February 8

Today in History
• 1587 - Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle
• 1693 - A charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA
• 1802 - Simon Willard patented the banjo clock
• 1861 - The Confederate States of America was formed
• 1910 - William D. Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America
• 1922 - The White House began using radio after U.S. President Harding had it installed
• 1952 - Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the British throne
• 1971 - The Nasdaq stock-market index debuted


Holidays - Traditional and Obscure
• Laugh and Get Rich Day
• Molasses Bar Day
• National Boy Scout Day
• National Iowa Day
• National Kite-Flying Day
• Opera Day
• Preseren Day
• Propose Day

Birthdays
• 412 - St. Proclus, patriarch of Constantinople
• 1291 - Afonso IV, King of Portugal, 1325-57
• 1577 - Robert Burton, British writer and Anglican clergyman
• 1720 - Emperor Sakuramachi of Japan
• 1792 - Caroline Augusta of Bavaria, queen of Hungary and Bohemia
• 1820 - William Tecumseh Sherman, Major General Union Army
• 1828 - Jules Verne, French writer known as the "Father of Science Fiction"
• 1834 - Dmitri Mendeleev, chemist and inventor who devised the periodic table