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Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day or VE Day, was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 (7 May in Commonwealth realms) to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces.[1] It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe.
On 30 April, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader, committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin. Germany's surrender, therefore, was authorized by his successor, Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz. The administration headed by Dönitz was known as the Flensburg government. The act of military surrender was signed on 7 May in Reims, France and on 8 May in Berlin, Germany.
Video http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/5/8
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-hist ... nd-britain
On this day in 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine.
The eighth of May spelled the day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms: In Prague, Germans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists, after the latter had lost more than 8,000 soldiers, and the Germans considerably more; in Copenhagen and Oslo; at Karlshorst, near Berlin; in northern Latvia; on the Channel Island of Sark--the German surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. More surrender documents were signed in Berlin and in eastern Germany.
The main concern of many German soldiers was to elude the grasp of Soviet forces, to keep from being taken prisoner. About 1 million Germans attempted a mass exodus to the West when the fighting in Czechoslovakia ended, but were stopped by the Russians and taken captive. The Russians took approximately 2 million prisoners in the period just before and after the German surrender.
Meanwhile, more than 13,000 British POWs were released and sent back to Great Britain.
Pockets of German-Soviet confrontation would continue into the next day. On May 9, the Soviets would lose 600 more soldiers in Silesia before the Germans finally surrendered. Consequently, V-E Day was not celebrated until the ninth in Moscow, with a radio broadcast salute from Stalin himself: "The age-long struggle of the Slav nations...has ended in victory. Your courage has defeated the Nazis. The war is over."
...also on May 8th.. lol
Today in History
May 8
1450 Jack Cade's Rebellion–Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI.
1541 Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River which he calls Rio de Espiritu Santo.
1559 An act of supremacy defines Queen Elizabeth I as the supreme governor of the church of England.
1794 The United States Post Office is established.
1846 The first major battle of the Mexican War is fought at Palo Alto, Texas.
1862 General 'Stonewall' Jackson repulses the Federals at the Battle of McDowell, in the Shenendoah Valley.
1864 Union troops arrive at Spotsylvania Court House to find the Confederates waiting for them.
1886 Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton invents Coca Cola.
1895 China cedes Taiwan to Japan under Treaty of Shimonoseki.
1904 U.S. Marines land in Tangier, North Africa, to protect the Belgian legation.
1919 The first transatlantic flight by a navy seaplane takes-off.
1933 Hahatma Gandhi begins a hunger strike to protest British oppression in India.
1940 German commandos in Dutch uniforms cross the Dutch border to hold bridges for the advancing German army.
1942 The Battle of the Coral Sea between the Japanese Navy and the U.S. Navy ends.
1945 The final surrender of German forces is celebrated as VE (Victory Europe) day.
1952 Allied fighter-bombers stage the largest raid of the war on North Korea.
1958 President Eisenhower orders the National Guard out of Little Rock as Ernest Green becomes the first black to graduate from an Arkansas public school.
1967 Boxer Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in U.S. Army.
1984 The Soviet Union announces it will not participate in Summer Olympics planned for Los Angeles.
1995 Jacques Chirac is elected president of France.
Born on May 8
1668 Alain Rene Lesage, French writer (The Adventures of Gil Blas, Turcaret).
1753 Miguel Hidalgo, Mexican nationalist.
1828 Jean Henri Dunant, Swiss philanthropist, founder of the Red Cross and YMCA, first recipient (jointly) of the Nobel Peace Prize.
1829 Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American pianist.
1884 Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States (1945-1953).
1895 Edmund Wilson, American critic and essayist.
1906 Roberto Rossellini, Italian film director.
1910 Mary Lou Williams, jazz pianist and composer.
1920 Sloan Wilson, American author (The man in the Gray Flannel Suit, A Summer Place).
1928 Theodore Sorenson, advisor to John F. Kennedy.
1930 Gary Snyder, beat poet.
1937 Thomas Pynchon, novelist (Gravity's Rainbow).
1940 Peter Benchley, novelist (Jaws, The Deep).
1952 Beth Henley, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (Crimes of the Heart).
1945
President Harry S. Truman announced in a radio address that World War II had ended in Europe.
1958
Vice President Richard Nixon was shoved, stoned, booed and spat upon by anti-American protesters in Lima, Peru.
1968
Jim "Catfish" Hunter of the Oakland Athletics pitched a perfect game against the Minnesota Twins in Oakland.
1970
Construction workers broke up an anti-war protest on New York City's Wall Street.
1970
The album "Let It Be" by the Beatles was released.
1973
Militant American Indians who had held the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for 10 weeks surrendered.
1978
David Berkowitz pleaded guilty in Brooklyn to the "Son of Sam" killings.
1987
Gary Hart, dogged by questions about his personal life, withdrew from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
1999
The Citadel, South Carolina's formerly all-male military school, graduated its first female cadet.
2012
Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers became the 16th major league baseball player to hit four home runs in a game.