Birthday Paper › What happened on …? › February 8

Events on February 8

• 1865 Gregor Mendel publishes his crossbreeding experiments with peas in Experiments on Plant Hybridization, which initially attract little attention but later become the foundation of the so-called Mendelian laws of inheritance in genetics.
• 1915 The silent film The Birth of a Nation by D. W. Griffith premieres in Los Angeles and becomes the most financially successful film of the silent film era. Although recognized as a milestone in film history, it is also regarded as a racist glorification of the Ku Klux Klan.
• 1920 Following the withdrawal of the German troops stipulated in the Treaty of Versailles, Danzig, which was declared a Free City, henceforth comes under the protection of the League of Nations.
• 1945 The Voronezh Front of the Red Army under Iwan Stepanowitsch Konew attacks Army Group Centre under Ferdinand Schörner in the Second World War and thereby opens the Lower Silesian Offensive, which will last until 24 February and during which two bridgeheads on the Glatzer Neisse can be captured.
• 1950 The People's Chamber of the GDR unanimously confirms the SED Politburo's resolution of 24 January to establish the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in the GDR.
• 1952 The Federal Statistical Office reports that 9.6 million refugees live in the Federal Republic of Germany.
• 1971 Federal Defence Minister Helmut Schmidt liberalizes the wearing of long hair in the German armed forces by means of the Haarnetz Directive.
• 1982 In an article, the news magazine Der Spiegel raises allegations of embezzlement against the board of the German union-owned construction group Neue Heimat. The chairman of the board, Albert Vietor, comes particularly under scrutiny.
• 1984 In Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, the XIV Olympic Winter Games are opened by President Mika Špiljak. Cross-country skier Bojan Križaj takes the Olympic oath.
• 1991 The American video game company Blizzard Entertainment is founded. It becomes known primarily for its very popular and commercially successful video game series Warcraft and StarCraft.
• 1992 RTL Television broadcasts the first episode of the television show Wie bitte?! Geert Müller-Gerbes hosts this consumer affairs program, in which questionable experiences in dealing with companies and authorities are exposed in a comedic manner.
• 2002 In Salt Lake City in the U.S. state of Utah, U.S. President George W. Bush opens the XIX Olympic Winter Games. Skeleton racer Jim Shea recites the oath, and the Olympic flame is lit by the U.S. ice hockey team.

Born on February 8

• 1880 Franz Marc, German painter, draughtsman and graphic artist
• 1883 Joseph Schumpeter, Austro-Hungarian economist and politician
• 1894 Ludwig Marcuse, German-American writer and philosopher
• 1910 Eric Helgar, German singer, actor, television presenter and composer
• 1930 Erich Böhme, German journalist and presenter
• 1931 James Dean, American film actor
• 1941 Nick Nolte, American actor
• 1960 Alfred Gusenbauer, Austrian politician
• 1970 Roman Knižka, German actor
• 1990 Klay Thompson, American basketball player

Is your birthday on February 8?

Then there is a newspaper that tells only the story of your day: what was going on in the world on February 8 of your birth year, which song was at the top, what the weather was like at your birthplace, plus birthday twins and a personal greeting.

• For every birth year from 1946
• 4 to 10 pages, always €14.90, as a PDF to print
• With a greeting page for voice and video messages

Create the paper for February 8 · €14.90

Day and month are already filled in, you only choose the birth year.

Source of events and birthdays: German Wikipedia article „8. Februar“, licence CC BY-SA 4.0, selected, shortened and translated by Birthday Paper.

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