May 8

• May 8, 1429
  A small French army led by a peasant girl Joan of Arc lifts the siege of Orleans, which becomes the turning point in the Hundred Years' War between France and England
• May 8, 1450
  Jack Cade's Rebellion-Kentishmen revolts against King Henry VI
• May 8, 1541
  Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto, discovers and crosses the Mississippi River, which he calls Rio de Espiritu Santo, during the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States
• May 8, 1660
  English parliament asks King Charles II to return
• May 8, 1737
  Edward Gibbon, an English historian, author of "Decline and Fall of Roman Empire," is born
• May 8, 1741
  Charles VII, Prince-elector of Bavaria, allies with France and Spain against Austria by the Treaty of Nymphenburg
• May 8, 1792
  British Captain George Vancouver sights and names Mount Rainier
• May 8, 1794
  Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, is executed on the guillotine during France's Reign of Terror
• May 8, 1846
  The first major battle of the Mexican-American War is fought at Palo Alto, Texas in which US forces led by General Zachary Taylor are able to beat back the invading Mexican forces
• May 8, 1864
  19 Grant and Lee's armies suffer horrendous losses at the "Bloody Angle" during the Battle of Spotsylvania when Grant's Union forces once again attempted to outflank or smash Lee's Confederates
• May 8, 1873
  John Stuart Mill, a British philosopher and political economist, dies
• May 8, 1886
  In Atlanta, Georgia, United States, pharmacist John Pemberton sales the first time a carbonated beverage containing cocaine, he calls "Coca Cola"
• May 8, 1887
  Aleksandr Ulyanov, brother of Vladimir Lenin, is hanged for a conspiracy to assassinate Emperor Alexander III of Russia
• May 8, 1902
  Mount Pelée erupts, wipes out Saint Pierre, Martinique and kills 30,000
• May 8, 1942
  Battle of the Coral Sea, a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II, ends with strategic victory of Allies
• May 8, 1942
  German General Erich von Manstein's army launches a thrust into the Kerch peninsula of the Crimea, shattering three Russian armies, capturing 169,000 prisoners
• May 8, 1943
  Mordechai Anielewicz, commander of Warsaw ghetto uprising, is killed
• May 8, 1945
  The act of German military surrender, which ends World War II in Europe, is signed in Berlin, Germany in the middle of the night, so the date is known in the West as Victory in Europe Day, whereas in post-Soviet states the Victory Day is celebrated on 9 May
• May 8, 1958
  United States Vice President Richard Nixon is shoved, stoned, booed and spat upon by protesters in Peru during his goodwill tour of Latin America