In History, Today on February 8

Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed for her involvement in plots to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England.

The Battle of Eylau was fought between Napoleon's Grande Armée and the Russian army, resulting in a bloody and inconclusive outcome.

The Russo-Japanese War began with a surprise attack by the Japanese on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur.

The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated by William D. Boyce.

The first execution by gas chamber in the United States took place in Nevada, with Gee Jon as the first person executed by this method.

The Battle of Guadalcanal ended with a strategic victory for the Allies, marking a turning point in the Pacific War during World War II.

Elizabeth II was proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom after the death of her father, King George VI.

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issued an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants would bear the name Mountbatten-Windsor.

The Ba'ath Party came to power in Iraq after a coup d'état, marking the beginning of a period of Ba'athist rule.

The NASDAQ stock market index opened for the first time, becoming the world's first electronic stock market.

The Melbourne dust storm, one of the worst in Australian history, blanketed the city with red dust from the outback.

General Motors sued NBC after the network's Dateline NBC program aired a report showing GM trucks exploding upon impact. NBC later settled the lawsuit.

The XIX Olympic Winter Games opened in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, marking the first Winter Olympics held in the United States since 1980.

North Korea publicly announced for the first time that it possessed nuclear weapons, escalating tensions in the region and complicating diplomatic efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

A freak storm in the Hindu Kush mountains triggered a series of avalanches that buried over 200 people in the Salang Pass, Afghanistan, resulting in at least 172 deaths.

A blizzard, later named Winter Storm Nemo, hit the northeastern United States and parts of Canada, causing widespread power outages and significant snowfall, with some areas receiving over 30 inches of snow.

North Korea launched a long-range rocket carrying what it claimed was a satellite, drawing international condemnation as it was widely seen as a test of ballistic missile technology.

Protests erupted in Myanmar against the military coup that took place on February 1, 2021, with thousands of people taking to the streets in cities across the country.