This Day In European History
8th May
Events1429: Joan of Arc raises the English siege of Orleans.
1559: The Act of Uniformity makes attending an Anglican church compulsory in England.
1657: Oliver Cromwell refuses the English crown.
1790: France adopts the metric system.
1852: The Treaty of London: Britain, France, Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden accept the borders of Denmark.
Births
1653: Claude de Villars, French military commander.
1737: Edward Gibbon, English historian.
1796: Francois Mignet, French historian.
1899: Friedrich Hayek, Anglo-Austrian economist.
Deaths
685: Pope Benedict II.
1655: Edward Winslow, English colonist.
1782: Sebastiao de Carvalho, Portuguese statesman.
1794: Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, French founder of modern chemistry, guillotined.
1873: John Stuart Mill, English philosopher.
1880: Gustav Flaubert, French writer.

