Historical Events on Thursday, 8th May

08/05/2025

The 2025 papal conclave elects Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, taking the name Leo XIV as the 267th Pope of the Catholic Church.

A conclave was held on 7 and 8 May 2025 to elect a new pope to succeed Francis, who had died on 21 April 2025. Of the 135 eligible cardinal electors, all but two attended. On the fourth ballot, the conclave elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. After accepting his election, he took the name Leo XIV.

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08/05/2021

A car bomb explodes in front of a school in Kabul, capital city of Afghanistan killing at least 55 people and wounding over 150.

Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is within the jurisdiction of Kabul District and has an estimated population of 5,333,284 people. Located in the eastern half of the country, forming part of the Kabul Province, the city is administratively divided into five zones and 22 municipal districts. The native population of Kabul primarily speaks Persian, locally referred to as Persian Dari, using regional Dari dialects with a distinctive Kabuli accent.

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08/05/2019

British 17-year-old Isabelle Holdaway is reported to be the first patient ever to receive a genetically modified phage therapy to treat a drug-resistant infection.

Phage therapy, viral phage therapy, or phagotherapy is the therapeutic use of bacteriophages for the treatment of pathogenic bacterial infections. This therapeutic approach emerged at the beginning of the 20th century but was progressively replaced by the use of antibiotics in most parts of the world after the Second World War. Bacteriophages, known as phages, are a form of virus that attach to bacterial cells and inject their genome into the cell. The bacteria's production of the viral genome interferes with its ability to function, halting the bacterial infection. The bacterial cell causing the infection is unable to reproduce and instead produces additional phages. Phages are very selective in the strains of bacteria they are effective against.

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08/05/1997

China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 crashes on approach into Bao'an International Airport, killing 35 people.

China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport to Shenzhen Huangtian Airport. On 8 May 1997, the Boeing 737 performing this route crashed during the second attempt to land in a thunderstorm.

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08/05/1988

A fire at Illinois Bell's Hinsdale Central Office triggers an extended 1AESS network outage once considered to be the "worst telecommunications disaster in US telephone industry history".

Illinois Bell Telephone Company, LLC is the Bell Operating Company serving Illinois. It is owned by AT&T through AT&T Teleholdings, formerly Ameritech.

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08/05/1987

The SAS kills eight Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers and a civilian during an ambush in Loughgall, Northern Ireland.

The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling, and in 1950 it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, direct action and special reconnaissance. Much of the information about the SAS is highly classified, and the unit is not commented on by either the British government or the Ministry of Defence due to the secrecy and sensitivity of its operations.

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08/05/1984

Corporal Denis Lortie enters the Quebec National Assembly and opens fire, killing three people and wounding 13. René Jalbert, Sergeant-at-Arms of the Assembly, succeeds in calming him, for which he will later receive the Cross of Valour.

Denis Lortie is a former Canadian Forces corporal. In 1984, he stormed into the Parliament Building in Quebec City and opened fire with several firearms, killing three government employees and wounding thirteen others. The National Assembly's serjeant-at-arms, René Jalbert, volunteered himself to serve as a hostage, and conversed with Lortie for several hours before convincing him to surrender to authorities.

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The Soviet Union announces a boycott upon the Summer Olympics at Los Angeles, later joined by 14 other countries.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), also known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's third-most populous country, largest by area, and bordered twelve countries. A diverse multinational state, it was organized as a federal union of national republics, the largest and most populous being the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. In practice, its government and economy were highly centralized. As a one-party state governed by the Communist Party, it was the flagship communist state. Its capital and largest city was Moscow.

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The Thames Barrier is officially opened, preventing the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded except under extreme circumstances.

The Thames Barrier is a retractable barrier system built to protect the floodplain of most of Greater London from exceptionally high tides and storm surges moving up from the North Sea. It has been operational since 1982. When needed, it is closed (raised) during high tide; at low tide, it can be opened to restore the river's flow towards the sea. Built about 2 miles east of the Isle of Dogs, its northern bank is in Silvertown in the London Borough of Newham and its southern bank is in the New Charlton area of the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

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08/05/1980

The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has six regional offices and 150 field offices worldwide. Only sovereign states are eligible to join, and it is the largest intergovernmental health organization at the international level.

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08/05/1978

The first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler.

Mount Everest is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at its summit. Its height was most recently measured in 2020 by Chinese and Nepali authorities as 8,848.86 m.

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08/05/1976

The rollercoaster The New Revolution, the first steel coaster with a vertical loop, opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

The New Revolution is a steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California. Manufactured by Anton Schwarzkopf and designed by Werner Stengel, the roller coaster opened to the public on May 8, 1976. The New Revolution is the world's first modern roller coaster to feature a vertical loop and has been recognized for that accomplishment by American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE), who awarded the roller coaster its Coaster Landmark status. However, there were earlier examples of roller coasters with a full vertical loop, such as the steel roller coaster called "Looping the Loop" in Parque Japonés in Buenos Aires, which operated from 1911 to 1930.

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08/05/1973

A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota ends with the surrender of the militants.

The Wounded Knee Occupation, also known as Second Wounded Knee, began on February 27, 1973, when approximately 200 Oglala Lakota and followers of the American Indian Movement (AIM) seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, United States, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The protest followed the failure of an effort of the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO) to use impeachment to remove tribal president Richard Wilson, whom they accused of corruption and abuse of opponents. Protesters also criticized the United States government's failure to fulfill treaties with Native American people, and demanded the reopening of treaty negotiations with the goal of fair and equitable treatment of Native Americans.

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08/05/1972

Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his order to place naval mines in major North Vietnamese ports in order to stem the flow of weapons and other goods to that nation.

The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.

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08/05/1970

The Beatles release their 12th and final studio album Let It Be.

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the most influential band in popular music and were integral to the development of 1960s counterculture and the recognition of popular music as an art form. Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock 'n' roll, their sound incorporated elements of classical music and traditional pop in innovative ways. The band also explored music styles ranging from folk and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock. As pioneers in recording, songwriting and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionised many aspects of the music industry and were often publicised as leaders of the era's youth and sociocultural movements.

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08/05/1967

The Philippine province of Davao is split into three: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, and Davao Oriental.

Davao, officially the Province of Davao, was a province in the Philippines on the island of Mindanao. The old province is coterminous with the present-day Davao Region or Region XI. It was divided into three provinces of Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, and Davao del Sur with the passage of Philippine Republic Act No. 4867 on May 8, 1967. Two more provinces, Compostela Valley and Davao Occidental, were carved out of the territories of Davao del Norte and Davao del Sur respectively. The descendant provinces were reorganized into the current region in 2001.

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08/05/1963

South Vietnamese soldiers under the Roman Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem open fire on Buddhists defying a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, killing nine and sparking the Buddhist crisis.

Nine unarmed Buddhist civilians were shot on 8 May 1963 in the city of Huế, South Vietnam, at the hands of the army and security forces of the government under President Ngô Đình Diệm, a Catholic. The army and police fired guns and launched grenades into a crowd of Buddhists who had been protesting against a government ban on flying the Buddhist flag on the day of Phật Đản, which commemorates the birth of Gautama Buddha.

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08/05/1957

South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem began a state visit to the United States, his regime's main sponsor.

Ngô Đình Diệm was a South Vietnamese politician who was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955) and later the first president of South Vietnam from 1955 until his capture and assassination during the CIA-backed 1963 coup d'état.

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08/05/1950

The Tollund Man was discovered in a peat bog near Silkeborg, Denmark.

The Tollund Man is a naturally mummified corpse of a man who lived during the 5th century BC, during the period characterised in Scandinavia as the Pre-Roman Iron Age. He was found in 1950, preserved as a bog body near Silkeborg on the Jutland peninsula in Denmark. The man's physical features were so well preserved that he was mistaken for a recent murder victim. Twelve years before his discovery, another bog body, Elling Woman, was found in the same bog.

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08/05/1946

Estonian schoolgirls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial which preceded the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn.

Aili Jõgi was an Estonian schoolgirl who on the night of 8 May 1946, together with her school friend Ageeda Paavel, blew up a Soviet War reburial monument : the preceding monument to the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn. She was born in Tallinn.

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08/05/1945

World War II: The German Instrument of Surrender signed at Berlin-Karlshorst comes into effect.

The German Instrument of Surrender was a legal document effecting the unconditional surrender of the remaining German armed forces to the Allies, ending World War II in Europe. It was signed at 22:43 CET on 8 May 1945 and took effect at 23:01 CET on the same day.

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End of the Prague uprising, celebrated now as a national holiday in the Czech Republic.

The Prague uprising was a partially successful attempt by the Czech resistance movement to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation in May 1945, during the end of World War II. The preceding six years of occupation had fuelled anti-German sentiment and the rapid advance of Allied forces from the Red Army and the United States Army offered the resistance a chance of success.

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Hundreds of Algerian civilians are killed by French Army soldiers in the Sétif massacre.

The Sétif and Guelma massacre was a series of massacres by French colonial authorities and pied-noir European settler militias on Algerian civilians in May and June 1945 around the towns of Sétif and Guelma in French Algeria.

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The Halifax riot starts when thousands of civilians and servicemen rampage through Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Halifax VE-Day riots, 7–8 May 1945, in Halifax and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, began as a celebration of the World War II victory in Europe. This rapidly evolved into a rampage by several thousand servicemen, merchant seamen, and civilians, who looted the City of Halifax. Although a subsequent Royal Commission chaired by Justice Roy Kellock blamed lax naval authority and specifically Rear-Admiral Leonard W. Murray, it is generally accepted that the underlying causes were a combination of bureaucratic confusion, insufficient policing, and antipathy between the military and civilians, fueled by the presence of 25,000 servicemen who had strained Halifax wartime resources to the limit.

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08/05/1942

World War II: The German 11th Army begins Operation Trappenjagd (Bustard Hunt) and destroys the bridgehead of the three Soviet armies defending the Kerch Peninsula.

The 11th Army was a World War II field army.

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World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end with Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attacking and sinking the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington.

The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the battle was the first naval action in which the opposing fleets neither sighted nor fired upon one another, attacking over the horizon from aircraft carriers instead. It was also the first military battle between aircraft carriers.

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World War II: Gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebel in the Cocos Islands Mutiny. Their mutiny is crushed and three of them are executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.

The Cocos (Keeling) Islands, officially the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands, are an Australian external territory located in the Indian Ocean, comprising a small archipelago approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka and relatively close to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The territory's dual name reflects that the islands have historically been known as either the Cocos Islands or the Keeling Islands.

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08/05/1941

World War II: The German Luftwaffe launches a bombing raid on Nottingham and Derby.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

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08/05/1933

Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast of self-purification and launched a one-year campaign to help the Harijan movement.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political thinker who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā, first applied to him in South Africa in 1914, is used worldwide.

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08/05/1927

Attempting to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, French war heroes Charles Nungesser and François Coli disappear after taking off aboard The White Bird biplane.

A transatlantic flight (TATL) is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, South America, or vice versa. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing aircraft, airships, balloons and other aircraft. The distance of contemporary flights varies between 3,000km to 15,000km.

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08/05/1924

The Klaipėda Convention is signed formally incorporating Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory) into Lithuania.

The Klaipėda Convention was an international agreement between Lithuania and the countries of the Conference of Ambassadors signed in Paris on May 8, 1924. According to the convention, the Klaipėda Region became an autonomous region under unconditional sovereignty of Lithuania.

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08/05/1921

The creation of the Communist Party of Romania.

The Romanian Communist Party was a communist party in Romania. It was founded in 1921 and became the founding and ruling party of the Communist Socialist Republic of Romania in 1947. From then, its overthrow in the Romanian revolution in 1989, it was effectively the only legal party in the country. Ideologically committed to Marxism–Leninism, the party oversaw Romania's departure from Soviet satellite status and incorporation of national communism.

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08/05/1919

Edward George Honey proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate the Armistice of 11 November 1918 which ended World War I.

Edward George Honey was an Australian journalist who suggested the idea of five minutes of silence in a letter to a London newspaper in May 1919, about 6 months before the first observance of the Two-minute silence in London.

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08/05/1902

In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast.

Mount Pelée or Mont Pelée is an active stratovolcano at the northern end of Martinique, an island and French overseas department in the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc of the Caribbean. Its volcanic cone is composed of stratified layers of hardened ash and solidified lava. Its most recent eruption was in 1932.

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08/05/1899

The Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin produced its first play.

The Irish Literary Theatre was a short-lived theatrical project that existed from 1899 to 1901. Its purpose was to establish a national stage for Irish plays performed by Irish performers to amplify the Irish cultural identity and encourage authors to write works of serious depth. It was founded by W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, George Moore and Edward Martyn as part of the Irish Literary Revival and it was centered in Dublin.

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08/05/1898

The first games of the Italian football league system are played.

The Italian football league system, also known as the Italian football pyramid, refers to the hierarchically interconnected league system for association football in Italy. It consists of nine national and regional tournaments, the first three being professional, while the remaining six are amateur, set up by the Italian Football Federation. One team from San Marino also competes. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between different divisions.

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08/05/1886

Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine.

John Stith Pemberton was an American pharmacist, chemist, and Confederate States Army officer who is best known as the inventor of Coca-Cola. On May 8, 1886, he developed an early version of a beverage that would later become Coca-Cola, but sold the rights to Asa Griggs Candler for roughly 2,300 dollars shortly before his death in 1888.

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08/05/1877

At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens.

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is an all-breed conformation show, held annually in the New York metropolitan area.

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08/05/1846

Mexican–American War: American forces led by Zachary Taylor defeat a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande in the first major battle of the war.

The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, was an invasion of Mexico by the United States. It followed the 1845 American annexation of Texas, which Mexico still considered its territory because it refused to recognize the Treaties of Velasco, signed by President Antonio López de Santa Anna after he was captured by the Texian Army during the 1836 Texas Revolution. The Republic of Texas was de facto an independent country, but most of its Anglo-American citizens who had moved from the United States to Texas after 1822 wanted to be annexed by the United States.

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08/05/1842

A train derails and catches fire in Paris, killing between 52 and 200 people.

On 8 May 1842, a train crashed in the cutting between Meudon and Bellevue stations on the railway between Versailles and Paris, France. The train was travelling to Paris when it derailed after the leading locomotive broke an axle, and the carriages behind piled into it and caught fire. It was the first French railway disaster and the deadliest in the world at the time, causing between 52 and 200 deaths, including that of explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville. The derailment led the French to abandon the practice of locking passengers in their carriages.

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08/05/1821

Greek War of Independence: The Greeks defeat the Turks at the Battle of Gravia Inn.

The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence fought by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire from 1821 to 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted by the British Empire, the Kingdom of France, and the Russian Empire, while the Ottomans were aided by their vassals, especially by the Eyalet of Egypt. The war led to the formation of modern Greece, which in subsequent years would be expanded to its current size. The revolution is commemorated by Greeks around the world as independence day on 25 March.

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08/05/1794

Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the Ferme générale, is tried, convicted and guillotined in one day in Paris.

The Reign of Terror was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to the Federalist revolts, revolutionary fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety. While terror was never formally instituted as a legal policy by the Convention, it was more often employed as a concept.

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08/05/1788

King Louis XVI of France attempts to impose the reforms of Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne by abolishing the parlements.

Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne was a French clergyman, bishop, cardinal, politician and finance minister of King Louis XVI.

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08/05/1721

In the Papal States, Cardinal Michelangelo dei Conti is elected Pope, and takes the name Innocent XIII.

The Papal States, officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th century until the unification of Italy, which took place between 1859 and 1870, culminating in their demise.

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08/05/1639

William Coddington founds Newport, Rhode Island.

William Coddington was an early magistrate of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and later of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He served as the judge of Portsmouth and Newport in that colony, governor of Portsmouth and Newport, deputy governor of the four-town colony, and then governor of the entire colony. Coddington was born and raised in Lincolnshire, England. He accompanied the Winthrop Fleet on its voyage to New England in 1630, becoming an early leader in Boston. There he built the first brick house and became heavily involved in the local government as an assistant magistrate, treasurer, and deputy.

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08/05/1608

A newly nationalized silver mine in Scotland at Hilderston, West Lothian is re-opened by Bevis Bulmer.

Nationalization is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with privatization and with demutualization. When previously nationalized assets are privatized and subsequently returned to public ownership at a later stage, they are said to have undergone renationalization. Industries often subject to nationalization include telephones, electric power, fossil fuels, iron ore, railways, airlines, media, postal services, banks, and water, and in many jurisdictions such entities have no history of private ownership.

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08/05/1541

Hernando de Soto stops near present-day Walls, Mississippi, and sees the Mississippi River (then known by the Spanish as Río de Espíritu Santo, the name given to it by Alonso Álvarez de Pineda in 1519).

Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador, who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru, but is best known for leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States. He is the first European documented as having crossed the Mississippi River.

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08/05/1516

A group of imperial guards, led by Trịnh Duy Sản, murdered Emperor Lê Tương Dực and fled, leaving the capital Thăng Long undefended.

The Trần Cao rebellion in 1516 is a rebellion in 16th century Vietnam, led by Trần Cao against the Lê dynasty and is regarded as an important factor leading to the collapse of the Early period Lê. It was the second rebellion led against the Lê, following an uprising led by Tŕân Tuân in 1511.

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08/05/1450

Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI.

Jack Cade's Rebellion or Cade's Rebellion was a popular revolt in 1450 against the government of England, which took place in the south-east of the country between the months of April and July. It stemmed from local grievances regarding the corruption, maladministration and abuse of power of the king's closest advisors and local officials, as well as recent military losses in France during the Hundred Years' War. Leading an army of men from south-eastern England, the rebellion's leader Jack Cade marched on London in order to force the government to reform the administration and remove from power the "traitors" deemed responsible for bad governance. Apart from the Cornish rebellion of 1497, it was the largest popular uprising to take place in England during the 15th century.

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08/05/1429

Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orléans, turning the tide of the Hundred Years' War.

Joan of Arc is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronation of Charles VII of France during the Hundred Years' War. Stating that she acted under divine guidance, she became a military leader who gained recognition as a savior of France.

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08/05/1373

Julian of Norwich, a Christian mystic and anchoress, experiences the deathbed visions described in her Revelations of Divine Love.

Julian of Norwich, also known as Juliana of Norwich, the Lady Julian, Dame Julian or Mother Julian, was a medieval English Catholic anchoress. Her writings, now known as Revelations of Divine Love, are the earliest surviving English-language works attributed to a woman. They are also the only surviving English-language works by an anchoress.

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08/05/1360

Treaty of Brétigny drafted between King Edward III of England and King John II of France (the Good).

The Treaty of Brétigny was a treaty, drafted on 8 May 1360 and ratified on 24 October 1360, between Kings Edward III of England and John II of France. In retrospect, it is seen as having marked the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453).

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08/05/0589

Reccared I opens the Third Council of Toledo, marking the entry of Visigothic Spain into the Catholic Church.

Reccared I was the king of the Visigoths, ruling in Hispania, Gallaecia and Septimania. His reign marked a climactic shift in history, with the king's renunciation of Arianism in favour of Nicene Christianity in 587.

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08/05/0413

Emperor Honorius signs an edict providing tax relief for the Italian provinces Tuscia, Campania, Picenum, Samnium, Apulia, Lucania and Calabria, which were plundered by the Visigoths.

Honorius was Roman emperor from 393 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla. After the death of Theodosius in 395, Honorius, under the regency of Stilicho, ruled the western half of the empire while his brother Arcadius ruled the eastern half. His reign over the Western Roman Empire was precarious and chaotic. In 410, Rome was sacked for the first time since the Battle of the Allia almost 800 years prior.

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01/01/1970

Spring and Autumn period: The house of Zhao defeats the house of Zhi, ending the Battle of Jinyang, a military conflict between the elite families of the State of Jin.

The Spring and Autumn period was a period in Chinese history corresponding roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou, characterized by the gradual erosion of royal power as local lords nominally subject to the Zhou exercised increasing political autonomy. The period's name derives from the Spring and Autumn Annals, a chronicle of the state of Lu between 722 and 481 BCE, which tradition associates with Confucius.

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