On This Day: 8 June

Attila the Hun invades Italy; he devastated the northern provinces, but was unable to take Rome, and died in March the following year (aged 46 or 47) of an internal haemorrhage during a feast to celebrate his latest marriage		452
The Prophet Mohammed dies, aged 62 or 63, after suffering from a fever for several days		632
Vikings raid the abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria – commonly accepted as the beginning of Norse activity in the British Isles		793
Harthacnut – son of Cnut, and King of England and Norway (a.k.a. Hardicanute) – dies (probably of a stroke caused by excessive intake of alcohol) at the wedding of his former standard-bearer, Tovi the Proud; he is succeeded by his half-brother Edward the Confessor, with whom he had ruled jointly from the previous year, ending Danish rule and reinstating the House of Wessex		1042
King Richard I (the Lionheart) arrives in Acre, on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean in present-day Israel, beginning his part in the Third Crusade; following its capture, Acre would become the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and its last stronghold until its destruction in 1291		1191
Geoffrey Chaucer appointed Controller of Customs for the Port of London		1374
Edward, the Black Prince (born 15 June 1330) dies		1376
Bishop Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York, and Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Norfolk, are executed on the orders of King Henry IV		1405
Laki, a volcano in Iceland, begins an eight–month eruption which results in over 9,000 deaths and starts a seven–year famine		1783
US President James Madison introduces twelve proposed amendments to the Constitution in Congress. Articles Three to Twelve would be ratified as the first ten amendments – the Bill of Rights; Article Two (preventing members of Congress from changing their own salaries) became part of the constitution in 1992 as the 27^th Amendment, and Article One (laying out a mathematical formula for determining the number of seats in the House of Representatives) is still pending		1789
Robespierre inaugurates the French Revolution's new state religion, the Cult of the Supreme Being, with large organized festivals all across France		1794
Tom Paine – guiding light of the American Revolution – dies in New York		1809
The Congress of Vienna ends		1815
A new British law limits women and children's working hours to 10 hours per day		1847
A group of 194 Pitcairn Islanders, descendants of the mutineers of HMS Bounty, arrives at Norfolk Island, commencing the Third Settlement of the Island		1856
Tennessee secedes from the Union		1856
Electric vacuum cleaner patented		1869
Herman Hollerith applies for a US patent for his punched card calculator (the 'Art of Compiling Statistics')		1887
Universal Pictures – today the USA's oldest surviving film studio – is founded in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles County by German–born Carl Laemmle, and others		1912
The first motor ambulances are used in the Italian–Turkish war in Tripoli, by the Italian army		1912
Nova Aquilae, the brightest nova since Kepler's Supernova of 1604, is confirmed by the British amateur astronomer Grace Cook (having been first observed by the Polish medical professor and amateur astronomer Zygmunt Laskowski)		1918
Mallory and Irvine disappear near the summit of Everest		1924
The Chinese Civil War ends as Chiang Kai–Shek's National Revolutionary Army – the military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) – captures Peking, and changes its name to Beijing ('Northern Capital')		1928
Britain's second Labour government, under Ramsay Macdonald, takes office; Margaret Bondfield is appointed Minister of Labour, becoming the first woman appointed to the UK Cabinet		1929
Carl II proclaimed King of Romania for the second time, having returned from exile		1930
The evacuation of Allied forces from Narvik, Norway, is completed		1940
George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty–Four is published		1949
An FBI report names Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson as Communist Party members		1949
The US Supreme Court rules that restaurants in the District of Columbia cannot refuse to serve black people		1953
London osteopath Dr. Stephen Ward, a friend of Christine Keeler (who was living with him at the time), is described by his literary agent as "extremely cheerful" after being charged with living on the "earnings of prostitution" since 1 January 1961. (On the last day of his trial, 52 days later, he took an overdose of sleeping tablets. He was found guilty while in a coma, and died three days later.)		1963
During the Six–Day War, the US Navy technical research ship USS Liberty is attacked by Israeli aircraft and motor torpedo boats; 34 crew members are killed and 171 injured		1967
James Earl Ray is arrested at Heathrow Airport, London, and charged with the murder of Martin Luther King (as he tries to board a plane using a forged passport)		1968
Franco closes Spain's border with Gibraltar		1969
During the Vietnam War, Associated Press photographer Nick Ut captures 9–year–old napalm victim Phan Thị Kim Phúc running down a road, in what would become an iconic, Pulitzer Prize–winning photo		1972
Naomi James breaks the solo circumnavigation record by two days, and becomes the first woman to sail solo around the world by the classic 'Clipper Route' via Cape Horn		1978
During the Falklands War, 56 British servicemen are killed by an Argentine air attack on two transport ships, RFA Sir Galahad and RFA Sir Tristram, unloading troops at Bluff Cove; Welsh Guardsman Simon Weston is one of the casualties		1982
Jaren Pate, estranged fourth wife of Jerry Lee Lewis, drowns in a swimming pool		1982
Brazilian police dig up a skeleton said to be that of 'Angel of Death' Josef Mengele, camp doctor of Auschwitz 1943–5		1985
Kurt Waldheim becomes President of Austria despite allegations of involvement in Nazi wartime atrocities		1986
New Zealand's Labour government establishes a national nuclear–free zone under the Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act		1987
President Reagan addresses the Houses of Parliament		1989
The first World Oceans Day is celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro (3–14 June)		1992
Euro 96 begins – England draw 1–1 with Switzerland		1996
Former Tory minister Jonathan Aitken is sentenced to 18 months in prison for perjury, saying in his 1997 libel case against The Guardian and Granada TV that his wife had paid for a stay in the Paris Ritz hotel in 1993 when in fact it was the Saudi royal family		1999
British defence attaché Brigadier Stephen Saunders is shot dead by members of the extreme left–wing terrorist organisation 17 November in Athens		2000
The UN Security Council gives unanimous backing to Resolution 1546, endorsing the formation of a sovereign interim government in Iraq		2004
Millions of people observe the transit of Venus across the sun – the first since 1882, and the last one visible in Britain for 243 years		2004
Abu Musab al–Zarqawi, insurgent leader blamed for the slaughter of thousands in Iraq, is killed by US bombs dropped on an isolated house in a date–palm grove north of Baghdad		2006
At least 37 miners go missing when a Ukrainian coal mine collapses after an explosion		2008
36 people are killed, including all ten attackers, and 18 others wounded in an attack on Jinnah International Airport, Karachi – a joint operation by the Taliban Movement of Pakistan and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan		2014

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On This Day: 8 June