September 8 is the 251st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 114 days remaining until the end of the year.
617 – Battle of Huoyi: Li Yuan defeats a Sui dynasty army, opening the path to his capture of the imperial capital Chang'an and the eventual establishment of the Tang dynasty.
1100 – Election of Antipope Theodoric.
1198 – Philip of Swabia, Prince of Hohenstaufen, is crowned King of Germany (King of the Romans)
1253 – Pope Innocent IV canonises Stanislaus of Szczepanów, killed by king Bolesław II.
1264 – The Statute of Kalisz, guaranteeing Jews safety and personal liberties and giving battei din jurisdiction over Jewish matters, is promulgated by Bolesław the Pious, Duke of Greater Poland.
1276 – Pope John XXI is chosen.
1331 – Stefan Dušan declares himself king of Serbia.
1380 – Battle of Kulikovo: Russian forces defeat a mixed army of Tatars and Mongols, stopping their advance.
1504 – Michelangelo's David is unveiled in Piazza della Signoria in Florence.
1514 – Battle of Orsha: In one of the biggest battles of the century, Lithuanians and Poles defeat the Russian army.
1522 – Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation: Victoria arrives at Seville, technically completing the first circumnavigation.
1551 – The foundation day in Vitória, Brazil.
1565 – St. Augustine, Florida is founded by Spanish admiral and Florida's first governor, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés.
1565 – The Knights of Malta lift the Ottoman siege of Malta that began on May 18.
1612 – The foundation day in São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil.
1655 – Warsaw falls without resistance to a small force under the command of Charles X Gustav of Sweden during The Deluge, making it the first time the city is captured by a foreign army.
1727 – A barn fire during a puppet show in the village of Burwell in Cambridgeshire, England kills 78 people, many of whom are children.
1755 – French and Indian War: Battle of Lake George.
1756 – French and Indian War: Kittanning Expedition.
1761 – Marriage of King George III of the United Kingdom to Duchess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
1775 – The unsuccessful Rising of the Priests in Malta.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina, the war's last significant battle in the Southern theater, ends in a narrow British tactical victory.
1793 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Hondschoote.
1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Bassano: French forces defeat Austrian troops at Bassano del Grappa.
1810 – The Tonquin sets sail from New York Harbor with 33 employees of John Jacob Astor's newly created Pacific Fur Company on board. After a six-month journey around the tip of South America, the ship arrives at the mouth of the Columbia River and Astor's men establish the fur-trading town of Astoria, Oregon.
1831 – William IV and Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1831 – November uprising: The Battle of Warsaw effectively ends the Polish insurrection.
1860 – The steamship PS Lady Elgin sinks on Lake Michigan, with the loss of around 300 lives.
1862 – Millennium of Russia monument is unveiled in Novgorod.
1863 – American Civil War: In the Second Battle of Sabine Pass, a small Confederate force thwarts a Union invasion of Texas.
1883 – The Northern Pacific Railway (reporting mark NP) was completed in a ceremony at Gold Creek, Montana. Former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in an event attended by rail and political luminaries.
1888 – Isaac Peral's submarine is first tested.
1888 – In London, the body of Jack the Ripper's second murder victim, Annie Chapman, is found.
1888 – In England, the first six Football League matches are played.
1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited.
1900 – Galveston hurricane: A powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people.
1905 – The 7.2 Mw Calabria earthquake shakes southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 557 and 2,500 people.
1914 – World War I: Private Thomas Highgate becomes the first British soldier to be executed for desertion during the war.
1916 - In a bid to prove that women were capable of serving as military dispatch riders, Augusta and Adeline Van Buren arrive in Los Angeles, completing a 60-day, 5,500 mile cross-country trip on motorcycles.
1921 – Margaret Gorman, a 16-year-old, wins the Atlantic City Pageant's Golden Mermaid trophy; pageant officials later dubbed her the first Miss America.
1923 – Honda Point disaster: Nine US Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast. Seven are lost, and twenty-three sailors killed.
1925 – Rif War: Spanish forces including troops from the Foreign Legion under Colonel Francisco Franco landing at Al Hoceima, Morocco.
1926 – Germany is admitted to the League of Nations.
1930 – 3M begins marketing Scotch transparent tape.
1933 – Ghazi bin Faisal became King of Iraq.
1934 – Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner SS Morro Castle kills 137 people.
1935 – US Senator from Louisiana Huey Long is fatally shot in the Louisiana State Capitol building.
1941 – World War II: German forces begin the Siege of Leningrad.
1943 – World War II: The O.B.S. (German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone) is attacked in an air raid on Frascati.
1943 – World War II: United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the armistice with Italy.
1944 – World War II: London is hit by a V-2 rocket for the first time.
1945 – The division of Korea begins when United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.
1946 – The referendum abolishes the monarchy in Bulgaria.
1952 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation makes its first televised broadcast on the second escape of the Boyd Gang.
1954 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established.
1960 – In Huntsville, Alabama, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicates the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA had already activated the facility on July 1).
1962 – Last run of the famous Pines Express over the Somerset and Dorset Railway line (UK) fittingly using the last steam locomotive built by British Railways, BR Standard Class 9F 92220 Evening Star.
1966 – The landmark American science fiction television series Star Trek premieres with its first-aired episode, "The Man Trap".
1971 – In Washington, D.C., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated, with the opening feature being the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.
1974 – Watergate scandal: US President Gerald Ford signs the pardon of Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.
1978 – Black Friday, a massacre by soldiers against protesters in Tehran, results in 700–3000 deaths, it marks the beginning of the end of the monarchy in Iran.
1988 – Yellowstone National Park is closed for the first time in U.S. history due to ongoing fires.
1989 – Partnair Flight 394 dives into the North Sea, killing 55 people. The investigation showed that the tail of the plane vibrated loose in flight due to sub-standard connecting bolts that had been fraudulently sold as aircraft-grade.
1991 – The Republic of Macedonia becomes independent.
1994 – USAir Flight 427, on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport, suddenly crashes in clear weather killing all 132 aboard; resulting in the most extensive aviation investigation in world history and altering manufacturing practices in the industry.
2004 – NASA's unmanned spacecraft Genesis crash-lands when its parachute fails to open.
2005 – Two Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft from EMERCOM land at a disaster aid staging area at Little Rock Air Force Base; the first time Russia has flown such a mission to North America.
2016 – NASA launches OSIRIS-REx, its first asteroid sample return mission. The probe will visit 101955 Bennu and is expected to return with samples in 2023.
