HomeToday in HistoryWhat Happened on November 8

What Happened on November 8

Home Box Office launched
The premium TV channel, informally known as HBO, is the oldest paid TV channel in the United States. The first program to screen on the channel was Sometimes a Great Notion, a movie starring Paul Newman and Henry Fonda.

Coup in Thailand
Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn staged a coup against his own government and dismissed the parliament citing increasing communist influence.

Assassination attempt on Hitler
Johann Georg Elser, a German woodworker, attempted to kill Adolf Hilter and other high ranking members of the Nazi party during the 16th anniversary observances of the Beer Hall Putsch, a failed coup attempt by Hitler in 1923. The time bomb Elser used in a beer hall called Bürgerbräukeller in Munich went off but failed to kill Hitler. Elser was caught and imprisoned in Dachau for 5 years.

Beer Hall Putsch
On this day, Adolf Hitler and other members of the Nazi party attempted to overthrow current government by marching to Berlin. They started the march at the Bürgerbräu Keller in Munich. The coup attempt was eventually unsuccessful and Hitler was captured and imprisoned for 2 years.

First person to observe X-rays
German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen accidentally discovered X-rays, also sometimes called Röntgen rays while working on cathode rays. X-rays are a type of electromagnetic radiation that are often used today in medicine. Röntgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901 for his discovery.

  • 1986 Aaron Swartz
    American computer programmer, activist
  • 1966 Gordon Ramsay
    Scottish chef, television host
  • 1961 Micky Adams
    English footballer, manager
  • 1927 Nguyen Khanh
    Vietnamese general, politician, 3rd President of South Vietnam
  • 1900 Margaret Mitchell
    American author
  • 1986 Vyacheslav Molotov
    Soviet politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs fr the Soviet Union
  • 1965 Dorothy Kilgallen
    American journalist
  • 1953 Ivan Bunin
    Russian author, poet, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1887 Doc Holliday
    American gambler, dentist
  • 1674 John Milton
    English poet

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