TIME TRAVELING, MAY 8 1541 Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River, south of present-day Memphis, Tenn., becoming one of the first European explorers to do so. From there, he and his 400 troops head to present-day Arkansas in a fruitless two-year search for silver and gold in the American wilderness. 1794 Antoine Lavoisier, the French chemist who recognized and named oxygen and hydrogen and is widely considered the “Father of Modern Chemistry,” is executed by guillotine at age 50 after being branded a traitor by the National Convention under Maximilien de Robespierre during the Reign of Terror in France. 1794 The United States Post Office is established. 1846 At Palo Alto, Texas, the first major battle of the Mexican War is fought. 1879 Patent lawyer and inventor George Selden applies for the first automobile patent with George Eastman, who will become famous for his Kodak camera, as his witness. He is granted the patent 16 years later. 1886 Pharmacist Dr. John Styth Pemberton of Georgia invents what will later be called Coca-Cola. 1902 Approximately 40,000 people are killed when an eruption of Mt. Pelée destroys the city of St. Pierre in Martinique, West Indies. 1914 The U.S. Congress passes a Joint Resolution that designates the second Sunday in May as Mothers Day. 1943 The Germans suppress a revolt by Polish Jews and destroy the Warsaw Ghetto. 1945 President Harry Truman announces that World War II has ended in Europe, and both Great Britain and the United States celebrate “Victory in Europe” (V-E) Day. 1956 Alfred E. Neuman appears on the cover of Mad Magazine for the first time. 1958 President Dwight Eisenhower orders the National Guard out of Little Rock as Ernest Green becomes the first black to graduate from an Arkansas public school. 1961 New Yorkers select a new name for their new National League baseball franchise, choosing the “Mets.” 1967 Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in U.S. Army. 1973 Members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) surrender to federal authorities, ending a 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, site of the infamous massacre of 300 Sioux by the U.S. 7th Cavalry in 1890. AIM leaders had hoped to force an investigation of what they considered corrupt reservations, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and broken Indian treaties. 1978 David R. Berkowitz, known as the Son of Sam, pleads guilty to six murder charges. 1984 Claiming that its athletes will not be safe from protests and possible physical attacks, the Soviet Union announces it will not participate in the 1984 Summer Olympics Games in Los Angeles. Despite the statement, it is obvious the boycott is in response to the U.S. boycott of the 1980 games that were held in Moscow. 1985 New Coke is released to the public on the 99th anniversary of Coca-Cola. 1986 Reporters are told that 84,000 people have been evacuated from areas near the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Soviet Ukraine. 1999 The first female cadet graduates from The Citadel military college in South Carolina. 2003 In Kinshasa, Congo, more than 100 people die when a rear ramp door falls off an old Soviet cargo plane, sucking the passengers out of the aircraft. 2010 Eighty-eight-year-old actress Betty White, known for her former roles on “The Golden Girls” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” becomes the oldest person to host the long-running, late-night TV comedy show “Saturday Night Live” after hundreds of thousands of her fans sign onto a Facebook campaign rallying for it. White later wins the seventh Emmy of her career for her SNL appearance.
Posted on: Thu, 08 May 2014 06:31:40 +0000
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