Discover · History

On this day — February 8

A hand-curated thread of what happened on this date, across centuries.

2023

Milestone

Two children are killed and six others are injured when a bus crashes into a daycare centre in Laval

Quebec, Canada. The driver is arrested and charged with homicide and dangerous driving.

2020

Disaster

A soldier opens fire in a military camp and a shopping center in Nakhon Ratchasima

Thailand, killing 29 people and injuring 58 others before being shot dead by police the next day. It is considered the deadliest mass shooting in the country's history.

2014

Disaster

A hotel fire in Medina

Saudi Arabia, kills 15 Egyptian pilgrims with 130 others injured.

2013

Milestone

A blizzard kills at least 18 and leaves hundreds of thousands of people without electricity in the northeastern United States and parts of Canada.

2010

Milestone

Over 2 miles (3.2 km) of road are buried after a storm in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan triggers a series of avalanches, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000 others.

1993

Milestone

An Iran Air Tours Tupolev Tu-154 and an Iranian Air Force Sukhoi Su-24 collide mid-air near Qods

Iran, killing all 133 people onboard both aircraft.

1989

Milestone

Independent Air Flight 1851 strikes Pico Alto mountain while on approach to Santa Maria Airport in the Azores

killing all 144 passengers on board.

1986

Milestone

Twenty-three people are killed when a VIA Rail passenger train collides with a Canadian National freight train near the town of Hinton, Alberta, making it one of the worst rail accidents in Canada.

1983

Milestone

A dust storm hits Melbourne

resulting in the worst drought on record and severe weather conditions in the city.

1974

Milestone

The crew of Skylab 4

the last mission to visit the American space station Skylab, returns to Earth after 84 days in space.

1971

Milestone

South Vietnamese ground troops launch an incursion into Laos to try to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail and stop communist infiltration into the country.

1968

Milestone

American civil rights movement

An attack on Black students from South Carolina State University who are protesting racial segregation leaves three dead and 28 injured in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

1965

Milestone

Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean and explodes

killing all 84 people onboard.

1963

Milestone

The regime of Prime Minister of Iraq Abd al-Karim Qasim is overthrown by the Ba'ath Party.

1962

Milestone

Nine protestors are killed at Charonne station

Paris, by French police under the command of ex-Vichy official and Parisian Prefect of Police Maurice Papon.