On This Day

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Important events of history that took place in India and elsewhere on today’s date.

8 May

🇮🇳 In India

1901 A British appointed commission estimated that some 1,250,000 Indians had died due to a severe drought which started in 1899.

1926 Tapan Raychaudhuri, historian specialising in British Indian history, Indian economic history and the history of Bengal, was born.

🌎 Elsewhere

1835 Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales was published by C A Reitzel in Copenhagen, Denmark.

1873 Melvil Dewey presented the first draft of his decimal classification system to the Amherst College Library Committee.

1930 The newly discovered ninth planet of the solar system was officially named "Pluto" by Vesto Slipher in the Lowell Observatory Observation Circular. Pluto, however, lost the status of a planet in 2006.

1962 Oskar Schindler and his wife Emilie Schindler are honored for saving 1200 Jews during World War II, in a ceremony on the Avenue of the Righteous, Jerusalem.

1980 Almost two centuries after Edward Jenner discovered the vaccination for smallpox, the WHO declared the world free of this disease. Many people consider smallpox eradication to be the biggest achievement in international public health.

⭐ Significance

Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on the second Sunday of May and is not a public holiday.

World Red Cross Day is an annual celebration of the principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. This date is the anniversary of the birth of Jean-Henry Dunant, the founder of the movement.

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