| Events for 8 February |
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| • | 1587 Death of Mary, Queen of Scots (b.1542 in Linlithgow Palace, West Lothian), beheaded for treason at Fotheringay Castle, Northamptonshire. |
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| • | 1693 Granting of a charter for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. |
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| • | 1700 [29 January Old Style] Birth of Daniel Bernoulli in Groningen, The Netherlands (d.1782), mathematician, who solved a differential equation now known as Bernoulli's equation. |
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| • | 1725 [28 January Old Style] Death of Peter I, the Great (b.1672 in Moscow), Tsar of Russia (1682–1721) and emperor (1721–5). |
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| • | 1819 Birth of John Ruskin in London (d.1900), art theorist and social critic, who championed Turner's painting in his first critical work, Modern Painters (1843–60). |
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| • | 1828 Birth of Jules Verne in Nantes, France (d.1905), writer, whose works include Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). |
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| • | 1834 [27 January Old Style] Birth of Dmitiri Mendeleyev in Tobolsk, Russia (d.1907), chemist, who devised the periodic table of chemical elements (1869). |
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| • | 1888 Birth of Dame Edith (Mary) Evans in London (d.1976), actress, whose roles included Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. |
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| • | 1903 Birth of Tunku Abdul Rahman in Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaya (d.1990), first prime minister of Malaya (1957–63) and Malaysia (1963–70). |
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| • | 1904 Beginning of the Russo–Japanese war, when Japan launched a surprise torpedo attack against the Russian fleet at Port Arthur, China. |
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| • | 1910 Incorporation of the Boy Scouts of America movement under the laws of the District of Columbia. |
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| • | 1924 First use of the gas chamber as a method of execution in the USA, when convicted murderer Gee Jon was put to death at the Nevada State Prison, Carson City. |
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| • | 1931 Birth of James (Byron) Dean in Marion, Indiana (d.1955), actor and teenage icon, whose best known film is Rebel Without a Cause (1955). |
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| • | 1952 HRH Princess Elizabeth (b.1926) was formally proclaimed Queen of England, following the death of her father King George VI on 6 February. |
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| • | 1955 Birth of John Grisham in Jonesboro, Arkansas, novelist, whose first book was the crime thriller A Time To Kill (1989). |
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| • | 1967 Death of Sir Victor Gollancz (b.1893 in London), publisher, writer, and philanthropist. |
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| • | 1974 Return to Earth for the crew of the first US space station, Skylab, after a record-breaking 84 days in space. |
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| • | 1983 Derby-winning racehorse Shergar was kidnapped from his stables in County Kildare, Ireland; held for a ransom of £2 million, he was not seen again. |
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| • | 1984 Opening of the 14th Olympic Winter Games, in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. |
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| • | 1992 Opening of the 16th Olympic Winter Games, in Albertville, France. |
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| • | 1999 Death of Dame Iris Murdoch (b.1919 in Dublin, Ireland), novelist and philosopher, whose books include The Philosopher's Pupil (1983). |
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| • | 2000 Some of the largest World Wide Web sites were affected for several hours, following action by a young Canadian hacker known as ‘Mafiaboy’. |
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| • | 2002 Opening of the 19th Olympic Winter Games, in Salt Lake City, USA. |
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