Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/June 8
- 632 - Muhammad, leader of the Islamic community, died in Medina.
- 1783 - The Laki craters of Iceland began an eight-month eruption, triggering a major famine.
- 1887 - Herman Hollerith (pictured) received a patent for his punch card calculator.
- 1949 - George Orwell's dystopian political novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was first published.
- 1953 - Two tornadoes killed more than 200 people in Flint, Michigan and Worcester, Massachusetts.
- 2004 - Ethiopian distance runner Kenenisa Bekele broke the world record for outdoor 10,000 m in Ostrava, Czech Republic.