140 things happened on 8 November, from AD 30 to 2024. UK stories come first, then the rest of the world.
1971 · 55 years ago
The English rock band Led Zeppelin released its fourth album, which had no official title. Much of it was recorded at Headley Grange, a country house. The album includes ‘Stairway to Heaven’, an eight-minute song that is one of the band's best-known recording…
UK history first: stories from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
UK story
The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford opened to the public. It was founded by Sir Thomas Bodley and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With more than 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in Britain, after the British Library. Oxford scholars know it as ‘Bodley’ or simply ‘the Bod’.
UK story
Charles Edward Stuart, known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, marched into England with an army of about 5,000 men. He was the grandson of King James II and VII, and he wanted to win back the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland for the Stuart family. His supporters were called Jacobites. Their rising ended in defeat at the Battle of Culloden, near Inverness, in April 1746.
UK story
During the American Civil War, the US warship San Jacinto stopped the British mail ship Trent. The Americans took away two envoys, or official messengers, from the Confederacy, the southern states fighting against the US government. The British government protested strongly, and for a while it seemed the two countries might go to war. President Abraham Lincoln ended the crisis by releasing the envoys.
UK story
Rupert Bear made his first appearance in the Daily Express newspaper. The comic strip was created by Herbert Tourtel and drawn by his wife, the artist Mary Tourtel. The paper hoped Rupert would help it win readers from its rivals. In 1935 the artist Alfred Bestall took over the stories and pictures, and he kept working on Rupert into his nineties.
UK story
The English rock band Led Zeppelin released its fourth album, which had no official title. Much of it was recorded at Headley Grange, a country house. The album includes ‘Stairway to Heaven’, an eight-minute song that is one of the band's best-known recordings. It became one of the best-selling albums in the world.
UK story
The British Indian Ocean Territory is created, consisting of Chagos Archipelago, Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches islands.
The Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés entered the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán, where the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II welcomed him with a great celebration. Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers and explorers who began Spain's takeover of lands in the Americas. Cortés's expedition later caused the fall of the Aztec Empire. It brought much of what is now Mexico under Spanish rule.
While experimenting with electricity, the German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays, a form of high-energy radiation with shorter waves than ultraviolet light. In 1901 he became the very first winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery. The chemical element roentgenium is named after him, and the International Day of Radiology is held on 8 November to mark his discovery.
The Australian army withdrew from its so-called ‘war against emus’ in Western Australia. Emus are large birds that cannot fly, and farmers blamed them for widespread damage to their crops. Soldiers had been sent in only six days earlier to deal with the birds. But newspapers criticised the operation, and the soldiers were pulled out.
John F. Kennedy narrowly beat Vice President Richard Nixon in the US presidential election. Aged 43, he was the youngest person ever elected president, and he became the first Catholic president. It was also the first presidential election in which all 50 states took part, including the new states of Alaska and Hawaii.
Trần Thánh Tông, the second emperor of Vietnam's Trần dynasty, took up the title of retired emperor, but continued to co-rule with his son Nhân Tông for eleven more years.
A law was passed that confined most of Venice's glassmaking industry to nearby Murano.
The Republic of Venice enacts a law confining most of Venice's glassmaking industry to the "island of Murano".
After his coronation as king of Sweden, Christian II (pictured) gave the order to execute nearly 100 people, mostly noblemen, despite promises of general amnesty.
Eighty Years' War: Pacification of Ghent: The States General of the Netherlands meet and unite to oppose Spanish occupation.
Japanese daimyō Dom Justo Takayama is exiled to the Philippines by shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu for being Christian.
The Battle of White Mountain takes place near Prague, ending in a decisive Catholic victory in only two hours.
The Shunzhi Emperor (portrait shown), the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, was enthroned in Beijing after the collapse of the Ming dynasty as the first Qing emperor to rule over China.
Mary Lyon founds Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, which later becomes Mount Holyoke College.
Montana is admitted as the 41st U.S. state.
The New Orleans general strike begins, uniting black and white American trade unionists in a successful four-day general strike action for the first time.
The first Council of People's Commissars is formed, including Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin.
Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected as the 32nd President of the United States, defeating incumbent president Herbert Hoover.
Great Depression: New Deal: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than four million unemployed.
Spanish Civil War: Francoist troops fail in their effort to capture Madrid, but begin the three-year Siege of Madrid afterwards.
The Italian invasion of Greece failed as outnumbered Greek units repulsed the Italians at the Battle of Elaia–Kalamas.
Vietnam War: In the Battle of Gang Toi, one of the earliest battles between the two sides, Viet Cong forces repelled an Australian attack.
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law an antitrust exemption allowing the National Football League to merge with the upstart American Football League.
Former Massachusetts attorney general Edward Brooke became the first African American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction.
The Vienna Convention on Road Traffic is signed to facilitate international road traffic and to increase road safety by standardising the uniform traffic rules among the signatories.
American pay television network Home Box Office (HBO) launches.
Manolis Andronikos, a Greek archaeologist and professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, discovers the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina.
U.S. Vice President George H. W. Bush is elected as the 41st president.
Republican Revolution: On the night of the 1994 United States midterm elections, Republicans make historic electoral gains by securing massive majorities in both houses of Congress (54 seats in the House and eight seats in the Senate, additionally), thus bringing to a close four decades of Democratic domination.
Eritrea adopts the nakfa as its official currency.
German newspaper Der Spiegel publishes a report by the Federal Intelligence Service accusing figures in Liechtenstein of cooperating with organized crime.
Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441: The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves a resolution on Iraq, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences".
The potentially hazardous asteroid 2005 YU55 passes 0.85 lunar distances from Earth (about 324,600 kilometres or 201,700 miles), the closest known approach by an asteroid of its brightness since 2010 XC15 in 1976.
Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States, defeating Hillary Clinton, the first woman ever to receive a major party's nomination.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly announces the withdrawal of ₹500 and ₹1000 denomination banknotes.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi was inaugurated by the French president Emmanuel Macron and then-crown prince of Abu Dhabi Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Second Nagorno-Karabakh War: Azerbaijani forces defeated the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh in the Battle of Shusha, reclaiming the town after 28 years.
Myanmar holds the 2020 general election, re-electing a government led by the National League for Democracy, which is deposed by the Burmese military the following February during the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état.
Every answer is somewhere on this page. Have a go, then check!
In which year did this happen: “Led Zeppelin releases its famous fourth album”?
A: 1971. 1971 — that’s 55 years ago. Find it on the page
In which year did this happen: “The Trent Affair brings Britain and the USA close to war”?
A: 1861. 1861 — that’s 165 years ago. Find it on the page
Which of these happened first?
C: Bonnie Prince Charlie leads a Jacobite army into England. 1971: Led Zeppelin releases its famous fourth album · 1861: The Trent Affair brings Britain and the USA close to war · 1745: Bonnie Prince Charlie leads a Jacobite army into England Find it on the page
“Bonnie Prince Charlie leads a Jacobite army into England” happened in 1745. How many years ago was that?
A: 281 years. 2026 − 1745 = 281. Find it on the page
Famous people whose birthday is 8 November.
UK story
The English astronomer and mathematician Edmond Halley was born. He used Isaac Newton's law of gravity to work out how often a particular comet returns. When it came back in 1758, as he had predicted, it was named Halley's Comet in his honour, although he did not live to see it. Halley also helped pay for Newton's influential book, the Principia, and became Britain's second Astronomer Royal.
UK story
The English footballer Martin Peters was born. He was a member of the England team that won the 1966 FIFA World Cup, and he scored the second of England's four goals in the final against West Germany. He also played at the 1970 World Cup. His clubs included West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur and Norwich City.
Well-known people who died on 8 November.
Festivals, holidays and saints’ days celebrated on 8 November somewhere in the world.
Content note: these entries mention things like war, violence, deaths, disasters or crime. They are part of history, but they can be upsetting. Grown-ups and teachers: you may want to read them first. They come straight from Wikipedia and have not been rewritten for children.
Stories with a heading have been written for young readers by A Day in the Past, using the linked articles as sources. Other entries show text from Wikipedia’s “November 8” page and its “On this day” feed, written by Wikipedia contributors and shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Each “Read more” link goes to the article an entry is based on. Photos are credited under each picture. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us.