This is a list of selected February 8 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
| ← February 7 | February 9 → |
|---|
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
-
NASDAQ at night -
Queen Mary I of Scotland -
A fragment of the Allende meteorite -
William D. Boyce -
Sandford Fleming -
Denis Sassou Nguesso -
Theatrical poster for The Birth of a Nation
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| Prešeren Day in Slovenia | lots of ((cn)) tags |
| 1575 – Leiden University, the oldest and highest-ranked university in the Netherlands, was founded by William, Prince of Orange. | refimprove section |
| 1849 – The Roman Republic was proclaimed, temporarily replacing the government of the Papal States. | refimprove |
| 1885 – The first government-approved Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii. | refimprove section |
| 1887 – The Dawes Act, a law meant to help the assimilation of Native Americans into American society, but which instead had a negative effect, was signed by President Grover Cleveland. | neutrality issues |
| 1904 – The Russo-Japanese War began with a surprise torpedo attack by the Japanese on Russian ships near present-day Lüshunkou, China. | War: refimprove section; Battle: refimprove |
| 1950 – The Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, was established. | refimprove section |
| 1968 – Local police in Orangeburg, South Carolina, fired into a crowd of people who were protesting segregation, killing three and injuring twenty-seven others. | refimprove section |
| 1969 – The Allende meteorite, the largest carbonaceous chondrite ever found on Earth, fell near Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico. | refimprove |
| 1979 – Denis Sassou Nguesso was chosen as the new President of the Republic of the Congo after Joachim Yhombi-Opango was forced from power. | lots of CN tags |
| John Ruskin (b. 1819) · | external links |
Eligible
- 1601 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex led a failed rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I.
- 1837 – Richard Mentor Johnson became the only person ever to be elected Vice President of the United States by the Senate.
- 1855 – A series of mysterious hoof-like marks known as the Devil's Footprints appeared in the snow in Devon, England, and continued throughout the countryside for some 40 to 100 miles (60 to 160 km).
- 1879 – Enraged by a controversial umpiring decision, cricket spectators rioted and attacked the England cricket team during a match in Sydney, Australia.
- 1910 – Newspaper and magazine publisher William D. Boyce established the Boy Scouts of America, expanding the Scout Movement into the United States.
- 1915 – Film director D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation was released, becoming one of the most influential and controversial films in the history of American cinema.
- 1965 – After taking evasive action to avoid a mid-air collision just after takeoff from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean and exploded, killing all 84 people on board.
- 1971 – Trading began on Nasdaq, the world's first electronic stock exchange.
- Born/died: Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid (b. 882) · Guercino (b. 1591) · Jules Verne (b. 1828) · Iris Murdoch (d. 1999) · A. Chandranehru (d. 2005)
- 1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots (portrait shown), was executed at Fotheringhay Castle for her involvement in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Elizabeth I of England.
- 1879 – At a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute, engineer and inventor Sandford Fleming proposed the idea of standard time zones based on a single universal world time.
- 1960 – The official groundbreaking for the Walk of Fame took place in Hollywood, California.
- 2010 – A freak storm in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan triggered a series of avalanches that buried over 3.5 km (2.2 mi) of road, killed 171 people and trapped more than 2,500 travellers.
Daniele Barbaro (b. 1514) · Kate Chopin (b. 1850) · Walther Bothe (d. 1957)