February 8 Historical Events

The following events took place on February 8. The list is arranged in chronological order.

Found 55 events. Showing 31 - 55.

• 1952
  Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom.
• 1955
  The Government of Sindh, Pakistan, abolishes the Jagirdari system in the province. One million acres (4000 km2) of land thus acquired is to be distributed among the landless peasants.
• 1960
  Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name “Mountbatten-Windsor”.
• 1960
  The first eight brass star plaques are installed in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• 1962
  Charonne massacre. Nine trade unionists are killed by French police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Paris Prefecture of Police.
• 1963
  Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration.
• 1963
  The first full color television program in the world, publicly advertised, is broadcast in Mexico City by XHGC-TV, Channel 5, due to technical breakthrough advances made by Mexican engineer Guillermo González Camarena.
• 1963
  The regime of Prime Minister of Iraq, Brigadier General Abd al-Karim Qasim is overthrown by the Ba'ath Party.
• 1965
  Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean and explodes, killing everyone aboard.
• 1968
  American civil rights movement: The Orangeburg massacre: An attack on black students from South Carolina State University who are protesting racial segregation at the town’s only bowling alley, leaves three or four dead in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
• 1969
  Allende meteorite falls near Pueblito de Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico.
• 1971
  The NASDAQ stock market index opens for the first time.

• 1971
  South Vietnamese ground troops launch an incursion into Laos to try to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail and stop communist infiltration.
• 1974
  After 84 days in space, the crew of Skylab 4, the last crew to visit American space station Skylab, returns to Earth.
• 1974
  Military coup in Upper Volta.
• 1978
  Proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast on radio for the first time.
• 1981
  Twenty-one association football spectators are trampled to death at Karaiskakis Stadium in Neo Faliro, Greece, after a football match between Olympiacos F.C. and AEK Athens F.C.
• 1983
  The Melbourne dust storm hits Australia’s second largest city. The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, a 320 m deep dust cloud envelops the city, turning day to night.
• 1986
  Hinton train collision: Twenty-three people are killed when a VIA Rail passenger train collides with a 118-car Canadian National freight train near the town of Hinton, Alberta, west of Edmonton. It is the worst rail accident in Canada until the Lac-Mégantic, Quebec derailment in 2013 which killed forty-seven people.
• 1993
  General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigs two crashes intended to demonstrate that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the next day.
• 1996
  The U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act.
• 1996
  The massive Internet collaboration 24 Hours in Cyberspace takes place.
• 2010
  A freak storm in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan triggers a series of at least 36 avalanches, burying over two miles of road, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000 travelers.
• 2013
  A blizzard disrupts transportation and leaves hundreds of thousands of people without electricity in the Northeastern United States and parts of Canada.
• 2014
  A hotel fire in Medina, Saudi Arabia kills 15 Egyptian pilgrims with 130 also injured.