8 May

589 – Reccared I King of Hispania and Septimania, opens the 3rd Council of Toledo, marking the entry of Visigothic Spain into the Church.

1429 – Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orléans by the English, turning the tide of the Hundred Years’ War for the French.

1541 – On his travel of exploration, Conquistador Hernando de Soto stops near present day Walls, Mississippi before making the first documented crossing of the Mississippi River by a European.

1639 – William Coddington, a magistrate of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, leaves Boston due to a religious controversy, and founds Newport, Rhode Island.

1846 –  American forces led by Zachary Taylor defeat a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande in the first major battle of the Mexican–American War.

1877 – At Gilmore’s Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens.

1886 – Pharmacist John Pemberton introduces a carbonated beverage named “Coca-Cola” as a patent medicine “…to ease ailments such as dyspepsia, headache, impotence, and morphine addiction.”

1912 – Famous Players Film Company  (later Paramount Pictures)  is founded by Adolph Zukor, Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman in New York City.

1927 – Attempting to make the first non stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, French war heroes Charles Nungesser and François Coli disappear after taking off piloting a Levasseur PL.8-01 biplane L’Oiseau Blanc from Le Bourget Field in Paris.

1942 – The Battle of the Coral Sea during World War II comes to an end with Japanese Navy carrier aircraft attacking and sinking the U.S. Navy carrier USS Lexington.

1945 – VE – Victory in Europe DAY. Under terms of the surrender by Germany, the order for “all German military, naval and air authorities and to all forces under German control to cease active operations” takes effect.

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.

1978 – Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler make the first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen.

1980 – After the last naturally occurring case of smallpox was diagnosed in 1977, the World Health Organization announces the eradication of the disease.

1988 – A fire at Illinois Bell’s Hinsdale Central Office triggers an extended 1AESS switch network outage, knocking out service to over 40,000 customers for 2 weeks.