On this day›07-08

Discover · History

On this day — July 8

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

2022

Disaster

Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe is shot and killed with an improvised firearm due to resentment against the Unification Church.

2014

Milestone

Israel launches an offensive on Gaza amid rising tensions following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers.

2014

Sport

The Brazil national football team suffers its joint-worst defeat

losing 7–1 to Germany in the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup, in a match dubbed the Mineiraço.

2011

Milestone

Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched in the final mission of the U.S

Space Shuttle program.

2003

Milestone

Sudan Airways Flight 139 crashes near Port Sudan Airport during an emergency landing attempt

killing 116 of the 117 people on board.

1994

Milestone

Kim Jong Il begins to assume supreme leadership of North Korea upon the death of his father

Kim Il Sung.

1994

Milestone

Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on an international science mission.

1990

Sport

West Germany win the FIFA World Cup final against defending champions Argentina

with Andreas Brehme scoring the game's only goal.

1988

Milestone

The Island Express train travelling from Bangalore to Kanyakumari derails on the Peruman bridge and falls into Ashtamudi Lake, Kerala in India killing 105 passengers and injuring over 200 more.

1982

Politics

A failed assassination attempt against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein results in the Dujail Massacre over the next several months.

1980

Sport

The inaugural 1980 State of Origin game is won by Queensland who defeat New South Wales 20–10 at Lang Park.

1980

Milestone

Aeroflot Flight 4225 crashes near Almaty International Airport in the then Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (present day Kazakhstan) killing all 166 people on board.

1972

Milestone

Israeli Mossad assassinate Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani.

1970

Milestone

Richard Nixon delivers a special congressional message enunciating Native American self-determination as official US Indian policy, leading to the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975.

1968

Milestone

The Chrysler wildcat strike begins in Detroit

Michigan.