On this day May 8, 1984, Corporal Denis Lortie of the Canadian Armed Forces entered the Quebec National Assembly building in Quebec City and opened fire, killing three people and wounding thirteen others. The attack occurred before the day’s session had begun, sparing the lives
On May 8, 1984, the Thames Barrier was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II. Located downstream of central London, the massive engineering project was designed to protect the city from devastating tidal surges and flooding along the River Thames. Construction began in 1974, and the
On this day May 8, 1988, a fire broke out at Illinois Bell’s central switching office in Hinsdale, Illinois, causing what would later be described as the worst telecommunications disaster in U.S. telephone industry history. The blaze severely damaged crucial switching equipment and brought down
On this day May 7, 1986, Canadian mountaineer Patrick Morrow made history by becoming the first person to successfully climb the Seven Summits — the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. His achievement was completed with the summit of Mount Everest, the tallest
On this day May 6, 1984, Kerry Von Erich defeated Ric Flair in Irving, Texas to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in front of a packed crowd at Texas Stadium. The event was held in honor of Kerry’s late brother David Von Erich and
On this day May 6, 1983, the infamous Hitler Diaries were officially revealed to be a hoax. The supposed personal journals of Adolf Hitler had been published by a German magazine and gained international attention, with media outlets and historians eager to uncover their contents.
On May 5, 1981, Bobby Sands died at the age of 27 in a prison hospital after a 66 day hunger strike. A member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, Sands was imprisoned in Northern Ireland’s Maze Prison for firearms possession and became the central
On May 5, 1985, President Ronald Reagan delivered a solemn speech at the site of the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in West Germany. His visit came during a controversial trip that also included a stop at a German military cemetery in Bitburg, but at Bergen-Belsen,
On May 5, 1987, the congressional hearings into the Iran Contra affair officially began in Washington D.C., putting one of the decade’s biggest political scandals in the national spotlight. The hearings were broadcast live and investigated the covert sale of arms to Iran and the
On May 5, 1984, Chrissie Hynde, lead singer of the Pretenders, married Jim Kerr, frontman of Simple Minds. The union brought together two of the most recognizable voices in 1980s rock, both known for their powerful stage presence and chart topping hits on opposite sides