August 8

• August 8, 70
  Antonia Fortress is destroyed by the Romans during the siege of Jerusalem
• August 8, 117
  Trajan, emperor of Rome, dies
• August 8, 869
  Lothair II, King of Lotharingia, dies
• August 8, 870
  Kingdom of Lotharingia, realm of Lothair II, who died some monthes ago, is devided between his uncles Louis the German of East Francia and Charles the Bald of West Francia by the Treaty of Meerssen
• August 8, 1579
  Cornerstone is laid for Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg observatory, the first custom-built observatory in modern Europe, by order of Frederick II, King of Denmark
• August 8, 1588
  The English Navy destroy the Spanish Armada at the Battle of Gravelines which opens the world for English trade and colonization
• August 8, 1700
  Denmark signs the peace treaty of Travendal with Sweden during the Great Northern War
• August 8, 1709
  In Lisbon, Bartolomeu de Gusmão manages to lift a balloon full of hot air about 4.5 meters in front of King John V and the Portuguese court, which becomes the first documented balloon flight in Europe
• August 8, 1736
  Mahomet Weyonomon, a Mohegan sachem or leader, dies of smallpox while waiting to see King George II to complain directly about British settlers encroaching on tribal lands in the Connecticut colony
• August 8, 1786
  Savoyard mountain guide Jacques Balmat and doctor Michel-Gabriel Paccard become the first men to climb Mont Blanc in France
• August 8, 1788
  King Louis XVI calls the Estates General, which have not met since 1614, because of loosing of power
• August 8, 1815
  Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for Saint Helena, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean, to spend the remainder of his days in exile
• August 8, 1846
  David Wilmot, an American politic, offers to ban slavery in any territory to be acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War in his speech in the United States House of Representatives, the event known as the Wilmot Proviso
• August 8, 1897
  Anarchist Michele Angiolillo assassinates Spanish Prime Minister Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, Spain, and Marcelo Azcárraga Palmero becomes prime minister of Spain
• August 8, 1919
  British recognize Afghanistan's independence with Treaty of Rawalpindi
• August 8, 1945
  USSR establishes a communist government in the northern half of the occupied Korean peninsula, stopping along 38th parallel after invasion of Manchuria, per the agreement with the United States
• August 8, 1949
  Bhutan becomes an independent monarchy after Treaty of Friendship between India and Bhutan
• August 8, 1963
  Great Train Robbery occurs in England, 2.6 million pounds, or US$7.3 million
• August 8, 1988
  Thousands of protesters in Myanmar are killed during anti-government demonstrations, which leads to a bloody military coup
• August 8, 1991
  The Warsaw radio mast, the tallest construction ever built, collapses
• August 8, 2008 08:08
  An estimated one billion people worldwide watch the opening ceremonies of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad on TV

February 25

• February 25, 1570
  Pope Pius V issues the bull Regnans in Excelsis which excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I and absolves her subjects from allegiance
• February 25, 1791
  President George Washington signs a bill creating the First Bank of the United States
• February 25, 1831
  The Polish revolutionaries halt the Russian advance into their country at the Battle of Olszynka Grochowska
• February 25, 1836
  Samuel Colt, an American inventor and industrialist, patents the first revolving barrel multi-shot firearm, which allows the shooter to fire 5 or 6 times before reloading
• February 25, 1856
  Congress of Paris between representatives of the great powers in Europe to make peace after Crimean War begins
• February 25, 1863
  US President Abraham Lincoln signs the National Currency Act into law, creating national banking system, comptroller of currency, allowing qualified banks to issue government-sponsored paper money in the banks' names
• February 25, 1910
  Dalai Lama flees Tibet from Chinese troops to British-Indies
• February 25, 1921
  Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic is proclaimed after invasion and occupation by Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
• February 25, 1923
  Bread in Berlin, Germany rises to 2,000 marks due to hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic
• February 25, 1932
  Immigrant Adolf Hitler gets German citizenship
• February 25, 1939
  First Anderson bomb shelter in Britain erected in an Islington garden, named after Sir John Anderson with special responsibility for preparing air-raid precautions
• February 25, 1947
  The Allied Control Council of Germany issues Law No. 46, disbanding Prussia
• February 25, 1948
  The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia under Klement Gottwald, with Soviet backing, seize power in Czechoslovakia after coup d'aet, ending the last remaining democracy in Eastern Europe
• February 25, 1956
  Soviet party leader Nikita Khrushchev denounces Josef Stalin's purges and the personality cult at 20th Soviet Party Conference, ushering in a less repressive era in the Soviet Union
• February 25, 1964
  Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., later accepted name Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest heavyweights in the sport's history, wins the world heavyweight championship for the first time
• February 25, 1980
  Military coup under DГ©si Bouterse and Roy Horb in Suriname ousts Prime Minister Henck Arron, replacing the government with a National Military Council and starting military dictatorship in Suriname
• February 25, 1992
  Khojaly Massacre, massacre of 613 Azerbaijani civilians by the Armenian, occurs in Khojaly
• February 25, 2006
  Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni wins his second re-election, sparking riots in Kampala by opposition supporters