TODAY in HISTORY
Today is Tuesday, May 8, the 128th day of 2018. There are 237 days left in the year.
1521 Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orléans between UK and France, turning the tide of the Hundred Years' War. 1450 Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI.
1516 A group of imperial guards, led by Trinh Duy San, murdered Emperor Lê Tuong Duc and fled, leaving the capital Thang Long undefended. 1788 King Louis XVI of France attempts to force through reforms by abolishing the parlements. 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. 1846 Mexican– American War: Zachary Taylor defeats a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande in the first major battle of the war.
1877 The first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens in the New York city. 1886 Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells carbonated beverage named “Coca- Cola” as a patent medicine. 1902 In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of SaintPierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast.
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.
1942 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. 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. 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 surrender of militants. 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.
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”. 2016 William Schallert, American actor; passes away.