Onward then...
May 8, 1794 - French chemist
Antoine Lavoisier, branded a traitor, is tried, convicted, and guillotined all on the same day.
1861 -
Richmond, Virginia is named capital of
The Confederate States of America.
1877 - The first
Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is held at Gilmore's Gardens, in New York, New York.
1886 Pharmacist
John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named "
Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine.
1902 In
Martinique,
Mount Pelιe erupts, destroying the town of
Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast.
1912
Paramount Pictures is founded.
1919
Edward George Honey proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate the
Armistice of 11 November 1918 which ended World War I.
1927 Attempting to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, French war heroes
Charles Nungesser and
Franηois Coli disappear after taking off aboard
The White Bird biplane.
1933
Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast.
1941 The German Luftwaffe launches a
bombing raid on Nottingham and Derby.
1945 -
Victory In Europe Day (V-E Day) combat ends in Europe.
Thousands of civilians and servicemen rampage through Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1973 A
71-day standoff between federal authorities and the
American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota ends with the surrender of the militants.
1976 The rollercoaster
The New Revolution, the first steel coaster with a vertical loop, opens at
Six Flags Magic Mountain.
1978 The first ascent of Mount Everest
without supplemental oxygen, by
Reinhold Messner and
Peter Habeler.
1980 The
World Health Organization confirms the eradication of
smallpox.
1984 The Soviet Union announces that it will
boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
The
Thames Barrier is officially opened.
Births
1720 William Cavendish; 1847 Oscar Hammerstein I; 1884 Harry S. Truman; 1895 Fulton J. Sheen; 1906 Roberto Rossellini; 1911 Robert Johnson; 1919 Lex Barker; 1926 David Attenborough, Don Rickles; 1937 Thomas Pynchon; 1940 Peter Benchley, Ricky Nelson, Toni Tennille (
Capt & Tennille); 1941 James Traficant; 1943 Paul Samwell-Smith; 1944 Gary Glitter, Bill Legend; 1950 Robert Mugge; 1953 Billy Burnette, Alex Van Halen; 1955 Stephen Furst ('Flounder' from "
Animal House"); 1956 Jeff Wincott; 1957 Bill Cowher; 1958 Lovie Smith; 1960 Eric Brittingham; 1961 Bill de Blasio; 1964 Bobby Labonte; 1973 Marcus Brigstocke; 1975 Enrique Iglesias; 1977 Joe Bonamassa
Deaths
1794 Antoine Lavoisier; 1880 Gustave Flaubert; 1903 Paul Gauguin; 1947 Harry Gordon Selfridge; 1982 Neil Bogart, Gilles Villeneuve; 1984 Lila Bell Wallace (co-founded
Reader's Digest); 1985 Karl Marx; 1988 Robert A. Heinlein; 1994 George Peppard; 1999 Dirk Bogarde; 1999 Dana Plato ("
Diff'rent Strokes"); 2008 Eddy Arnold; 2012 Maurice Sendak; 2013 Jeanne Cooper (
Katherine Chancellor on "
The Young and the Restless"); 2014 Roger L. Easton (co-inventor of
GPS)