The following historical events happened on May 8:

• 1821 - Greek History: Greek War of Independence. The Greeks defeated the Turks in Gravia
• 1846 - Mexican-American War: Zachary Taylor defeats a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande in the first major battle of the war, the Battle of Palo Alto
• 1861 - American Civil War: Richmond, Virginia is named the Capital of the Confederate States of America.
• 1886 - Pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that would later be named "Coca Cola"
• 1898 - The first games of the Italian Footbal League were played.
• 1899 - The Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin opens
• 1902 - Volcanic Eruptions: In Martinique, Mount Pelee erupts and destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre killing over 30,000 people.  Only a handful of residents survived the blast.
• 1914 - Paramount Pictures was formed.
• 1933 - Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast in protest against the British oppression in India.
• 1942 - WORLD WAR II: Gunners of the Ceylon Garrison artillery on Horsburgh Island in the cocos Islands rebel in the Cocos Island Mutiny. The mutiny was crushed and three of them were executed.  One of which is a British Commonwaelth soldier.  The only British Commonwealth Soldier executed for a mutiny during World War II.
• 1942 - WORLD WAR II:  FIRST OF IT's KIND: First Time in Naval History that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.  The Battle of Coral Sea comes to an end with Japanese Imperial Navy aircraft carrier attacking and sinking the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington.
• 1945 - WORLD WAR II: V-E Day. Combat ends in Europe.  German forces agree to an unconditional surrender.
• 1945 - Setif Massacre: Hundreds of algerian civilians were killed by the French Army soldiers during the Setif Massacre.
• 1945 - The Prague Uprising ends.  Today the Czech Republic celebrates this event as a national holiday.
• 1967 - PHILIPPINE HISTORY: The Philippine province of Davao is split into three: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sure and Davao Oriental.
• 1970 - Beatles Release Last LP: Let It Be. 
• 1970 - The Hard Hat Riot.  In the Wall Street Area of New York City, blue-collar construction workers clash with anti-war demonstrators protesting the Vietnam War.
• 1972 - Vietnam War: Richard M. Nixon, The US President at that time, announced his order to place mines in major North Vietnamese ports in order to stop the flow of weapons and other goods to that nation.
• 1976 - FIRST OF IT's KIND: California, USA. The first steel coaster, Rollercoaster Revolution,  with a vertical flip opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
• 1980 - The eradication of smallpox was endorsed by the World Health Organizations.
• 1984 - Summer Olympic History: The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles California.
• 1987 - The Loughgall Ambush: The SAS kill 8 IRA members and 1 civilian, in Loughgall, Northern Ireland.

The Following Events occurred in our World History on May 1:

• 305 - Diocletian and Maximian retired from the office of Roman Emperor
• 880 - RELEGION: Setting the model for all later cross-in-square Orthodox churches, the Nea Ekklesia was inaugurated
• 1328 - The treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton ended the Wars of Scottish Independence.  The kingdom of Scotland was recognized as an independent state by the Kingdom of England
• 1576 - Stefan Batory, the reigning Prince of Transylvania, marries Anna Jagiellon and they became co-rulers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
• 1707 - The Kongdom of England and The Kingdom of Scotland joined by the Act of Union to form Great Britain
• 1751 - FIRST OF IT'S KIND: The first cricket match is played in America
• 1753 - The international Code of Botanical Nomenclature adopted the Publication of "Species Plantarum" by Linnaeus
• 1776 - RELIGION: The Illuminati was established in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria) by the Jesuit-tought Adam Weishaupt
• 1778 - AMERICAN REVOLUTION: In Hatboro, Pennsylvania, The Battle of Crooked Billet Begins.
• 1785 - The Kingdom of Hawaii was established after Kamehameha, The King of Hawaii, defeated Kalanikupule.
• 1786 - Wolfgang Amaedeus Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro"'s Opening Night at the Opera in Vienna, Austria
• 1834 - The British Colonies ABOLISH SLAVERY.
• 1840 - FIRST OF IT's KIND: The first adhesive postage stamp, The Penny Black, was issued in the United Kingdom
• 1848 - The Fraternity Phi Gamma Delta was founded at JEfferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
• 1851 - In London, Queen Victoria's The Grean Exhibition opened.
• 1852 - PHILIPPINE HISTORY: The philippine peso was introduced into circulation
• 1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville begins.
• 1884 - The demand for Eight-Hour Workday in the United States was proclaimed
• 1886 - LABOR DAY HISTORY: The Haymarket riots in Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois was the start of the general strike.  This eventually lead to win the eight hour workday in the United States.  Most industrialized nations now commemorate this event as May Day or Labour Day.
• 1898 - PHILIPPINE HISTORY - Spanish American War. The Battle of Manila Bay - The United States Navy Destroys the Spanish Pacific fleet in the first battle of the War. This is the First Major engagement during the war. This eventually lead to the end of the Spanish Colonial Rule in the Philippines.
• 1915 - WORLD WAR I: The RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her two hundred and second and final crossing of the North Atlantic.  Six Days Later, the ship was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives including 128 Americans, rousing the American Sentiment against the Germans.
• 1925 - Today's Largest Trade Union, The All-China Federation of Trade Unions,  was officially founded.
• 1927 - FIRST OF IT's KIND: On an Imperial Airways Flight from London to Paris, the first cooked meals on scheduled flight was introduced.
• 1930 - The dwarf planet Pluto was officially named.
• 1931 - The Empire State in New York City was Dedicated.
• 1940 - Due to War, The summer Olympics was cancelled.
• 1941 - WORLD WAR II: Operation Mercury was launched by the German Forces.  This was the largest airborne invasion at the time to capture Crete.
• 1941 - German Forces also launched a major attack on Tobruk
• 1945 - WORLD WAR II: A German newsreader officially announces that Adolf Hitler has "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany.
• 1946 - The Islands of Dedecanese should be returned to Greece by Italy was concluded through The Paris Peace Conference.
• 1948 - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) was established with Kim Il-Sung as president.
• 1950 - Guam was organized as the United States Commonwealth
• 1956 - The Polio vaccine, developed by Jonas Salk, was made available to the public.
• 1956 - Minamata disease was officially discovered after a doctor in Japan reported an "Epidemic of an unknown disease of the central nervoucs system".
• 1960 - Francis Gary Powers was shot down on a Lockheed U-2 Spyplane over the Soviet Union sparking a diplomatic crisis.
• 1961 - Fidel Castro, The Prime Minister of Cuba, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections.
• 1970 - President Richard Nixon announcement that the U.S. Forces in Vietnam would pursue enemy troops into Cambodia, a neutral country, sparked protests in Seattle.
• 1971 - Amtrak (The National Railroad Passenger Corporation) was formed to take over U.S. passenger rail service.
• 1978 - FIRST OF IT's KIND: Travelling by Dog sled, Japan's Naomi Uemura becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone.
• 1982 - Operation Black Buck begins.  The RAF Attack on the Argentine Air Force during Falklands War
• 1983 - The Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize.
• 1987 - Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein, a Jewish born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.
• 1989 - Disney-MGM Studios opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States.
• 1992 - Los Angeles California, On the third day of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, African- American activist and victim of police beating Rodney King appears in public before television news cameras to appeal for calm and plead for peace, asking the people "People, Ij ust want to say, you know, can we all get along?"  These events eventually tranformed the Los Angeles Police Department on how they deal with proactive policing.
• 2000 - PHILIPPINE HISTORY: EDSA III.  Philippine President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo declares the existence of "a State of REbellion", hours after thousands of supporters of her arrested predecessor, Joseph Estrada, storm towards the presidential palace at the height of the EDSA III rebellion.
• 2004 - Cyprus, Czech Republi, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joins the European Union.  The Union was celebrated at the residence of the Irish President in Dublin.
• 2007 - Los Angeles, California. The Los Angles Police Department's response to a May Day pro-immigration rally became a matter of controversy.  This was The Los Angeles May Day melee.
• 2008 - The London Agreement on translation of European patents which was concluded in 2000 enters into force in 14 of the 34 contracting states to the European Patent Convention.

 The following events occurred in our World Histroy on April 30: