Discover what happened on June 8 in history, along with notable events that shaped entertainment, aviation, civil rights, sports, and Michigan history.
What Happened on June 8 in History?
Important events on this day include the founding of Universal Pictures, Babe Ruth’s legendary 626-foot home run in Detroit, the devastating Beecher tornado in Michigan, the debut of Ghostbusters, and the publication of George Orwell’s 1984.
JUNE 8 – TODAY IN HISTORY:
1786 – In New York, NY, commercially manufactured ice cream was advertised for the first time.
1789 – James Madison introduced 12 proposed amendments to the U.S. Constitution in the House of Representatives. By 1791, 10 of them were ratified by the state legislatures and became the Bill of Rights. Another was eventually ratified in 1992 to become the 27th Amendment.
1790 – The first loan for the U.S. was repaid. The Temporary Loan of 1789 was negotiated and secured on September 18, 1789 by Alexander Hamilton.
1861 – Tennessee voted to secede from the Union and joined the Confederacy.
1869 – Ives W. McGaffey received a patent for the suction vacuum cleaner.
1872 – The penny postcard was authorized by Congress.
1883 – Kalamazoo, MI was incorporated as a city.
1906 – Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act into law, authorizing the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value.
1912 – Carl Laemmle incorporated Universal Pictures.
1915 – Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned in a disagreement over handling of the sinking of the Lusitania.
1926 – Babe Ruth hit the longest home run in major league baseball history at Navin Field in Detroit. The pitch by Lil Stoner was hit and sent over the centerfield grandstands onto Cherry Street. The hit was officially measured at 626 feet in the air. It then rolled a couple of blocks where a child on a bicycle caught up with it at an estimated 850 feet from home plate.
1934 – The Cincinnati Reds became the first Major League team to use an airplane to travel from one city to another. They flew from Cincinnati, OH to Chicago, IL.
1947 – The “Lassie Show” debuted on ABC radio. It was a 15-minute show.
1948 – The “Texaco Star Theater” television show, hosted by Milton Berle, debuted on NBC.
1949 – George Orwell’s novel “1984” was published.
1953 – A record 125 tornadoes hit in the state of Michigan, the highest one day count. Beecher, MI was hit by an F-5 tornado, killing 116, injuring 844, and destroying 340 homes.
1953 – The Supreme Court ruled that restaurants in Washington, DC could not refuse to serve black patrons.
1961 – The Milwaukee Braves set a major league baseball record when four consecutive home runs in the seventh inning.
1965 – U.S. troops in South Vietnam were given orders to begin fighting offensively.
1968 – Robert F. Kennedy’s funeral took place at the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, NY.
1969 – The New York Yankees retired Mickey Mantle’s number 7.
1969 – It was announced that there would be a single schedule for both the NFL and AFL.
1984 – The movie “Ghostbusters”, starring Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis, and Ernie Hudson, debuted in theaters in the United States.
1984 – The movie “Gremlins” debuted. The film starred Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates, with Howie Mandel providing the voice of “Gizmo”, the main mogwai character.
1987 – Fawn Hill began testifying in the Iran-Contra hearings. She said that she had helped to shred some documents.
1988 – The judge in the Iran-Contra conspiracy case ruled that Oliver North, John Poindexter, Richard Secord and Albert Hakim had to be tried separately.
1991 – A victory parade was held in Washington, DC, to honor veterans of the Persian Gulf War.
1995 – U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O’Grady was rescued by U.S. Marines after surviving alone in Bosnia after his F-16 fighter was shot down on June 2.
1998 – Actor Charlton Heston was elected president of the National Rifle Association.
1998 – The Federal Trade Commission brought an antitrust complaint against Intel Corp., alleging its policies punished other developers of microprocessor chips.
1998 – Honda agreed to pay $17.1 million for disconnecting anti-pollution devices in 1.6 million cars.
1998 – The Space Shuttle Discovery pulled away from Mir, ending America’s three-year partnership with Russia.
2000 – The Dallas Stars and the New Jersey Devils played the NHL’s longest scoreless game in Stanley Cup finals history. The fifth game of the series lasted 106 minutes and 21 seconds. The game ended with a goal by Mike Madano that allowed the Stars to play a game six back in Dallas.
2000 – A federal judge ordered Microsoft to be split in two companies and imposed sweeping restrictions to stop antitrust abuses by the software giant. The Justice Department took the rare step of asking the Supreme Court to review the order.
2002 – The Lennox Lewis/Mike Tyson fight made its way into the record books as the highest grossing event in pay-per-view television history, raking in $103 million.
2004 – Nate Olive and Sarah Jones began the first known continuous hike of the 1,800-mile trail down the Pacific Coast. They completed the trek at the U.S.-Mexico border on September 28.
2005 – Macaulay Culkin pleaded guilty to two counts of drug possession in a court in Oklahoma City, OK, stemming from a September bust.
2007 – Kelly Allen Frank, who was arrested in 2005 for a scheme to kidnap David Letterman’s son and his nanny, escaped from Montana State Prison.
2007 – Paris Hilton was dragged from an Los Angeles, CA courtroom screaming, “Mom, mom, mom” and sent back to jail by Judge Michael Sauer. Paris would eventually serve a term of 23 days in prison.
2008 – The U.S. average price for a gallon of regular gasoline topped the $4 mark for the first time.
2020 – Another first for former astronaut Kathy Sullivan. She became the first woman to reach deepest point of the ocean — Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench. Formerly she was the first American woman to spacewalk.
2023 – Former US President Donald Trump was indicted on federal charges of misusing classified information.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS ON JUNE 8:
Robert Aumann – 96 years old (1930) – German-American mathematician and economist, Nobel Prize laureate
Nancy Sinatra – 86 years old (1940) – Singer and actress
William Calley – 83 years old (1943) – Military officer
Boz Scaggs – 82 years old (1944) – Singer-songwriter and guitarist
Sara Paretsky – 79 years old (1947) – Author
Eric F. Wieschaus – 79 years old (1947) – Biologist, geneticist, and academic Nobel Prize laureate
Emanuel Ax – 77 years old (1949) – Polish-American pianist and educator
Kathy Baker – 76 years old (1950) – Actress
Mary Bonauto – 65 years old (1961) – Lawyer and gay rights activist
Butch Reynolds – 62 years old (1964) – Runner and coach
Kevin Farley – 61 years old (1965) – Screenwriter
Julianna Margulies – 60 years old (1966) – Actress
Gabby Giffords – 56 years old (1970) – Politician and advocate for ending gun violence in the United States
Kelli Williams – 56 years old (1970) – Actress and director
Lindsay Davenport – 50 years old (1976) – Tennis player
Kanye West – 49 years old (1977) – Rapper, producer, director, and fashion designer
Maria Menounos – 48 years old (1978) – Television personality, professional wrestler, author, and actress
Derek Trucks – 47 years old (1979) – Guitarist, former member of the Allman Brothers band
Sara Watkins – 45 years old (1981) – Fiddle, ukulele, and guitar player
Keith Gill – 40 years old (1986) – Financial analyst and investor
Liv Morgan – 32 years old (1994) – Professional wrestler
Francesca Capaldi – 22 years old (2004) – Actress
DAYS OF THE YEAR FOR JUNE 8:
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