Search examples: Microsoft | 2015 | 2014/10 | 4.12 | 04/20 | 05/26/1980 | Galileo Galilei

History on the 8th of May

History
Date Text
08 May 1914 WW2 Rear Admiral Masaki Nakamura was named the chief of staff of Vice Admiral Reijiro Kawashima (Ryojun Military Port, northeastern China). 
0
08 May 1918 WW2 John Birch was born in Landour, northern India. 
0
08 May 1918 WW2 Joseph Rochefort was activated by the United States Navy with the rating of Electrician 3rd Class at San Pedro, California, United States. 
0
08 May 1928 WW2 Cornwall was commissioned into service. 
0
08 May 1929 WW2 The Bristol Bulldog biplane fighter entered service with No. 3 Squadron at RAF Upavon in Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom. 
0
08 May 1932 WW2 Adolf Hitler departed Berlin, Germany. 
0
08 May 1937 WW2 Stalin authorized the reintroduction of political officers in all military units above the size of a division. 
0
08 May 1937 WW2 Street fighting broke out in Barcelona, Spain with the CNT (Confederacion Nacional de Trabaja ) and POUM battling with the Communists, who are supported by the Generalitat. The fighting would last until 8 May. 
0
08 May 1939 WW2 The United Kingdom rejected what would be the last Soviet request to form a British-French-Soviet pact to contain German aggression. 
0
08 May 1939 WW2 The Japanese advance in Hubei Province, China was briefly halted by a counterattack conducted by 31st Army Group of the Chinese 5th War Area and the 2nd Army Group of the Chinese 1st War Area. 
0
08 May 1940 WW2 The opposition party in the United Kingdom, the Labour Party, called for a vote of no confidence for Prime Minister Chamberlain's government. Meanwhile, former Prime Minister David Lloyd George called for Chamberlain to step down for the good of the country. 
0
08 May 1940 WW2 Adolf Hitler pushed the decision date for the invasion of France to the following day. 
0
08 May 1940 WW2 Bruce Fraser was promoted to the rank of vice admiral. 
0
08 May 1940 WW2 American river gunboat Tutuila ran aground on a reef and became stranded in the Yangtze River at Chongqing, China. 
0
08 May 1940 WW2 Chinese Communist Brigadier General Chen Yi recommended his superiors to launch an offensive against Nationalist positions in Jiangsu Province, China. 
0
08 May 1940 WW2 Garland exited drydocks at Malta. 
0
08 May 1940 WW2 Semyon Timoshenko was appointed the Soviet commissar for defense. 
0
08 May 1941 WW2 German aircraft conducted the last of the two consecutive nightly raids on Hull, England. 
0
08 May 1941 WW2 A Walrus seaplane from British cruiser HMS Cornwall spotted German armed merchant cruiser Pinguin 400 miles off British Somaliland. The two ships fired on each other at 1714 hours; Pinguin was fatally damaged by Cornwall's superior firepower, but Cornwall was also hit, killing 1 and wounding 3. Shortly after Pinguin's commanding officer gave the abandon ship order, an eight-inch shell hit Pinguin, detonating her store of 130 naval mines and sinking her; 341 crew and 214 prisoners were killed, 66 crew and 22 prisoners survived. 
0
08 May 1941 WW2 German submarine U-97 sank British ship Ramillies in the North Atlantic; 29 were killed, 12 survived. 
0
08 May 1941 WW2 Indian troops attacked Amba Alagi, Abyssinia at dawn, taking the Falagi Pass and three hills east and south of the city, respectively. Later in the morning, Italian troops counterattacked and recaptured two of the hills. 
0
08 May 1941 WW2 359 British RAF bombers attacked Hamburg and Bremen in Germany. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 Japanese and US carrier fleets at Coral Sea discovered each other in the morning, each closing in to attack. Japanese carrier Shokaku was damaged by 3 bombs at 1057 hours (223 casualties), while American carrier USS Lexington was hit by two bombs at 1120 hours (191 killed; would soon be lost) and American carrier USS Yorktown was hit by a bomb (66 casualties). Meanwhile at Port Moresby, an Australian cruiser force successfully defended itself against land-based aircraft attack as it blocked the Japanese invasion fleet for Port Moresby, New Guinea. As both sides withdrew due to damage and losses, the Japanese scored a tactical victory, but lost strategic momentum as the Port Moresby must now be delayed. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 The German 11.Armee began its Crimean offensive. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Rabaul. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 The US 3rd Marine Brigade convoy arrived off Apia, American Samoa; its commander assumed military control of Western Samoa. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 Japanese troops captured Myitkyina, Burma. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 German submarine U-507 sank Norwegian ship Torny in the Gulf of Mexico. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 USS Lexington was damaged by bombs at 1120 hours during the Battle of the Coral Sea, killing 191. At 1247 hours, the leaking gasoline was detonated by fire, killing a further 25. At 1707 hours, the 2,735 survivors abandoned ship, and the carrier was scuttled by 5 torpedoes from destroyer USS Phelps at 1915 hours. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 French submarine Monge attacked British carrier HMS Indomitable off Diego-Suárez, Madagascar at 0756 hours; all torpedoes missed. British destroyers HMS Active and HMS Panther counterattacked and sank Monge. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 USS Grenadier sank Japanese freighter Taiyo Maru 140 miles southwest of Japan. Taiyo Maru was carrying geologists and oil experts to the Dutch East Indies to survey sites for oil production. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 British submarine HMS Olympus departed Malta ferrying crews of sunken submarines HMS Pandora, HMS P36, and HMS P39, sailing for Gibraltar; HMS Olympus struck a mine and sank later on this date; 89 were killed, 9 survived. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 USS Skipjack attacked a small Japanese convoy, sinking Japanese transport Bujun Maru and damaging transport Taiyu Maru in the South China Sea 140 miles northeast of Cam Rahn Bay, French Indochina; six torpedoes were expended in this attack, three of which found their targets. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 German submarine U-564 sank US freighter Ohioan 10 kilometers north of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, killing 15 of 37 aboard. On the same day, U-136 sank Canadian sailing ship Mildred Pauline with the deck gun off Nova Scotia, Canada. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 193 British bombers (98 Wellington, 27 Stirling, 21 Lancaster, 19 Halifax, 19 Hampden, 9 Manchester) attacked Warnemünde, Rostock, Germany; the primary target was the nearby Heinkel aircraft factory; 19 British bombers were destroyed during this attack. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 British minelayer HMS Welshman, disguised as a French destroyer, departed Gibraltar with RAF personnel and 240 tons of supplies for Malta. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 Joseph Rochefort's cryptanalytic team in Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii detected hints that Japanese Navy fleet carriers and battleships were being attached, suggesting a large operation was being planned. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 Between 0907 and 0915 hours, Shokaku was severely damaged by three bomb hits. One tore open the port bow and started a fire in the forecastle. The second struck the end of the flight deck to starboard. The third hit the starboard side of the rear of the island, damaging gun tubs and the mainmast. Large fires broke out. She was able to evade all torpedoes successfully. Escorted by Ushio and Yugure, she was detached and was able to evacuate the battle area at full speed. 108 officers and men were killed by the fires and explosions, and another 40 wounded. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 In the Battle of the Coral Sea, USS Hammann fired on incoming Japanese aircraft and then rescued 500 survivors of the disabled carrier USS Lexington. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 Light cruiser Voroshilov bombarded German troop positions near Tash-Alchin, Russia. 
0
08 May 1942 WW2 German bombers attacked Norwich, England, United Kingdom. 
0
08 May 1943 WW2 German government issued the order that deaths of Eastern European workers in the concentration camps only need to be reported to labor offices. 
0
08 May 1943 WW2 Admiral Bruce Fraser replaced Admiral John Tovey as the head of the Royal Navy Home Fleet. 
0
08 May 1943 WW2 USS Gar reported sinking a Japanese ship in daylight with her deck gun. 
0
08 May 1943 WW2 Japanese troops captured Maungdaw, Burma despite being outnumbered and being surrounded throughout most of the offensive. 
0
08 May 1943 WW2 Yamato departed Truk, Caroline Islands for Yokosuka, Japan. 
0
08 May 1943 WW2 In Operation BG 6, Italian auxiliary ship Olterra launched three manned torpedoes against Gibraltar, sinking three cargo ships. 
0
08 May 1943 WW2 USS Scorpion arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her first war patrol. 
0
08 May 1943 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Part of Marine Fighting Squadron 222 (VMF-222) departed. 
0
08 May 1943 WW2 Destroyer Yukikaze arrived at Kure, Japan. 
0
08 May 1943 WW2 USS Wahoo attacked a Japanese transport off Iwate Prefecture, Japan; all 3 torpedo missed. 
0
08 May 1943 WW2 Guy Gibson, together with Harold Martin and John Hopgood, made a number of successful practice drops of "Upkeep" bombs at Reculver off southeastern England, United Kingdom. Low level training, which had now been consolidated at the Uppingham reservoir and a dam on the Colchester reservoir, was reduced from 150 feet to just 60 feet. 
0
08 May 1944 WW2 Eisenhower set the date for the cross-Channel invasion at 5 Jun 1944. 
0
08 May 1944 WW2 USS Rock arrived at Majuro, Marshall Islands, ending her second war patrol. 
0
08 May 1944 WW2 USS Hoe attacked a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea, damaging a tanker and a freigther with 2 of 6 torpedoes fired. 
0
08 May 1944 WW2 USAAF fighter ace Robert Johnson scored his 27th victory, exceeding the 26 victories achieved by Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, making him the second-highest scoring American fighter pilot in Europe. 
0
08 May 1944 WW2 Brigadier William Lentaigne, commander of the Chindit, flew to the front lines in Burma to meet with Michael Calvert, repeating the order to abandon the Broadway and White City sites of Operation Thursday in order to build a new forward base, Blackpool. 
0
08 May 1944 WW2 Robert Johnson flew his final mission, shooting down a Bf 109G aircraft and a Fw 190 aircraft over Celle, Germany. 
0
08 May 1944 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Two officers and 97 men of ARGUS-8 arrived on board. Two officers and 91 men of ARGUS-7 arrived on board. Parts of Air Group 11 arrived on board. 
0
08 May 1944 WW2 Nachi refueled from oiler Teiyo Maru in Kawauchi Bay, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. 
0
08 May 1944 WW2 Rudolf Höss returned to Auschwitz Concentration Camp to supervise Aktion Höss, the extermination of 430,000 Hugarian Jews. 
0
08 May 1944 WW2 USS Ticonderoga was commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Virginia, United States with Dixie Kiefer in command. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 Paul Giesler passed away. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 Britain marked VE (Victory in Europe) Day with scenes of great public celebration and services of thanksgiving. In France, the German garrisons in coastal strongholds finally surrendered. In Berlin, Germany, Marshal Zhukov accepted the German surrender, which was to take effect on 11 May. Also on this date, German troops in Czechoslovakia surrendered. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 Every gun present at Okinawa, Japan, including naval guns, fired one round at noon at the Japanese in celebration of V-E Day. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 Soviet troops liberated Theresienstadt Concentration Camp; about 30,000 prisoners were present at the camp at the time. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 Crown Prince Olav of Norway returned to Oslo aboard a British Royal Navy warship on the same day that the city was declared liberated. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 Canadian sailors looted shops in during VE-Day celebrations in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 US 83rd Infantry Division became part of the US XIII Corps. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 Bernhard Rust committed suicide. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 Karl von Le Suire was captured by Soviet troops, thus ending his role as the commanding officer of German XXXXIX. Gebirgskorps. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 Field Marshal Robert Ritter von Greim, Head of the Luftwaffe since Hitler's dismissal of Hermann Göring in the last days of the collapsing German Reich, was captured by the Americans in Austria. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 Hubert Lanz surrendered to US Army troops in Austria. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 Most aircraft of the Japanese 5th Kokugun in China began to withdraw to Korea. By the end of the month, over 10,000 personnel would successfully reach their new bases. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 German Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner escaped Prague, Czechoslovakia for Austria. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 A special medical commission of Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front headed by Lieutenant Colonel Faust Shkaravsky performed an autopsy on the two bodies retrieved near the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, one of which was suspected to be that of Adolf Hitler's. He noted that a part of the skull on one of the bodies was missing, but the cause of death of that person was more likely cyanide poisoning. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 Lieutenant Robert C. Little of US 12th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron became the last pilot to shoot down a German Luftwaffe aircraft in combat over the Western Front when, shortly after 2000 hours, he destroyed an attacking Focke-Wulf Fw 190 aircraft whilst on patrol over the Danube River. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 A German pilot landed a Ju 290 aircraft at München-Riem airport in southern Germany and surrendered to US troops. The aircraft carried women auxiliary personnel of the German Luftwaffe. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 92 German ships of various sizes departed Libau, Latvia with 18,000 German refugees onboard, sailing for Denmark and Germany. It would be the final convoy out of Latvia. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 The crew of USS Segundo held a celebratory dinner at Saipan, Mariana Islands. 
0
08 May 1945 WW2 Allied convoy RA-66 arrived at Clyde, Scotland, United Kingdom. 
0
08 May 1946 WW2 Alexander Novikov was tortured under imprisonment, leading to a forced confession and being sentenced to a labor camp. 
0
08 May 1948 WW2 Former Burmese Prime Minister U Saw was hanged in Insein prison near Rangoon, Burma after his conviction for being complicit in the assassination of General Aung San. 
0
7th May 9th May
© 2016 OnThisDay.net All rights reserved.
Loaded in 0.0459s.