Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 8

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 * 1250 – Seventh Crusade: Louis IX of France was defeated at the Battle of Fariskur and captured by the Ayyubid Sultanate of Egypt.
 * 1601 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, led a failed rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I of England.
 * 1837 – Richard Mentor Johnson became the only person ever to be elected Vice President of the United States by the Senate.
 * 1910 – William D. Boyce (pictured) established the Boy Scouts of America, expanding the Scout Movement into the United States.
 * 1960 – The official groundbreaking of the Walk of Fame took place in Hollywood, California.
 * 1965 – After taking evasive action to avoid a mid-air collision just after taking off from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 84 people on board.
 * 2010 – A freak storm triggered a series of avalanches that buried more than 3.5 km (2.2 mi) of road near the Salang Tunnel in Afghanistan, killing 175 people and trapping more than 2,500 travellers.
 * Born/died: | Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid |b|882| Helen of Anjou |d|1314| Gerolamo Emiliani |d|1537| Guercino |b|1591| Jules Verne |b|1828| Kate Chopin |b|1850| Franz Marc |b|1880|  Peter Kropotkin |d|1921| Valerie Thomas |b|1943|  Ernest Titterton |d|1990|  A. Chandranehru |d|2005

February 8


 * 1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots (pictured), was executed at Fotheringhay Castle for her involvement in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Elizabeth I of England.
 * 1879 – Angered by a controversial umpiring decision, cricket spectators rioted and attacked the England team during a match in Sydney, Australia.
 * 1924 – Gee Jon became the first person in the United States to be executed by lethal gas.
 * 1948 – The closing ceremony of the first Olympics held after World War II was held in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
 * 1968 – Local police in Orangeburg, South Carolina, fired into a crowd of people who were protesting segregation, killing three and injuring twenty-seven others.
 * 1983 – The Irish-bred race horse Shergar was stolen by gunmen, who demanded a £2 million ransom.