History of the Day for:
February 8
- 1837: For the only time in history, the U.S. Senate chose the vice president of the United States, selecting Richard Mentor Johnson after no candidate received a majority of the popular vote.
- 1904: The Russo-Japanese War began.
- 1910: The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated and chartered.
- 1915: D.W. Griffith's film "The Birth of a Nation" premiered in Los Angeles.
- 1918: "The Stars and Stripes," the weekly newspaper of the American Expeditionary Forces, was published for the first time.
- 1924: The first execution by gas in the United States took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City.
- 1926: Walt Disney Studios formed.
- 1936: The Eagles made University of Chicago halfback and Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger the first player ever selected in the NFL draft.
- 1942: Congress advised President Roosevelt that, in light of the attack on Pearl Harbor two months earlier, Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse so they couldn't oppose the U.S. war effort.
- 1960: The House of Representatives Special Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight opened hearings on disc jockey "payola."
- 1963: In the NFL, the Dallas Texans transferred to Kansas City and became the Chiefs.
- 1964: A speech by U.S. Representative Martha Griffiths in Congress on sex discrimination resulted in civil rights protection for women being added to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
- 1969: The last edition of Saturday Evening Post was published.
- 1973: Senate leaders named seven members of a select committee to investigate the Watergate scandal, including the chairman, Democrat Sam J. Ervin Jr. of North Carolina.
- 1990: "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney was suspended by CBS for racial remarks attributed to him by a gay magazine.
- 1993: General Motors sued NBC, alleging that the "Dateline NBC" program had rigged two car-truck crashes to show that 1973-87 GM pickups were prone to fires in side impact crashes.
- 1996: The NFL and the city of Cleveland agreed on terms for the relocation of the Cleveland Browns. Art Modell could take his NFL franchise to Baltimore, but he had to leave the Browns' name behind.
- 1998: First female ice hockey game in Olympic history: Finland beats Sweden 6-0.