8 April 1953

On board Soyuz TMA-12, Yi So-yeon became the first Korean astronaut.

BOAC Flight 712 experienced an engine fire shortly after take-off from London Heathrow, leading to the deaths of five people on board, including flight attendant Jane Harrison, who was posthumously awarded a George Cross for heroism.

A team of computer scientists and others met to discuss the creation of a common business-oriented programming language, which became COBOL.

Otto and Elise Hampel were executed in Berlin for performing acts of resistance against Nazism.

World War II: The United States Army Air Forces flew its first mission from India over the Hump (the eastern end of the Himalayas) to deliver materiel to China.

The Australian state of Western Australia voted to secede from the federation, but efforts to implement the result proved to be unsuccessful.

World War I: German naval officer Wilhelm Werner murdered 19 captured crew members of the British cargo ship Torrington by submerging U-55 when they were on deck.

American cartoonist Winsor McCay released the silent short film Little Nemo (featured), one of the earliest animated films.

Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan was renamed Times Square after the New York Times building.

France and the United Kingdom signed the Entente Cordiale, agreeing to a peaceful coexistence after centuries of intermittent conflict.

American Civil War: Late-arriving reinforcements helped Confederate forces rout the Union Army at the Battle of Mansfield.

The Venus de Milo (pictured), an ancient Greek statue of a woman with its arms missing, was discovered on the island of Milos.

Crusades: The Knights Hospitaller surrendered the Krak des Chevaliers, a castle in present-day Syria, to the army of the Mamluk sultan Baybars.

Abbasid forces decisively defeated the Saffarid emir Ya'qub ibn Laith, forcing the latter to halt his advance into Iraq.

Roman emperor Caracalla (pictured) was assassinated near Harran and succeeded by his Praetorian Guard prefect Macrinus.

Operation Eternal Darkness: Hours after a ceasefire to the Iran war, Israeli attacks on Lebanon kill at least 357 and injures more than 1200 people in the largest airstrikes of the Lebanon war.

Solar eclipse: A total solar eclipse takes place at the Moon's ascending node, visible across North America.

Bernie Sanders ends his presidential campaign, leaving Joe Biden as the Democratic Party's nominee.

Windows XP reaches its standard End Of Life and is no longer supported.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sign the New START Treaty.

A solar eclipse occurs, visible over areas of the Pacific Ocean and Latin American countries such as Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-110, carrying the S0 truss to the International Space Station. Astronaut Jerry L. Ross also becomes the first person to fly on seven spaceflights.

The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on mission STS-56.

The conservative New Democracy party of Constantine Mitsotakis is elected in the Greek parliamentary election.