May 8: What Happened on This Day in History (Elementary Level)?

(Page last edited 10/12/2017)

1. 1541 - Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River and names it Río de Espíritu Santo.
2. 1877 - At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens.
3. 1886 - Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine.
4. 1919 - Edward George Honey first proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate The Armistice of World War I, which later results in the creation of Remembrance Day. In the United States it was called Armistice Day and is nowVeterans Day.
5. 1980 - The eradication of smallpox is endorsed by the World Health Organization.
6. Famous Birthdays: William Henry Vanderbilt (American businessman), Henry Dunant (Swiss businessman and activist, co-founded the Red Cross, Nobel Prize laureate), Harry S. Truman (American colonel and politician, 33rd President of the United States), Friedrich Hayek (Austrian-English economist and philosopher, Nobel Prize laureate), André Michel Lwoff (French microbiologist, Nobel Prize laureate)

For famous birthdays and other daily events in history, visit our Daily Dose Activities.

Click Here for Yesterday in History: May 7

Click Here for Tomorrow in History: May 9

For more history resources on Internet 4 Classrooms, visit our Social Studies and History index. For Pre K-8th Grade Level History and Social Studies Resources, visit our Grade Level Index.