November 8 in History

2016 — Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States, defeating Hillary Clinton, the first woman ever to receive a major party's nomination

November 8 spans 62 recorded events across recorded history, from 960 to 2020. Below is a curated digest of the most significant moments tied to this date.

By thisDay.info Editorial Team · November 8 — Wikipedia

Historical Events 62 events 960 – 2020

More major events on November 8

The featured story and these ranked highlights form a quick summary. Every recorded event remains available in the chronology below.

1965 The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 is given Royal Assent, formally abolishing the death penalty in the United Kingdom for almost all crimes. Source
1960 John F. Kennedy is elected as the 35th President of the United States, defeating incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, who would later be elected president in 1968 and 1972. Source
2020 Myanmar holds the 2020 general election, re-electing a government led by the National League for Democracy, which is deposed by the Burmese military the following February during the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état. Source

Did you know

In 2016, Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States, defeating Hillary Clinton, the first woman ever to receive a major party's nomination. This featured entry focuses on the immediate decision and its direct historical impact.

Did you know

Donald Trump's first tenure as the president of the United States began on January 20, 2017, when he was inaugurated as the 45th president, and ended on January 20, 2021. This helps explain why the event mattered beyond the initial announcement.

Did you know

Trump, a Republican, took office after defeating Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016. This clarifies the institutional and public response around the event.

Did you know

Upon his inauguration, he became the first president in American history without prior public office or military background. This shows how the event shaped policy and public communication in the same period.

Did you know

Trump made an unprecedented number of false or misleading statements during his 2016 campaign and first presidency. This helps explain why the event mattered beyond the initial announcement.

Battle of Andrassos: Byzantines under Leo Phokas the Younger score a crushing victory over the Hamdanid Emir of Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla.

960 battle between Byzantium and Aleppo

The Battle of Andrassos or Adrassos was fought on 8 November 960 between the Byzantines, led by Leo Phokas the Younger, and the forces of the Hamdanid Emirate of Aleppo under the emir Sayf al-Dawla. It was fought in an unidentified mountain pass in the Taurus Mountains.

Wikipedia source

960

Trần Thánh Tông, the second emperor of the Trần dynasty, decides to pass the throne to his crown prince Trần Khâm and take up the post of Retired Emperor.

Emperor of Đại Việt from 1258 to 1278

Trần Thánh Tông, personal name Trần Hoảng (陳晃), was the second emperor of the Trần dynasty, reigning over Đại Việt from 1258 to 1278. After ceding the throne to his son Trần Nhân Tông, Thánh Tông held the title of retired emperor from 1279 until his death in 1290. During the second and the third Mongol invasions of Đại Việt, Retired Emperor Thánh Tông and Emperor Nhân Tông were credited as the supreme commanders who led the nation to the final victories and, as a result, established a long period of peace and prosperity over the country. With his successful rulings in both military and civil matters, Trần Thánh Tông was considered one of the greatest emperors of not only the Trần dynasty but also the whole dynastic era in the history of Vietnam.

Wikipedia source

1278

The Republic of Venice enacts a law confining most of Venice's glassmaking industry to the "island of Murano".

Maritime republic in Italy (697–1797)

The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a maritime republic with its capital in Venice, on the northeastern coast of Italy. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 by Paolo Lucio Anafesto, over the course of its 1,100 years of history it established itself as one of the major European commercial and naval powers. Initially extended in the Dogado area, during its history it annexed a large part of Northeast Italy, Istria, Dalmatia, the coasts of present-day Montenegro and Albania as well as numerous islands in the Adriatic and eastern Ionian seas. At the height of its expansion, between the 13th and 16th centuries, it also governed Crete, Cyprus, the Peloponnese, a number of Greek islands, as well as several cities and ports in the eastern Mediterranean.

Wikipedia source

1291

Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with a great celebration.

Spanish conquistador and explorer (1485–1547)

Hernán Cortés, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish conquistador, military commander, explorer, captain general, and writer who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish explorers and conquistadors who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

Wikipedia source

1519

After being crowned king of Sweden, Christian II gave the order to execute nearly 100 people, mostly noblemen, despite promises of general amnesty.

The monarchy of Sweden is centred on the monarchical head of state of Sweden, by law a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system. There have been kings in what now is the Kingdom of Sweden for more than a millennium. Originally an elective monarchy, it became a hereditary monarchy in the 16th century during the reign of Gustav Vasa, though virtually all monarchs before that belonged to a limited and small number of political families which are considered to be the royal dynasties of Sweden.

Wikipedia source

1520

Eighty Years' War: Pacification of Ghent: The States General of the Netherlands meet and unite to oppose Spanish occupation.

c. 1566/1568–1648 war in Habsburg Netherlands

The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Reformation, centralisation, excessive taxation, and the rights and privileges of the Dutch nobility and cities.

Wikipedia source

1576

The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford is opened to the public.

Research library of the University of Oxford

The Bodleian Library is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in Britain after the British Library. Under the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, it is one of six legal deposit libraries for works published in the United Kingdom, and under Irish law it is entitled to request a copy of each book published in the Republic of Ireland. Known to Oxford scholars as "Bodley" or "the Bod", it operates principally as a reference library and, in general, documents may not be removed from the reading rooms.

Wikipedia source

1602

Robert Catesby, ringleader of the Gunpowder Plotters, is killed.

English Gunpowder Plot conspirator (c. 1572–1605)

Robert Catesby was the leader of a group of English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Born in Warwickshire, Catesby was educated at Oxford University. His family were prominent recusant Catholics, and presumably to avoid swearing the Oath of Supremacy he left college before taking his degree. He married a Protestant in 1593 and fathered two children, one of whom survived birth and was baptised in a Protestant church. In 1601 he took part in the Essex Rebellion but was captured and fined, after which he sold his estate at Chastleton.

Wikipedia source

1605

Japanese daimyō Dom Justo Takayama is exiled to the Philippines by shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu for being Christian.

Powerful feudal territorial lord in pre-modern Japan

Daimyo or daimio were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 15th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally to the emperor and the kuge. In the term, dai (大) means 'large', and myō stands for myōden (名田), meaning 'private land'.

Wikipedia source

1614

The Battle of White Mountain takes place near Prague, ending in a decisive Catholic victory in only two hours.

1620 battle of the Thirty Years' War

The Battle of White Mountain was fought on 8 November 1620 outside Prague in the early stages of the Thirty Years' War. An army backing Frederick V led by Christian of Anhalt was defeated by forces supporting his rival Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, under Bucquoy and Count Tilly.

Wikipedia source

1620

The Shunzhi Emperor, the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, is enthroned in Beijing after the collapse of the Ming dynasty as the first Qing emperor to rule over China.

Emperor of China from 1644 to 1661

The Shunzhi Emperor, personal name Fulin, was the second emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the first Qing emperor to rule over China proper. Upon the death of his father Hong Taiji, a committee of Manchu princes chose the 5-year-old Fulin as successor. The princes also appointed two co-regents: Dorgon, the 14th son of Nurhaci, and Jirgalang, one of Nurhaci's nephews, both of whom were members of the Aisin-Gioro clan. In November 1644, the Shunzhi Emperor was enthroned as emperor of China in Beijing.

Wikipedia source

1644

Charles Edward Stuart invades England with an army of approximately 5,000 that would later participate in the Battle of Culloden.

Jacobite leader (1720–1788)

Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, making him the grandson of James VII and II, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1766. He is also known as the Young Pretender, the Young Chevalier and Bonnie Prince Charlie, and to Jacobites as Charles III. He led the failed Jacobite Rising of 1745 in an attempt to restore the Stuart dynasty to power.

Wikipedia source

1745

Mary Lyon founds Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, which later becomes Mount Holyoke College.

American educator (1797–1849)

Mary Mason Lyon was an American pioneer in women's education. She advised on the establishment of Wheaton Female Seminary in Norton, Massachusetts, in 1834. She then established Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, Massachusetts, in 1837 and served as its first president for 12 years. Lyon's vision fused intellectual challenge and moral purpose. She valued socioeconomic diversity and endeavored to make the seminary affordable for students of modest means.

Wikipedia source

1837

American Civil War: The "Trent Affair": The USS San Jacinto stops the British mail ship Trent and arrests two Confederate envoys, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the UK and US.

1861–1865 conflict in the United States

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States. The South saw slavery as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

Wikipedia source

1861

Montana is admitted as the 41st U.S.

state.

Montana is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan to the north. It is the fourth-largest state by area, but the eighth-least populous state and the third-least densely populated state. Its capital is Helena, while the most populous city is Billings. The western half of the state contains numerous mountain ranges, particularly the Rocky Mountains, while the eastern half is characterized by western prairie terrain and badlands, with smaller mountain ranges found throughout the state.

Wikipedia source

1889

The New Orleans general strike begins, uniting black and white American trade unionists in a successful four-day general strike action for the first time.

General strike in New Orleans, Louisiana, US

The New Orleans general strike was a general strike in the U.S. city of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, that began on November 8, 1892. Despite appeals to racial hatred, black and white workers remained united. The general strike ended on November 12, with unions gaining most of their original demands.

Wikipedia source

1892

The Carmaux-Bons Enfants bombing marks the start of Émile Henry's attacks into the Ère des attentats (1892–1894).

1892 anarchist bombing in Paris

On 8 November 1892, the anarchist Émile Henry carried out a bomb attack in Paris. The attack was carried out in response to the army being sent against the striking workers of the Compagnie minière de Carmaux. Henry sent a parcel bomb to the company's headquarters in Paris, located on Avenue de l'Opéra. The company forwarded the parcel to the police, who took possession of it and brought it to the police station on Rue des Bons Enfants. The bomb exploded while the police were handling it, killing four police officers and a Carmaux company's worker. This bombing, along with other attacks during the Era of Attacks, marked an early shift in terrorist strategy: instead of targeting specific individuals, it focused on symbolic locations—in this case, the siege of the mining company as a stand-in for a precise human target. This shift became a hallmark of modern terrorism but was poorly understood by contemporaries.

Wikipedia source

1892

While experimenting with electricity, Wilhelm Röntgen discovers the X-ray.

German physicist (1845–1923)

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a German experimental physicist who produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays. In 1901, Röntgen became the first recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him." The element roentgenium is named in his honor.

Wikipedia source

1895

Gospel riots: Bloody clashes take place in Athens following the translation of the Gospels into demotic Greek.

Christian riots in Greece in 1901

The Gospel riots, which took place on the streets of Athens in November 1901, were primarily a protest against the publication in the newspaper Akropolis of a translation into modern spoken Greek of the Gospel of Matthew, although other motives also played a part. The disorder reached a climax on 8 November, "Black Thursday", when eight demonstrators were killed.

Wikipedia source

1901

The first Council of People's Commissars is formed, including Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin.

Government institution in the Russian SFSR and the Soviet Union

The Council of People's Commissars (CPC), commonly known as the Sovnarkom (Совнарком), were the highest executive authorities of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the Soviet Union (USSR), and the Soviet republics from 1917 to 1946.

Wikipedia source

1917

Eichenfeld massacre: Members of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine murder 136 Mennonite colonists at Jaskyowo, initiating a series of massacres that resulted in the deaths of 827 Ukrainian Mennonites.

1919 civilian attack by Ukrainian anarchists

The Eichenfeld massacre was a 1919 attack against the Mennonite colonists of Eichenfeld by the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine. Rising tensions between the native Ukrainian peasantry and Mennonite landowners had culminated with attacks on the latter, as insurgents took control of southern Ukraine and began carrying out reprisals against those that had collaborated with the Central Powers and the White movement.

Wikipedia source

1919

Rupert Bear, illustrated by Mary Tourtel makes his first appearance in print.

English children's comic strip

Rupert Bear, also known as Rupert the Bear or simply Rupert, is an English children's comic strip character and franchise created by Herbert Tourtel and illustrated by his wife, the artist Mary Tourtel, first appearing in the Daily Express newspaper on 8 November 1920. The initial purpose of the strip was to win sales from the rival Daily Mail and Daily Mirror. In 1935, the stories and artwork were both taken over by Alfred Bestall, previously an illustrator for Punch and other glossy magazines. Bestall proved successful in the field of children's literature and worked on Rupert stories and artwork into his nineties. Various other artists and writers have since continued the series. About 50 million copies have been sold worldwide.

Wikipedia source

1920

Beer Hall Putsch: In Munich, Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government.

Failed 1923 Nazi coup attempt in Munich, Germany

The Beer Hall Putsch, also known as the Munich Putsch, was a failed coup d'état led by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, General Erich Ludendorff, and other Kampfbund leaders in Munich, Bavaria, on 8–9 November 1923, during the Weimar Republic. Inspired by Benito Mussolini's March on Rome, Hitler's goal was to use Munich as a base for a march against Germany's national government in Berlin.

Wikipedia source

1923

Franklin D.

Roosevelt is elected as the 32nd President of the United States, defeating incumbent president Herbert Hoover.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving US president and the only one to have served more than two terms. His first two terms were centered on combating the Great Depression, while his third and fourth focused on US involvement in World War II. A member of the Democratic Party, Roosevelt served in the New York State Senate from 1911 to 1913 and as the 44th governor of New York from 1929 to 1932.

Wikipedia source

1932

Great Depression: New Deal: US President Franklin D.

Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than four million unemployed.

The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and business failures around the world. The economic contagion began in 1929 in the United States, the largest economy in the world, with the devastating Wall Street crash of 1929 often considered the beginning of the Depression. Among the countries with the most unemployed were the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Germany.

Wikipedia source

1933

Spanish Civil War: Francoist troops fail in their effort to capture Madrid, but begin the three-year Siege of Madrid afterwards.

1936–1939 civil war in Spain

The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalist rebels. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic included socialists, anarchists, communists, and separatists, supported by the Soviet Union. The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of fascist Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists, supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Initially led by a military junta, until General Francisco Franco was appointed supreme leader on 1 October 1936 of what he called the Spanish State. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war was variously viewed as class struggle, religious struggle, or struggle between republican democracy and dictatorship, revolution and counterrevolution, or between fascism and communism. The Nationalists won the war in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.

Wikipedia source

1936

The Nazi exhibition Der ewige Jude ("The Eternal Jew") opens in Munich.

German fascist ideology

Nazism, also known as National Socialism (NS), is the far-right, ultranationalist, totalitarian ideology associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP). It emerged in Germany during Hitler's rise to power and was frequently called Hitlerism. Nazism is a form of fascism that emphasizes pseudo-scientific theories of racial hierarchy which identify ethnic Germans and Nordic Aryans as a master race. The term "neo-Nazism" is applied to far-right groups formed after World War II with a similar ideology.

Wikipedia source

1937

Venlo Incident: Two British agents of SIS are captured by the Germans.

1939 Nazi capture of British MI6 agents

The Venlo incident was a covert operation carried out by the German Nazi Party's Sicherheitsdienst (SD) on 9 November 1939, which resulted in the capture of two British Secret Intelligence Service agents five metres (16 ft) from the German border, on the outskirts of the Dutch city of Venlo.

Wikipedia source

1939

In Munich, Adolf Hitler narrowly escapes the assassination attempt of Georg Elser while celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch.

Capital of Bavaria, Germany

Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is not a state of its own, and it ranks as the 11th-largest city in the European Union (EU). The metropolitan area has around 3 million inhabitants, and the broader Munich Metropolitan Region is home to about 6.2 million people. It is the third largest metropolitan region by GDP in the EU. Munich is located on the river Isar north of the Alps. It is the seat of the Upper Bavarian administrative region. With 4,800 people per km2, Munich is Germany's most densely populated municipality. It is also the second-largest city in the Bavarian dialect area after Vienna.

Wikipedia source

1939

Greco-Italian War: The Italian invasion of Greece fails as outnumbered Greek units repulse the Italians in the Battle of Elaia–Kalamas.

1940–1941 conflict

The Greco-Italian War, also called the Italo-Greek War, took place between Italy and Greece from 28 October 1940 to 23 April 1941. This conflict began the Balkans campaign of World War II between the Axis powers and the Allies, and eventually turned into the Battle of Greece with British and German involvement. On 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on France and the United Kingdom. By September 1940, the Italians had invaded France, British Somaliland and Egypt. This was followed by a hostile press campaign in Italy against Greece, accused of being a British ally. A number of provocations culminated in the sinking of the Greek light cruiser Elli by the Italians on 15 August. On 28 October, Mussolini issued an ultimatum to Greece demanding the cession of Greek territory, which the Prime Minister of Greece, Ioannis Metaxas, rejected.

Wikipedia source

1940

World War II: French Resistance coup in Algiers, in which 400 civilian French patriots neutralize Vichyist XIXth Army Corps after 15 hours of fighting, and arrest several Vichyist generals, allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers.

Global conflict (1939–1945)

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, with many engaging in total war on an unprecedented scale. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the deaths of 60 to 75 million people, a majority of whom were civilians. 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.

Wikipedia source

1942

Korean War: United States Air Force Lt.

Russell J. Brown, while piloting an F-80 Shooting Star, shoots down two North Korean MiG-15s in the first jet aircraft-to-jet aircraft dogfight in history.

The Korean War was an armed conflict fought on the Korean Peninsula between North Korea and South Korea and their allies. North Korea was supported by China and the Soviet Union, while South Korea was supported by the United Nations led by the United States under the auspices of the United Nations Command (UNC).

Wikipedia source

1950

Pan Am Flight 7 disappears between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Wreckage and bodies are discovered a week later.

Pan Am Flight 7 was a westbound round-the-world flight operated by Pan American World Airways. On November 8, 1957, the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser serving the flight, named Clipper Romance of the Skies, crashed in the Pacific Ocean en route to Honolulu International Airport from San Francisco. The crash killed all 36 passengers and eight crew members.

Wikipedia source

1957

Operation Grapple X, Round C1: The United Kingdom conducts its first successful hydrogen bomb test over Kiritimati in the Pacific.

Series of British nuclear weapons tests

Operation Grapple was a set of four series of British nuclear weapons tests of early atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs carried out in 1957 and 1958 at Malden Island and Kiritimati in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in the Pacific Ocean as part of the British hydrogen bomb programme. Nine nuclear explosions were initiated, culminating in the United Kingdom becoming the third recognised possessor of thermonuclear weapons, and the restoration of the nuclear Special Relationship with the United States in the form of the 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement.

Wikipedia source

1957

John F.

Kennedy is elected as the 35th President of the United States, defeating incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, who would later be elected president in 1968 and 1972.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president, at 43 years, and the first Catholic president. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A member of the Democratic Party, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress before his presidency.

Wikipedia source

1960

Finnair's Aero Flight 217 crashes near Mariehamn Airport in Jomala, Åland, killing 22 people.

National airline of Finland

Finnair Plc is the flag carrier and largest full-service legacy airline of Finland, with headquarters in Vantaa on the grounds of Helsinki Airport, its hub. Finnair and its subsidiaries dominate both domestic and international air travel in Finland. The majority shareholder is the Finnish State, which owns 55.68% of shares through the Prime Minister's Office. Finnair is a member of Oneworld alliance. Founded in 1923, Finnair is one of the oldest airlines in continuous operation and is consistently listed as one of the safest in the world. The company's slogans are Designed for you and The Nordic Way.

Wikipedia source

1963

The British Indian Ocean Territory is created, consisting of Chagos Archipelago, Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches islands.

British Overseas Territory in the Indian Ocean

The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is a British Overseas Territory situated in the Indian Ocean. The territory comprises the seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 individual islands, many very small, amounting to a total land area of 60 square kilometres. The largest and most southerly island is Diego Garcia, 27 square kilometres, the site of a Joint Military Facility of the United Kingdom and the United States. Official administration is remote from London, though the local capital is often regarded as being on Diego Garcia.

Wikipedia source

1965

The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 is given Royal Assent, formally abolishing the death penalty in the United Kingdom for almost all crimes.

Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Murder Act 1965 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It abolished the death penalty for murder in Great Britain. The act replaced the penalty of death with a mandatory sentence of imprisonment for life.

Wikipedia source

1965

The 173rd Airborne is ambushed by over 1,200 Viet Cong in Operation Hump during the Vietnam War, while the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment fight one of the first set-piece engagements of the war between Australian forces and the Viet Cong at the Battle of Gang Toi.

Formation of the United States Army

The 173rd Mobile Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) ("Sky Soldiers") is an airborne mobile Brigade Combat Team (MBCT) of the United States Army based in Vicenza, Italy. It is the United States European Command's conventional airborne strategic response force for Europe.

Wikipedia source

1965

American Airlines Flight 383 crashes in Constance, Kentucky, killing 58.

Aviation accident in the United States

American Airlines Flight 383 was a nonstop flight from New York City to Cincinnati on November 8, 1965. The aircraft was a Boeing 727, with 57 passengers, and 5 crew on board. The aircraft crashed on final approach to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport located in Hebron, Kentucky, United States. Only three passengers and one flight attendant survived the accident.

Wikipedia source

1965

Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction.

U.S. state

Massachusetts, officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode Island to its south, New Hampshire and Vermont to its north, and New York to its west. Massachusetts is the seventh-smallest state by land area. With an estimated population of over 7.1 million, it is the most populous state in New England, the 16th-most-populous in the United States, and the third-most densely populated U.S. state after New Jersey and Rhode Island.

Wikipedia source

1966

U.S.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law an antitrust exemption allowing the National Football League to merge with the upstart American Football League.

Lyndon Baines Johnson, also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. Johnson was vice president under John F. Kennedy from 1961 until Kennedy's assassination in 1963, when he assumed the presidency. Before becoming vice president, he served in both houses of the U.S. Congress, representing Texas as a member of the Democratic Party.

Wikipedia source

1966

The Vienna Convention on Road Traffic is signed to facilitate international road traffic and to increase road safety by standardising the uniform traffic rules among the signatories.

International treaty

The Vienna Convention on Road Traffic is an international treaty designed to facilitate international road traffic and to increase road safety by establishing standard traffic rules among the contracting parties. The convention was agreed upon at the United Nations Economic and Social Council's Conference on Road Traffic and concluded in Vienna on 8 November 1968. This conference also produced the Convention on Road Signs and Signals. The convention had amendments on 3 September 1993 and 28 March 2006. There is a European Agreement supplementing the Convention on Road Traffic (1968), which was concluded in Geneva on 1 May 1971.

Wikipedia source

1968

American pay television network Home Box Office (HBO) launches.

American pay television network

Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network and service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent Home Box Office, Inc., a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based at Warner Bros. Discovery's corporate headquarters inside 30 Hudson Yards in Manhattan. Programming featured on the service consists primarily of theatrically released motion pictures and original television programs as well as made-for-cable movies, documentaries, occasional comedy, and concert specials, and periodic interstitial programs.

Wikipedia source

1972

The right ear of John Paul Getty III is delivered to a newspaper outlet along with a ransom note, convincing his father to pay US$2.9 million.

Grandson of J. Paul Getty (1956–2011)

John Paul Getty III was a grandson of the American oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, who was once the richest man in the world. While living in Rome in 1973, he was kidnapped by the 'Ndrangheta, an Italian criminal organization based in Calabria, and held for a $17 million ransom. His grandfather initially refused to pay, but, after John Paul Getty III's severed ear was received by a newspaper, his grandfather relented to a new, lower demand, and Getty was released five months after being kidnapped. Getty subsequently developed an addiction to alcohol and other drugs, leading to an overdose and stroke in 1981 at the age of 25, which left him severely disabled for the rest of his life.

Wikipedia source

1973

Manolis Andronikos, a Greek archaeologist and professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, discovers the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina.

Greek archaeologist and academic (1919–1992)

Manolis Andronikos was a Greek archaeologist and a professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Wikipedia source

1977

Aeroméxico Flight 110 crashes near Zihuatanejo, Mexico, killing all 18 people on board.

1981 aviation accident in Mexico

Aeroméxico Flight 110 was a scheduled domestic commercial flight from Acapulco to Guadalajara. On November 8, 1981, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 operating the flight experienced a cabin decompression and crashed near Zihuatanejo while initiating an emergency descent, killing all 18 people on board.

Wikipedia source

1981

TAAG Angola Airlines Flight 462 crashes after takeoff from Lubango Airport killing all 130 people on board.

UNITA claims to have shot down the aircraft, though this is disputed.

TAAG Flight 462 was a TAAG Angola Airlines flight which crashed just after the Boeing 737-200 took off from Lubango Airport in Lubango, Angola, on a regular domestic service as Flight DT 462 to Quatro de Fevereiro Airport in Luanda on November 8, 1983. All 130 occupants onboard were killed.

Wikipedia source

1983

Remembrance Day bombing: A Provisional IRA bomb explodes in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland during a ceremony honouring those who had died in wars involving British forces.

Twelve people are killed and sixty-three wounded.

The Remembrance Day bombing took place on 8 November 1987 in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. A Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb exploded near the town's war memorial (cenotaph) during a Remembrance Sunday ceremony, which was being held to commemorate British military war dead. Eleven people were initially killed, many of them elderly. A twelfth man was fatally wounded, entering a coma from which he would later die, and 63 were injured. The IRA said it had made a mistake and that its target had been the British soldiers parading to the memorial.

Wikipedia source

1987

U.S.

Vice President George H. W. Bush is elected as the 41st president.

The vice president of the United States is the second-highest office in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice president is also an officer in the legislative branch, as the president of the Senate. In this capacity, the vice president is empowered to preside over the United States Senate, but may not vote except to cast a tie-breaking vote. The vice president is elected at the same time as the president to a four-year term of office by the people of the United States through the Electoral College, but the electoral votes are cast separately for these two offices. Following the passage in 1967 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a vacancy in the office of vice president may be filled by presidential nomination and confirmation by a majority vote in both houses of Congress. This was based on the Tyler Precedent set in 1841 when John Tyler became the first vice president to take over for a deceased president following the death of William Henry Harrison.

Wikipedia source

1988

Republican Revolution: On the night of the 1994 United States midterm elections, Republicans make historic electoral gains by securing massive majorities in both houses of Congress (54 seats in the House and eight seats in the Senate, additionally), thus bringing to a close four decades of Democratic domination.

Series of wins by the Republican Party in the 1994 United States mid-term elections

The Republican Revolution, also known as the Revolution of '94 or Gingrich Revolution are political slogans that refer to the Republican Party's (GOP) success in the 1994 U.S. midterm elections, which resulted in a net gain of 54 seats in the House of Representatives, and a pick-up of eight seats in the Senate. It was led by Newt Gingrich. This was the first time the GOP had taken control of the House in 42 years, since 1952.

Wikipedia source

1994

Eritrea adopts the nakfa as its official currency.

Country in the Horn of Africa

Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. Its capital and largest city is Asmara. The country is bordered by Ethiopia to the south, Sudan to the west, and Djibouti to the southeast. The northeastern and eastern parts of Eritrea have an extensive coastline along the Red Sea. The country has a total area of approximately 117,600 km2 (45,406 sq mi), and includes the Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands.

Wikipedia source

1997

Bruce Miller is killed at his junkyard near Flint, Michigan.

His wife Sharee Miller, who convinced her online lover Jerry Cassaday to kill him (before later killing himself) was convicted of the crime, in what became the world's first Internet murder.

Sharee Paulette Kitley Miller is an American woman convicted of plotting the murder of her husband, Bruce Miller, over the internet with her online lover Jerry Cassaday, who later died by suicide.

Wikipedia source

1999

Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441: The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves a resolution on Iraq, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences".

Early 2000s diplomatic crisis

In the Iraq disarmament crisis of the early 2000s, Iraq, led by president Saddam Hussein, was pressured by the United States and its other adversaries to destroy alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)—biological, chemical, and nuclear. In the 1980s, Iraq had programs to produce all three, but in the 1990s, the programs were ended, and the WMD were destroyed. The U.S.' rationale for its 2003 invasion of Iraq was that the country still had WMD, and would use them.

Wikipedia source

2002

Iraq War: More than 10,000 U.S.

troops and a small number of Iraqi army units participate in a siege on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

The Iraq War, also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a protracted armed conflict in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. It began with the invasion by a United States–led coalition, which resulted in the overthrow of the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. During the US occupation of Iraq, the conflict persisted as an insurgency that arose against coalition forces and the newly established Iraqi government. US forces were officially withdrawn in 2011. In 2014, the US became re-engaged in Iraq, leading a new coalition under Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, as the conflict evolved into the ongoing Islamic State insurgency.

Wikipedia source

2004

Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Israeli Defense Force kill 19 Palestinian civilians in their homes during the shelling of Beit Hanoun.

Ongoing military and political conflict in West Asia

Israel and the Palestinians are engaged in an ongoing military and political conflict about land and self-determination within the former territory of Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict have included Palestinian refugees, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the status of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, borders, security, water rights, the permit regime in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian freedom of movement, and the Palestinian right of return.

Wikipedia source

2006

The potentially hazardous asteroid 2005 YU55 passes 0.85 lunar distances from Earth (about 324,600 kilometres or 201,700 miles), the closest known approach by an asteroid of its brightness since 2010 XC15 in 1976.

Hazardous near-Earth asteroid or comet

A potentially hazardous object (PHO) is a near-Earth object – either an asteroid or a comet – with an orbit that can make close approaches to the Earth and which is large enough to cause significant regional damage in the event of impact. They are conventionally defined as having a minimum orbit intersection distance with Earth of less than 0.05 astronomical units and an absolute magnitude of 22 or brighter, the latter of which roughly corresponds to a size larger than 140 meters. More than 99% of the known potentially hazardous objects pose no impact threat over the next 100 years. As of February 2025, just 21 of the known potentially hazardous objects listed on the Sentry Risk Table could not be excluded as potential threats over the next hundred years. Over hundreds if not thousands of years though, the orbits of some "potentially hazardous" asteroids can evolve to live up to their namesake.

Wikipedia source

2011

Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, strikes the Visayas region of the Philippines; the storm left at least 6,340 people dead with over 1,000 still missing, and caused $2.86 billion (2013 USD; equivalent to $3.95 billion in 2025) in damage.

Pacific typhoon in 2013

Typhoon Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Yolanda, was an extremely powerful and catastrophic tropical cyclone that is among the most intense tropical cyclones ever recorded. Upon making landfall, Haiyan devastated portions of Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines, during early November 2013. It is one of the deadliest typhoons on record in the Philippines, killing at least 6,300 people in the region of Visayas alone. It was the most intense and deadliest tropical cyclone worldwide in 2013.

Wikipedia source

2013

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly announces the withdrawal of ₹500 and ₹1000 denomination banknotes.

Demonetisation of Indian banknotes

On 8 November 2016, the Government of India announced the demonetisation of all ₹500 and ₹1,000 banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi Series. It also announced the issuance of new ₹500 and ₹2000 banknotes in exchange for the demonetised banknotes. Prime Minister, Narendra Modi said that this decision would curtail the shadow economy, increase cashless transactions and reduce the use of illicit and counterfeit cash to fund illegal activity and terrorism.

Wikipedia source

2016

The Louvre Abu Dhabi was inaugurated by the French president Emmanuel Macron and then-crown prince of Abu Dhabi Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Art museum in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

The Louvre Abu Dhabi is an art museum located on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It runs under an agreement between the UAE and France, signed in March 2007, that allows it to use the Louvre's name until 2047, and has been described by the Louvre as "France's largest cultural project abroad." It is approximately 24,000 square metres (260,000 ft2) in size, with 8,000 square metres (86,000 ft2) of galleries, making it the largest art museum in the Arabian Peninsula. Artworks from around the world are showcased at the museum, with stated intent to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western art. Louvre Abu Dhabi is one of the first completed projects of the Saadiyat Cultural District, which Abu Dhabi intends to develop into "a leading destination for art, history and culture."

Wikipedia source

2017

Myanmar holds the 2020 general election, re-electing a government led by the National League for Democracy, which is deposed by the Burmese military the following February during the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état.

General elections were held in Myanmar on 8 November 2020. Voting occurred in all constituencies, excluding seats appointed by or reserved for the military, to elect members to both the upper house — the Amyotha Hluttaw and the lower house — the Pyithu Hluttaw of the Assembly of the Union, as well as State and Regional Hluttaws (legislatures). Ethnic Affairs Ministers were also elected by their designated electorates on the same day, although only select ethnic minorities in particular states and regions were entitled to vote for them. A total of 1,171 national, state, and regional seats were contested in the election, with polling having taken place in all townships, including areas considered conflict zones and self-administered regions.

Wikipedia source

2020

November 8 in History

2016 — Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States, defeating Hillary Clinton, the first woman ever to receive a major party's nomination

More major events on November 8

History runs on facts, and this project runs on coffee!