What are the important events that happened on May 8? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.

May 8: Facts & Myths About This Day

May 8 is the 128^th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 237 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Thursday.

Under the Julian calendar, this day is April 25, 2025 – a Thursday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?

When this day started, 1,746,662,400 seconds has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.

Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectaicosaoctagon’ day.

Taurus is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 285 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,521 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.

May 8 Historical Events

• 413 –
  Emperor Honorius signs an edict providing tax relief for the Italian provinces Tuscia, Campania, Picenum, Samnium, Apulia, Lucania and Calabria, who are plundered by the Visigoths.
• 1541 –
  Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River and names it Río de Espíritu Santo.
• 1794 –
  Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror by revolutionists, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the Ferme Générale, is tried, convicted, and guillotined all on the same day in Paris.
• 1886 –
  Pharmacist John Styth Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named “Coca-Cola” as a patent medicine.
• 1898 –
  The first games of the Italian football league system are played.
• 1899 –
  The Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin opens.
• 1945 –
  Hundreds of Algerian civilians are killed by French Army soldiers in the Sétif massacre.
• 1972 –
  Vietnam War – U.S. President Richard M. Nixon announces his order to place mines in major North Vietnamese ports in order to stem the flow of weapons and other goods to that nation.
• 1973 –
  A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota ends with the surrender of the militants.
• 1997 –
  A China Southern Airlines Boeing 737 crashes on approach into Bao'an International Airport, killing 35 people.

Who were born on May 8?

• 1668 –
  Alain-René Lesage, French writer (d. 1747)
• 1829 –
  Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American musician (d. 1869)
• 1915 –
  Milton Meltzer, American writer (d. 2009)
• 1930 –
  Gary Snyder, American poet
• 1932 –
  Sonny Liston, American boxer (d. 1970)
• 1940 –
  Peter Benchley, American author (d. 2006)
• 1941 –
  Bill Lockyer, American politician
• 1956 –
  Jeff Wincott, Canadian actor
• 1960 –
  Eric Brittingham, American bassist
• 1966 –
  Marta Sánchez, Spanish singer

Who died on May 8?

• 1192 –
  Duke Ottokar IV of Styria (b. 1163)
• 1794 –
  Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist (executed) (b. 1743)
• 1873 –
  John Stuart Mill, English philosopher (b. 1806)
• 1907 –
  Edmund G. Ross, American Senator (b. 1826)
• 1945 –
  Bernhard Rust, Nazi education minister (b. 1883)
• 1967 –
  LaVerne Andrews, American singer (The Andrews Sisters) (b. 1911)
• 1991 –
  Jean Langlais, French composer and pianist (b. 1907)
• 1999 –
  Ed Gilbert, American actor (b. 1931)
• 2000 –
  Henry Nicols, AIDS activist (b. 1973)
• 2006 –
  Iain Macmillan, Abbey Road photographer (b. 1938)