| 1450 |
|
Jack Cade’s Rebellion–Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI. |
| 1541 |
|
Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River which he calls Rio de Espiritu Santo. |
| 1559 |
|
An act of supremacy defines Queen Elizabeth I as the supreme governor of the church of England. |
| 1794 |
|
The United States Post Office is established. |
| 1846 |
|
The first major battle of the Mexican War is fought at Palo Alto, Texas. |
| 1862 |
|
General ‘Stonewall’ Jackson repulses the Federals at the Battle of McDowell, in the Shenendoah Valley. |
| 1864 |
|
Union troops arrive at Spotsylvania Court House to find the Confederates waiting for them. |
| 1886 |
|
Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton invents Coca Cola. |
| 1895 |
|
China cedes Taiwan to Japan under Treaty of Shimonoseki. |
| 1904 |
|
U.S. Marines land in Tangier, North Africa, to protect the Belgian legation. |
| 1919 |
|
The first transatlantic flight by a navy seaplane takes-off. |
| 1933 |
|
Hahatma Gandhi begins a hunger strike to protest British oppression in India. |
| 1940 |
|
German commandos in Dutch uniforms cross the Dutch border to hold bridges for the advancing German army. |
| 1942 |
|
The Battle of the Coral Sea between the Japanese Navy and the U.S. Navy ends. |
| 1945 |
|
The final surrender of German forces is celebrated as VE (Victory Europe) day. |
| 1952 |
|
Allied fighter-bombers stage the largest raid of the war on North Korea. |
| 1958 |
|
President Eisenhower orders the National Guard out of Little Rock as Ernest Green becomes the first black to graduate from an Arkansas public school. |
| 1967 |
|
Boxer Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in U.S. Army. |
| 1984 |
|
The Soviet Union announces it will not participate in Summer Olympics planned for Los Angeles. |
| 1995 |
|
Jacques Chirac is elected president of France. |
|
Born on May 8 |
| 1668 |
|
Alain Rene Lesage, French writer (The Adventures of Gil Blas, Turcaret). |
| 1753 |
|
Miguel Hidalgo, Mexican nationalist. |
| 1828 |
|
Jean Henri Dunant, Swiss philanthropist, founder of the Red Cross and YMCA, first recipient (jointly) of the Nobel Peace Prize. |
| 1829 |
|
Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American pianist. |
| 1884 |
|
Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States (1945-1953). |
| 1895 |
|
Edmund Wilson, American critic and essayist. |
| 1906 |
|
Roberto Rossellini, Italian film director. |
| 1910 |
|
Mary Lou Williams, jazz pianist and composer. |
| 1920 |
|
Sloan Wilson, American author (The man in the Gray Flannel Suit, A Summer Place). |
| 1928 |
|
Theodore Sorenson, advisor to John F. Kennedy. |
| 1930 |
|
Gary Snyder, beat poet. |
| 1937 |
|
Thomas Pynchon, novelist (Gravity’s Rainbow). |
| 1940 |
|
Peter Benchley, novelist (Jaws, The Deep). |
| 1952 |
|
Beth Henley, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (Crimes of the Heart). |
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