May 8th Through History

Explanation: The pyroclastic flow of May 8, 1902, remains one of the deadliest volcanic disasters of the 20th century. According to testimonies, only two or three survivors were found in Saint-Pierre, including a prisoner protected by the thick walls of his cell, Auguste Ciparis, who later became famous in an American circus.

Explanation: The lifting of the siege of Orléans on May 8, 1429, was a turning point in the Hundred Years' War. Joan of Arc, who had arrived in Orléans at the end of April, led several assaults in just a few days. This victory allowed Charles VII to be crowned King of France at Reims two months later, on July 17, 1429.

Explanation: The Farmers-General were private financiers who collected indirect taxes on behalf of the royal state, in exchange for a lump sum paid in advance. Very unpopular, they were arrested under the Revolution. Lavoisier, considered the father of modern chemistry, was thus executed despite his major scientific contributions, including the discovery of oxygen and the law of conservation of mass.

Explanation: Hernando de Soto, a Spanish conquistador, was the first European to cross the Mississippi, which he called Rio del Espíritu Santo. He died the following year, in 1542, of a fever, and was buried in the river he had discovered to prevent the Native Americans from seizing it, as they believed the Spaniards to be immortal.

Explanation: The Sétif massacre began on May 8, 1945, the very day of the Allied victory in Europe. Algerian nationalist demonstrations were brutally repressed by the French army and armed colonists. The death toll remains controversial: between 1,500 and 45,000 dead according to sources. These events are considered a turning point in the rise of Algerian nationalism, which led to the war of independence in 1954.

Explanation: By choosing the name of Leo XIV, Robert Francis Prevost places himself in the lineage of a symbolic pontifical name. The last pope to bear this name, Leo XIII, had reigned from 1878 to 1903 and is notably known for his encyclical Rerum Novarum of 1891, founding text of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church. Robert Francis Prevost is the first American pope in history.

Explanation: Henry Dunant founded the Red Cross in 1863 after being horrified by the suffering of the wounded at the Battle of Solferino in 1859 in Italy. He is also at the origin of the Geneva Conventions, which frame international humanitarian law. In 1901, he received the very first Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with Frédéric Passy.

Explanation: Harry Truman, the 33rd President of the United States, made the heaviest decisions at the end of the Second World War: he ordered the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. It was he who received the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945. By an irony of the calendar, he was born on May 8, the date that would become that of the German capitulation, one year after his accession to the presidency.

Explanation: The Treaty of Brétigny brought a pause in the Hundred Years' War, after the capture of King John II of France at Poitiers in 1356. Through this treaty, France ceded to England a third of its territory, including Aquitaine, in exchange for Edward III's renunciation of the French throne. John II was released for a colossal ransom of three million gold écus.

Explanation: The pharmacist John Pemberton developed on May 8, 1886, in Atlanta, a beverage based on coca leaves and kola nuts, initially marketed as a medicine. It was his accountant, Frank Robinson, who gave it the name Coca-Cola and designed the famous logo in cursive script. The original formula contained cocaine, which was removed around 1903.