May 8

Events

• 1541 - Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River
• 1861 - Richmond, Virginia is named the capital of the Confederate States of America.
• 1945 - The defeat of Europe (8 May 1945)
• 1970 - The Hard Hat riot occurs in the Wall Street area of New York City as blue-collar construction workers clash with anti-war demonstrators protesting the Vietnam War.

Births

• 1884 - Harry S. Truman, President of the United States (d. 1972)
• 1918 - John Birch, American Military Intelligence Officer and a Baptist Missionary (d. 1945)
• 1941 - James Traficant, American politician
• 1970 - Naomi Klein, Canadian journalist

Deaths

• 1936 - Oswald Spengler, German historian and philosopher (b. 1880)
• 1988 - Robert A. Heinlein, American science fiction writer (b. 1907)
• 2014 - Robert Stuart, Jr. – diplomat, businessman, and founder of the America First Committee (b. 1916)