Today in History
May 8

1450   Jack Cade's Rebellion–Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI.
1541   Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River which he calls Rio de Espiritu Santo.
1559   An act of supremacy defines Queen Elizabeth I as the supreme governor of the church of England.
1794   The United States Post Office is established.
1846   The first major battle of the Mexican War is fought at Palo Alto, Texas.
1862   General 'Stonewall' Jackson repulses the Federals at the Battle of McDowell, in the Shenendoah Valley.
1864   Union troops arrive at Spotsylvania Court House to find the Confederates waiting for them.
1886   Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton invents Coca Cola.
1895   China cedes Taiwan to Japan under Treaty of Shimonoseki.
1904   U.S. Marines land in Tangier, North Africa, to protect the Belgian legation.
1919   The first transatlantic flight by a navy seaplane takes-off.
1933   Hahatma Gandhi begins a hunger strike to protest British oppression in India.
1940   German commandos in Dutch uniforms cross the Dutch border to hold bridges for the advancing German army.
1942   The Battle of the Coral Sea between the Japanese Navy and the U.S. Navy ends.
1945   The final surrender of German forces is celebrated as VE (Victory Europe) day.
1952   Allied fighter-bombers stage the largest raid of the war on North Korea.
1958   President Eisenhower orders the National Guard out of Little Rock as Ernest Green becomes the first black to graduate from an Arkansas public school.
1967   Boxer Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in U.S. Army.
1984   The Soviet Union announces it will not participate in Summer Olympics planned for Los Angeles.
1995   Jacques Chirac is elected president of France.

Born on May 8
1668   Alain Rene Lesage, French writer (The Adventures of Gil Blas, Turcaret).
1753   Miguel Hidalgo, Mexican nationalist.
1828   Jean Henri Dunant, Swiss philanthropist, founder of the Red Cross and YMCA, first recipient (jointly) of the Nobel Peace Prize.
1829   Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American pianist.
1884   Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States (1945-1953).
1895   Edmund Wilson, American critic and essayist.
1906   Roberto Rossellini, Italian film director.
1910   Mary Lou Williams, jazz pianist and composer.
1920   Sloan Wilson, American author (The man in the Gray Flannel Suit, A Summer Place).
1928   Theodore Sorenson, advisor to John F. Kennedy.
1930   Gary Snyder, beat poet.
1937   Thomas Pynchon, novelist (Gravity's Rainbow).
1940   Peter Benchley, novelist (Jaws, The Deep).
1952   Beth Henley, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (Crimes of the Heart).