A Surrender, a Scandal, and the Birth of the Red Cross — it's May 8

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The Treaty of Brétigny ended the first phase of the Hundred Years War, with France ceding roughly a third of its territory to England in exchange for the release of King John II, captured at the Battle of Poitiers four years earlier. England got the land. France got its king back. Neither side considered the matter settled, which is why the war had ninety more years to run.

Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto became the first European to sight the Mississippi River, somewhere in present-day Mississippi or Arkansas — the exact location remains disputed. He died of fever the following year and was buried in the river he had discovered, his men hoping to conceal his death from the local tribes who had considered him immortal. History does not record whether it worked.

Henri Dunant was born on May 8, 1828. He would witness the Battle of Solferino in 1859, be so horrified by the suffering of the wounded that he organized local villagers to care for them regardless of nationality, and go on to found the International Red Cross. He won the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. He spent most of his adult life in poverty and died in a hospice.

American and Mexican forces clashed at the Battle of Palo Alto, the first major engagement of the Mexican-American War. President Polk had maneuvered events carefully to ensure Mexico fired first. Congress declared war two days later. The treaty that ended it gave the United States California, Nevada, Utah, and most of the Southwest. Ulysses Grant, who fought in it, called it the most unjust war America ever waged.

Coca-Cola was sold for the first time on May 8, 1886, at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta. Pharmacist John Pemberton had developed it as a patent medicine. It contained, at the time, trace amounts of cocaine. The cocaine was removed in 1903. The drink went on to become the most recognized commercial product in human history, which is either a triumph of marketing or a comment on human nature, possibly both.

Germany's unconditional surrender, signed the previous day in Reims, took effect on May 8, 1945, and the Allied world erupted. Church bells rang across Europe. Strangers kissed in the streets of London, Paris, and New York. In the Soviet Union, where twenty-seven million had died, the celebration was quieter. In the Pacific, the war continued.

Richard Nixon's goodwill tour of Latin America turned hostile in Caracas, Venezuela, where an angry mob surrounded his motorcade, rocked his limousine, and spat on him through the windows. The incident shocked Washington and prompted Eisenhower to dispatch troops to the region as a precaution. Nixon returned home shaken but politically unscathed. He would remember the trip for the rest of his life.

Four days after Kent State, 100,000 protesters descended on Washington to demonstrate against the Vietnam War and the killing of the four students. Nixon, unable to sleep, drove to the Lincoln Memorial at 4am to talk with student protesters gathered there. The encounter was awkward, widely reported, and resolved nothing. He was back at the White House by 7am.

Naomi James became the first woman to sail solo around the world, completing her 272-day voyage on May 8, 1978. She had learned to sail just two years earlier. She was awarded the title Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Asked about the achievement she noted, with some understatement, that it had been harder than she expected.

The Soviet Union announced it would boycott the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, citing security concerns and anti-Soviet hysteria in the United States. The United States had boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics over the invasion of Afghanistan. Fourteen Soviet bloc nations followed Moscow's lead. The tit-for-tat effectively denied two consecutive generations of athletes their moment. Nobody in charge seemed particularly bothered.

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