History Of 8 February
- 1960 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor and that her descendants will take the name Mountbatten-Windsor.
- 1962 – Charonne massacre. Nine trade unionists are killed by French police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Paris Prefecture of Police.
- 1963 – Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration.
- 1963 – The regime of Prime Minister of Iraq, Brigadier General Abd al-Karim Qasim is overthrown by the Ba’ath Party.
- 1965 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean and explodes, killing everyone aboard.
- 1968 – American civil rights movement: The Orangeburg massacre: An attack on black students from South Carolina State University who are protesting racial segregation at the town’s only bowling alley, leaves three or four dead in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
- 1971 – The NASDAQ stock market index opens for the first time.
- 1971 – South Vietnamese ground troops launch an incursion into Laos to try to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail and stop communist infiltration.
- 1974 – After 84 days in space, the crew of Skylab 4, the last crew to visit American space station Skylab, returns to Earth.
- 1978 – Proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast on radio for the first time.
- 1981 – Twenty-one association football spectators are trampled to death at Karaiskakis Stadium in Neo Faliro, Greece, after a football match between Olympiacos F.C. and AEK Athens F.C.
- 1983 – The Melbourne dust storm hits Australia’s second largest city. The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, a 320 meters (1,050 ft) deep dust cloud envelops the city, turning day to night.
- 1986 – Hinton train collision: Twenty-three people are killed when a VIA Rail passenger train collides with a 118-car Canadian National freight train near the town of Hinton, Alberta, west of Edmonton. It is the worst rail accident in Canada until the Lac-Mégantic, Quebec derailment in 2013 which killed forty-seven people.
- 1989 – Independent Air Flight 1851 strikes Pico Alto mountain while on approach to Santa Maria Airport (Azores) killing all 144 passengers on board.
- 1993 – General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigs two crashes intended to demonstrate that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the next day.
- 1996 – The U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act.
- 2005 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil politician and former MP A. Chandranehru die of injuries sustained in an ambush the previous day.
- 2010 – A freak storm in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan triggers a series of at least 36 avalanches, burying over two miles of road, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000 travelers.
- 2013 – A blizzard disrupts transportation and leaves hundreds of thousands of people without electricity in the Northeastern United States and parts of Canada.
- 2014 – A hotel fire in Medina, Saudi Arabia kills 15 Egyptian pilgrims with 130 others injured.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1970 – John Filan, Australian footballer, and coach
- 1970 – Stephanie Courtney, American actress, and comedian
- 1971 – Aidy Boothroyd, English footballer, and manager
- 1971 – Mika Karppinen, Swedish-Finnish drummer and songwriter
- 1972 – Big Show, American wrestler, actor
- 1974 – Seth Green, American actor, voice artist, comedian, producer, writer, and director
- 1976 – Khaled Mashud, Bangladeshi cricketer
- 1976 – Nicolas Vouilloz, French race car driver and biker
- 1977 – Roman Kostomarov, Russian ice dancer
- 1978 – Mick de Brennan, Australian politician
- 1979 – Aaron Cook, American baseball player
- 1980 – William Jackson Harper, American actor
- 1981 – Steve Gohouri, Ivorian footballer (d. 2015)
- 1981 – Myriam Montemayor Cruz, Mexican singer
- 1983 – Jermaine Anderson, Canadian basketball player
- 1983 – Cory Jane, New Zealand rugby player
- 1983 – Jim Verraros, American singer and actor
- 1984 – Manuel Osborne-Paradis, Canadian skier
- 1984 – Cecily Strong, American actress
- 1984 – Panagiotis Vasilopoulos, Greek basketball player
- 1985 – Petra Cetkovská, a Czech tennis player
- 1985 – Jeremy Davis, American bass player, and songwriter
- 1987 – Javi García, Spanish footballer
- 1987 – Carolina Kostner, Italian figure skater
- 1988 – Keegan Meth, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1989 – Zac Guildford, New Zealand rugby player
- 1989 – Julio Jones, American football player
- 1989 – Courtney Vandersloot, American basketball player
- 1990 – Emily Scarratt, English rugby union player
- 1990 – Klay Thompson, American professional basketball player
- 1991 – Aristides Soiledis, Greek footballer
- 1991 – Roberto Soriano, Italian footballer
- 1991 – Nam Woo-Hyun, South Korean singer and actor with the boy band Infinite.
- 1992 – Bruno Martins Indi, Portuguese-Dutch footballer
- 1992 – Carl Jenkinson, English-Finnish footballer
- 1994 – Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Turkish footballer
- 1994 – Nikki Yanofsky, Canadian singer-songwriter
- 1995 – Joshua Kimmich, German footballer
- 1996 – Kenedy, Brazilian footballer