This Day in History 08/05
MAY 8TH
1541 – Hernando de Soto discovers Mississippi River
1792 – British Capt George Vancouver sights and names Mt Rainier, Wash
1847 – Scot Robert Thompson patents rubber tyre
1858 – John Brown holds antislavery convention
1895 – China cedes Taiwan to Japan under Treaty of Shimonoseki
1912 – Film and television production/distribution studio Paramount Pictures is founded
1919 – Edward George Honey first proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate The Armistice of World War I, which later results in the creation of Remembrance Day
1933 – Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast in protest against British oppression in India.
1980 – World Health Organization announced smallpox had been eradicated
1996 – South Africa’s Constitutional Assembly adopts permanent post-apartheid constitution
2013 – Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi receives a four year prison sentence for fraud
2013 – Sir Alex Ferguson announces his retirement as Manchester United’s manager at the end of the season
FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS
1753 – Phillis Wheatley, American poet who was both the second published African-American poet and first published African-American woman.
1786 – Thomas Hancock, founded British rubber industry
1884 – Harry Truman, Lamar Missouri, 33rd US President (D) (1945-1953), (d. 1972)
1911 – Robert Johnson, blues singer (King of Delta Blues Singer)
1940 – Peter Benchley, NYC, novelist (Jaws, The Deep), (d. 2006)
1975 – Enrique Iglesias, Madrid, Spanish singer-songwriter and King of Latin Pop (Bailamos, Hero)
FAMOUS DEATHS
1819 – Kamehameha I, King of Hawaii (1782-1819
873 – John Stuart Mill, great Empiricist philosopher, dies at 66
1985 – Karl Marx, German composer/conductor, dies at 87
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