July 8

1099 – Christian soldiers of the 1st Crusade begin the siege of Jerusalem by marching in a religious procession around the city.

1497 – Vasco da Gama sets sail from Portugal on the first direct European voyage to India.

1758 – French forces hold Fort Carillon against the British at Ticonderoga, New York during the French and Indian War.

1760 – British forces defeat French forces on the Restigouche River in what is now southeastern Quebec during the French and Indian War.

1775 – In a final attempt to avoid war between Great Britain and the Colonies, the Second Continental Congress sends the Olive Branch Petition affirming American loyalty to Great Britain and beseeching King George III to prevent further conflict.

1776 – The Liberty Bell is rung after John Nixon delivers the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence of the United States on the steps of Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

1853 – Under orders from President Millard Fillmore, the Perry Expedition arrives in Edo Bay with a treaty requesting trade with Japan.

1876 – The Hamburg massacre, in Hamburg, South Carolina, prior to the 1876 United States presidential election, results in the deaths of 6 black members of the Republican Party, along with one white assailant.

1889 – The first issue of The Wall Street Journal is published.

1898 – Crime boss Jefferson ‘Soapy’ Smith is killed by vigilantes in the ‘Shootout on Juneau Wharf’ in Skagway, Alaska.

1932 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, closing at 41.22.

1947 – Reports are broadcast that a UFO had crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico in what became known as the Roswell UFO incident.

1948 – The U.S. Air Force accepts its first female recruits into a program called Women in the Air Force (WAF).

1960 – U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage resulting from his downed flight over the Soviet Union.

1968 – Autoworkers in Detroit, Michigan stage a wildcat strike against the Chrysler corporation.

1970 –President Nixon delivers a special congressional message proclaiming Native American Self Determination as official US Indian policy, leading to the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975.

1972 – Israeli Mossad assassinate Ghassan Kanafani, a leader of the moslem terrorist group responsible for recruiting the Japanese Red Army terrorists who committed an attack at Lod Airport in Israel in May, killing 26 people and injuring 80 others.

2011 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-135 the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program.

2021 – President Biden announces that the official conclusion of U.S. involvement in the War in Afghanistan will be on August 31.