Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/April 8

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 * 217 – Roman emperor Caracalla (pictured) was assassinated near Harran and succeeded by his Praetorian Guard prefect Macrinus.
 * 876 – Abbasid forces decisively defeated the Saffarid emir Ya'qub ibn Laith, forcing the latter to halt his advance into Iraq.
 * 1630 – Kiliaen van Rensselaer purchased land near present-day Albany, New York, to establish Rensselaerswyck, which became the most successful patroonship under the Dutch West India Company.
 * 1820 – The Venus de Milo, an ancient Greek statue of a woman with its arms missing, was discovered on the island of Milos.
 * 1864 – American Civil War: Late-arriving reinforcements helped Confederate forces rout the Union Army at the Battle of Mansfield.
 * 1904 – Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan was renamed Times Square after the New York Times building.
 * 1959 – A team of computer scientists and others met to discuss the creation of a common business-oriented programming language, which became COBOL.
 * 1942 – World War II: The United States Army Air Forces flew its first mission from India over the Hump (the eastern end of the Himalayas) to deliver materiel to China.
 * 1943 – Otto and Elise Hampel were executed in Berlin for performing acts of resistance against Nazism.
 * 1961 – A large explosion on board the MV Dara in the Persian Gulf killed 238 people.
 * 1968 – BOAC Flight 712 experienced an engine fire shortly after take-off from London Heathrow, leading to the deaths of five people on board, including flight attendant Jane Harrison, who was posthumously awarded a George Cross for heroism.
 * Born/died: | John II Komnenos |d|1143| Thomas of Tolentino |d|1321| John Clifford, 9th Baron Clifford |b|1435| Mary Stuart |b|1605| Niels Juel |d|1697|  Elizabeth Bacon Custer |b|1842| Allen Butler Talcott |b|1867| Marie Byles |b|1900| Betty Ford |b|1918| Sara Northrup Hollister |b|1924|  Kofi Annan |b|1938| Jack Tramiel |d|2012|