September 8

What happened that day?

• 2005: Two Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft from EMERCOM land at a disaster aid staging area at Little Rock Air Force Base; the first time Russia has flown such a mission to North America.
• 2004: NASA's unmanned spacecraft Genesis crash-lands when its parachute fails to open.
• 1994: USAir Flight 427, on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport, suddenly crashes in clear weather killing all 132 aboard; resulting in the most extensive aviation investigation in world history and altering manufacturing practices in the industry.
• 1991: The Republic of Macedonia becomes independent.
• 1989: Partnair Flight 394 dived into the North Sea, killing 55 people. The investigation showed that the tail of the plane vibrated loose in flight due to sub-standard connecting bolts that had been fraudulently sold as aircraft-grade.
• 1988: Yellowstone National Park is closed for the first time in U.S. history due to ongoing fires.
• 1978: Black Friday, a massacre by soldiers against protesters in Tehran, results in 700-3000 deaths, it marks the beginning of the end of the monarchy in Iran.
• 1975: Gays in the military: US Air Force Tech Sergeant Leonard Matlovich, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, appears in his Air Force uniform on the cover of Time magazine with the headline "I Am A Homosexual". He is given a general discharge, later upgraded to honorable.
• 1974: Watergate scandal: US President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.
• 1971: In Washington, D.C., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated, with the opening feature being the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.
• 1966: The landmark American science fiction television series Star Trek premieres with its first-aired episode, "The Man Trap".
• 1962: Last run of the famous Pines Express over the Somerset and Dorset Railway line (UK) fittingly using the last steam locomotive built by British Railways, 9F locomotive 92220 Evening Star.
• 1960: In Huntsville, Alabama, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicates the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA had already activated the facility on July 1).
• 1954: The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established.
• 1952: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation makes its first televised broadcast on the second escape of the [Boyd Gang](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyd_Gang).
• 1951: Treaty of [San Francisco](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco): In San Francisco, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan in formal recognition of the end of the Pacific War.
• 1946: A 95.6% vote in favor of abolishing the monarchy in Bulgaria.
• 1945: Cold War: United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.
• 1944: World War II: London is hit by a V-2 rocket for the first time.
• 1943: World War II: United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the Allied armistice with Italy.
• 1943: World War II: The O.B.S. (German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone) in Frascati is bombed by USAAF.
• 1941: World War II: Siege of [Leningrad](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Leningrad) begins. German forces begin the siege of Leningrad.
• 1935: US Senator from Louisiana Huey Long is fatally shot in the Louisiana State Capitol building.
• 1934: Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner SS Morro Castle kills 137 people.
• 1933: Ghazi bin Faisal became King of Iraq.
• 1930: 3M begins marketing Scotch transparent tape.
• 1925: Rif War: Spanish forces including troops from the Foreign Legion under Colonel Francisco Franco landing at Al Hoceima, Morocco.
• 1923: Honda Point disaster: Nine US Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast. Seven are lost, and twenty-three sailors killed.
• 1921: Margaret Gorman, a 16-year-old, wins the Atlantic City Pageant's Golden Mermaid trophy; pageant officials later dubbed her the first Miss America.
• 1914: World War I: Private Thomas Highgate becomes the first British soldier to be executed for desertion during the war.
• 1905: The 7.2 Mw Calabria earthquake shakes Southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 557 and 2,500 people.
• 1900: Galveston hurricane: A powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people.
• 1892: The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited.
• 1888: In England the first six Football League matches are played.
• 1888: In London, the body of Jack the Ripper's second murder victim, Annie Chapman, is found.
• 1888: In Spain, the first travel of Isaac Peral's submarine.
• 1883: The Northern Pacific Railway (reporting mark NP) was completed in a ceremony at Gold Creek, Montana. Former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in an event attended by rail and political luminaries.
• 1863: American Civil War: Second Battle of Sabine Pass: On the Texas-Louisiana border at the mouth of the Sabine River, a small Confederate force thwarts a Union invasion of Texas.
• 1862: Millennium of Russia monument unveiled in Novgorod.
• 1860: The steamship PS Lady Elgin sinks on Lake Michigan, with the loss of around 300 lives.
• 1831: November uprising: Battle of Warsaw ends, effectively ending the Insurrection.
• 1831: William IV and Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
• 1810: The Tonquin sets sail from New York Harbor with 33 employees of John Jacob Astor's newly created Pacific Fur Company on board. After a six-month journey around the tip of South America, the ship arrives at the mouth of the Columbia River and Astor's men establish the fur-trading town of Astoria, Oregon.
• 1796: French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Bassano: French forces defeat Austrian troops at Bassano del Grappa.
• 1793: French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Hondschoote.
• 1781: American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina, the war's last significant battle in the Southern theater, ends in a narrow British tactical victory.
• 1775: The unsuccessful Rising of the Priests in Malta.
• 1761: Marriage of King George III of the United Kingdom to Duchess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
• 1756: French and Indian War: Kittanning Expedition.
• 1755: French and Indian War: Battle of Lake George.
• 1727: A barn fire during a puppet show in the village of Burwell in Cambridgeshire, England kills 78 people, many of whom are children.
• 1655: Warsaw falls without resistance to a small force under the command of Charles X Gustav of Sweden during The Deluge, making it the first time the city is captured by a foreign army.
• 1612: The foundation day in São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil.
• 1565: The Knights of Malta lift the Ottoman siege of Malta that began on May 18.
• 1565: St. Augustine, Florida was founded by Spanish admiral and Florida's first governor, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés.
• 1551: The foundation day in Vitória, Brazil.
• 1514: Battle of Orsha: In one of the biggest battles of the century, Lithuanians and Poles defeat the Russian army.
• 1504: Michelangelo's David is unveiled in Piazza della Signoria in Florence.
• 1380: Battle of Kulikovo: Russian forces defeat a mixed army of Tatars and Mongols, stopping their advance.
• 1331: Stefan Dušan declares himself king of Serbia
• 1276: Pope John XXI is chosen.
• 1264: The Statute of Kalisz, guaranteeing Jews safety and personal liberties and giving battei din jurisdiction over Jewish matters, is promulgated by Bolesław the Pious, Duke of Greater Poland.
• 1253: Pope Innocent IV canonised Stanislaus of Szczepanów, killed by king Bolesław II.
• 1198: Philip of Swabia, Prince of Hohenstaufen, is crowned King of Germany (King of the Romans)
• 1100: Election of Antipope Theodoric.
• 617: Battle of Huoyi: Li Yuan defeats a Sui dynasty army, opening the path to his capture of the imperial capital Chang'an and the eventual establishment of the Tang dynasty.