February 8

1250 – During the Seventh Crusade, Crusader forces under Louis IX, King of France, engage and defeat Ayyubid forces of Queen Shajar al-Durr and Sultan Baibars al-Bunduqdarin of Egypt near Al Mansurah, Egypt in the Nile River delta.

1587 – Mary Queen of Scots is executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

1693 – The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, is granted a charter by King William III and Queen Mary II. (Still in operation)

1837 – Richard Johnson becomes the first Vice President of the United States chosen by the United States Senate under provisions of the 12th amendment

1879 – Canadian Engineer Sir Sandford Fleming first proposes the adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute.

1885 – The first government approved Japanese immigrants arrive in Hawaii.

1887 – The Dawes Act authorizes the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land, excepting the lands of the ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ in Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma) until the Curtis Act of 1898,  and divide it into individual allotments.

1904 – A surprise torpedo attack by Japanese destroyers on the Russian fleet anchored at Port Arthur, Manchuria starts the Russo-Japanese War.

1910 – The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce.

1915 – D. W. Griffith’s film The Birth of a Nation premieres in Los Angeles.

1924 –  At the Nevada state prison at Carson City, Gee Jon, a member of the Hip Sing Tong becomes the first person executed by use of lethal gas for the murder of Tom Quong Kee, a member of the rival Bing Kong Tong.

1946 – The first portion of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible is published.

1965 – Shortly after takeoff from JFK airport, Eastern Air Lines Flight 663, a Douglas DC-7B crashes into the Atlantic Ocean attempting to avoid a mid-air collision with incoming Pan American Airways Flight 212, a Boeing 707, and explodes, killing all 84 passengers and crew aboard.

1974 – After 84 days in space, the all rookie crew of Skylab 4, the last crew to visit American space station Skylab, returns to Earth.

1978 – The proceedings of the Senate are broadcast on radio for the first time.

1993 – General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigs two crashes intended to demonstrate that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the next day.

2013 –  Two winter storm systems in the U.S. merge into a hurricane force ‘bomb cyclone’ causing a blizzard –Winter Storm Nemo – dropping up to 40 inches of snow, disrupting transportation and communications in the Northeastern States and parts of Canada and leaving over 700,000 people without electricity, resulting in the deaths of 18 people with $100,000,000 in damages