What Happened on June 8th in History
30 historical events on this date
Second Northern Expedition: The National Revolutionary Army captures Beijing, whose name is changed to Beiping ("Northern Peace").
The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT) against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The...
Margaret Bondfield is appointed Minister of Labour. She is the first woman appointed to the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.
Margaret Grace Bondfield was a British Labour Party politician, trade unionist and women's rights activist. She became the first female cabinet minister, and the first woman to be a privy counsellor...
World War II: The completion of Operation Alphabet, the evacuation of Allied forces from Narvik at the end of the Norwegian campaign.
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...
World War II: The Allies commence the SyriaâLebanon Campaign against the possessions of Vichy France in the Levant.
The Allies, or Allied powers, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during World War II (1939â1945) to oppose the Axis powers. Its...
World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy submarines I-21 and I-24 shell the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle.
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender in World War II. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force...
World War II: The two-day Battle of Porta between the Royal Italian Army and the Greek People's Liberation Army begins.
The Battle of Porta was fought on 8â9 June 1943 at the Porta and Mouzaki passes in western Thessaly, between the partisans of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) and the Royal Italian Army,...
George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is published in the United States
Eric Arthur Blair was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism,...
An F5 tornado hits Beecher, Michigan, United States, killing 116, injuring 844, and destroying 340 homes.
During the evening hours of Monday, June 8, 1953, a large and extremely violent tornado struck the north side of Flint, Michigan and the northern suburb of Beecher, causing catastrophic damage and...
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.
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over...
USSÂ Barbero and the United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.
USS Barbero (SS/SSA/SSG-317) was a Balao-class submarine of the United States Navy, named for a family of fishes commonly called surgeon fish.
Marriage of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent to Katharine Worsley at York Minster.
The wedding of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and Katharine Worsley took place on Thursday, 8 June 1961, at York Minster in York, England. The Duke of Kent is the eldest son of Prince George, Duke of...
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.
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic interceptor. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fighter aircraft for the United States Air...
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.
Topeka is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeastern Kansas, in the...
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.
The Six-Day War, or the 1967 ArabâIsraeli war, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states, primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, in the context of the ArabâIsraeli conflict. In the war,...
James Earl Ray, the man who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested at London Heathrow Airport.
James Earl Ray was an American fugitive who was convicted of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. After the assassination, Ray,...
Vietnam War: Nine-year-old Phan Thá» Kim PhĂșc 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.
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...
Bluff Cove Air Attacks during the Falklands War: Fifty-six British servicemen are killed by an Argentine air attack on two landing ships, RFAÂ Sir Galahad and RFAÂ Sir Tristram.
On 8 June 1982, during the Falklands War, British troop transport ships were bombed by Argentine Air Force (FAA) Douglas A-4 Skyhawk fighter bombers at Port Pleasant, off Fitzroy, while transferring...
VASP Flight 168 crashes in Pacatuba, CearĂĄ, Brazil, killing 128 people.
VASP Flight 168, a Boeing 727-212 registered PP-SRK, was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from SĂŁo Paulo to Fortaleza, Brazil which, on June 8, 1982, crashed into a mountainside, while...
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.
Reeve Aleutian Airways Flight 8 was an American domestic flight from Cold Bay, Alaska, to Seattle, Washington, on June 8, 1983. Shortly after takeoff, the Lockheed L-188 Electra of Reeve Aleutian...
Homosexuality is decriminalized in the Australian state of New South Wales.
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. It also denotes identity based on attraction, related behavior, and community...
New Zealand's Labour government establishes a national nuclear-free zone under the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987.
New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmassesâthe North Island and the South Island âand over 600 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest...
The first World Oceans Day is celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
World Oceans Day (WOD) is an international day that takes place annually on June 8. The concept was originally proposed in 1992 by Canada's International Centre for Ocean Development (ICOD) and the...
GP Express Airlines Flight 861 crashes on approach to Anniston Regional Airport in Anniston, Alabama, killing three.
GP Express Airlines Flight 861, from HartsfieldâJackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia to Anniston Metropolitan Airport in Anniston, Alabama, crashed while attempting to land at...
Downed U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines in Bosnia.
Captain in the U.S. Army (USA), U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), U.S. Air Force (USAF), and U.S. Space Force (USSF) is a company-grade officer rank, with the pay grade of O-3. It ranks above first...
Mamoru Takuma kills eight and injures 15 in a mass stabbing at an elementary school in the Osaka Prefecture of Japan.
Mamoru Takuma was a Japanese mass murderer who killed eight children in the Ikeda school massacre in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, on 8 June 2001.
The first Venus Transit in well over a century takes place, the previous one being in 1882.
A transit of Venus was observed from Earth on 8 June 2004. The event received significant attention, since it was the first Venus transit after the invention of broadcast media. No human alive at...
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 MVÂ Pasha Bulker.
Newcastle, also known as Greater Newcastle, is a large metropolitan area and the second-most-populous such area of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the cities of Newcastle and Lake Macquarie...
Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-117 carrying two truss segments and solar arrays to the International Space Station.
Space Shuttle Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle which belongs to NASA, the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. Atlantis was manufactured by the Rockwell...
Seven people are killed and 11 more are injured in a massacre in Akihabara.
A mass murder took place on 8Â June 2008 in the Akihabara shopping quarter in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The perpetrator, 25-year-old Tomohiro KatĆ of Susono, Shizuoka, drove into a crowd with a rented...
Former US President Donald Trump is indicted on federal charges of misusing classified information.
Donald John Trump is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 45th president from...