aircraft carriers instead. It was also the first military battle between aircraft carriers.

The German Instrument of Surrender was a legal document effecting the unconditional surrender of the remaining German armed forces to the Allies, ending World War II in Europe. It was signed at 22:43 CET on 8 May 1945 and took effect at 23:01 CET on the same day.

The Sétif and Guelma massacre was a series of massacres by French colonial authorities and pied-noir European settler militias on Algerian civilians in May and June 1945 around the towns of Sétif and Guelma in French Algeria.

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 to the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn. She was born in Tallinn.

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 his capture and assassination during the CIA-backed 1963 coup d'état.

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 XI. It was divided into three provinces of Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, and Davao del Sur with the passage of Philippine Republic Act No. 4867 on May 8, 1967. Two more provinces, Compostela Valley and Davao Occidental, were carved out of the territories of Davao del Norte and Davao del Sur respectively. The descendant provinces were reorganized into the current region in 2001.

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 Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.

The Great American Revolution is a steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, United States. Manufactured by Anton Schwarzkopf and designed by Werner Stengel, the roller coaster opened to the public on May 8, 1976. The New Revolution is the world's first modern roller coaster to feature a vertical loop and has been recognized for that accomplishment by American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE), who awarded the roller coaster its Coaster Landmark status. However, there were earlier examples of roller coasters with a full vertical loop, the earliest being the Centrifugal Railways of the mid- to late-1800s.

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 headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has six regional offices and 150 field offices worldwide. Only sovereign states are eligible to join, and it is the largest intergovernmental health organization at the international level.

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. It was the world's third-most populous country, the largest by area, and bordered twelve countries. A diverse multinational state, it was organized as a federal union of national republics, with the largest and most populous being the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR). In practice, its government and economy were highly centralized. As a one-party state governed by the Communist Party, it was the flagship communist state. Its capital and largest city was Moscow.

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. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, direct action and special reconnaissance. Much of the information about the SAS is highly classified, and the unit is not commented on by either the British government or the Ministry of Defence due to the secrecy and sensitivity of its operations.

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 Boeing 737 performing this route crashed during the second attempt to land in a thunderstorm.

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 fourth ballot, the conclave elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. After accepting his election, he took the name Leo XIV.