February 8
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Featured Event
UPI/Bettmann Archive
Japan evacuates final troops from Guadalcanal
On this day in 1943, the last 10,000 troops of the Imperial Japanese Navy withdrew from the island of Guadalcanal (based in the Pacific, near Australia) in the midst of World War II. Allied forces had been determined to retake the island, as controlling Guadalcanal meant controlling communications between the U.S., New Zealand, and Australia. Guadalcanal was Japan’s first major defeat in the Pacific theater, marking a significant shift in the course of the war. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
SCALA/Art Resource, New York
Painter Il Guercino (“The Squinting One”), whose frescoes freshly exploited the illusionistic ceiling and made a profound impact on the evolution of 17th-century Roman High Baroque art, was born this day in 1591.
Famous Birthdays
More on February 8
Carl Van Vechten Collection, Prints and Photographs Division/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital File Number: van 5a52737)
2016
Ballerina and dance director Violette Verdy, who was known for her eloquent and buoyant dancing, died at age 82. Verdy was a star of the New York City Ballet for almost 20 years. [Sort fact from fiction in our ballet quiz.]
Cecil Beaton—Camera Press/Globe Photos
1999
Novelist and philosopher Dame Iris Murdoch died at age 79. She wrote more than 25 novels that are distinguished by a mixture of vivid storytelling, cultural allusions, and complex philosophical inquiry. [Take our quiz about the lives of famous writers.]
© 1976 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All rights reserved.
1976
The film classic Taxi Driver, directed by Martin Scorsese, had its world premiere. Robert De Niro’s performance as a mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran shocked its original audience and earned him an Oscar nomination. [Read Martin Scorses’s Britannica essay on film preservation.]
NASA
1974
The Skylab 4 space station, which carried crew members Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pogue, splashed down into the Pacific Ocean. The crew, who had spent 84 days in space, set a new record for space endurance. [Take our space travel quiz.]
© 1956 Giant Productions, courtesy of Warner Bros.; photograph, Culver Pictures
1931
Actor James Dean, who became a symbol of the confused, restless, and idealistic youth of the 1950s, was born. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about A-list actors.]
© 1946 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.
1921
Actress Lana Turner, a sultry Hollywood glamor queen with a tumultuous private life, was born. [Test your knowledge of the women in classic cinema.]
David W. Griffith Corporation
1915
The landmark film The Birth of a Nation, by D.W. Griffith, made its premiere at Clune’s Auditorium in Los Angeles; while hailed for its technical and dramatic innovations, the epic was condemned for its overt racism and positive portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan. [Take our film buff quiz.]
Portraits of Henry Laurens Dawes, Washington, D.C. (neg. no. LC-DIG-ppmsca-07783)
1887
The United States passed the Dawes General Allotment Act, providing for the distribution of Native American reservation land among indigenous individuals. While original supporters of the act supported Native welfare, it was unable to pass Congress until an amendment made any remaining land available for public purchase. [Test your knowledge of Native American history.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1867
The Ausgleich (“Compromise”) established the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. [How much do you know about European history?]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1820
American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman—who was a major architect of modern warfare, especially known for leading Union forces in crushing campaigns through the South—was born. [Test your knowledge of the American Civil War.]
nicoolay/iStockphoto.com
1587
Mary, Queen of Scots, rival of Queen Elizabeth I of England, was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle, her execution a chilling scene redeemed by the great personal dignity with which she met her fate. [Learn more about Mary, Queen of Scots]