Today In History [8th February, 2015]

A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.

February 8

1587           Mary, Queen of Scots is beheaded in Fotheringhay Castle for her alleged part in the conspiracy to usurp Elizabeth I.
1807           At Eylau, Napoleon's Marshal Pierre Agureau attacks Russian forces in a heavy snowstorm.
1861           Delegates from seceded states adopt a provisional Confederate Constitution.
1862           Union troops under Gen. Ambrose Burnside defeat a Confederate defense force at the Battle of Roanoke Island, N.C.
1865           Confederate raider William Quantrill and men attack a group of Federal wagons at New Market, Kentucky.
1887           Congress passes the Dawes Act, which gives citizenship to Indians living apart from their tribe.
1900           British General Buller is beaten at Ladysmith, South Africa as the British flee over the Tugela River.
1904           In a surprise attack at Port Arthur, Korea, the Japanese disable seven Russian warships.
1910           The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated.
1924           The gas chamber is used for the first time to execute a murderer.
1942           The Japanese land on Singapore.
1943           British General Orde Wingate leads a guerrilla force of "Chindits" against the Japanese in Burma.
1952           Elizabeth becomes Queen of England after her father, King George VI, dies.
1962           The U.S. Defense Department reports the creation of the Military Assistance Command in South Vietnam.
1965           South Vietnamese bomb the North Vietnamese communications center at Vinh Linh.
1971           South Vietnamese ground forces, backed by American air power, begin Operation Lam Son 719, a 17,000 man incursion into Laos that ends three weeks later in a disaster.
1990           CBS television temporarily suspends Andy Rooney for his anti-gay and ant-black remarks in a magazine interview.

Born on February 8
412           St. Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople
1820           William T. Sherman, Union general in the American Civil War.
1828           Jules Verne, French novelist, one of the first writers of science fiction (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea).
1834           Dmitri Ivanovich Medeleyev, Russian chemist, developed the periodic table of elements.
1851           Kate (O'Flaherty ) Chopin, novelist, short story writer (The Awakening).
1906           Chester F. Carlson, physicist, inventor of xerography, the electrostatic dry-copy process.
1906           Henry Roth, writer (Call it Sleep).
1911           Elizabeth Bishop, poet.
1926           Neal Cassaday, writer, counterculture proponent.
1931           James Dean, film actor and 1950s teenage icon (Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden, Giant).
1940           Ted Koppel, television journalist.