February 8 in Military History

During the Seventh Crusade, a reckless cavalry charge by Count Robert of Artois into the Egyptian city of Al Mansurah led to the annihilation of the Crusader vanguard by Mamluk warriors.

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was executed at Fotheringhay Castle after 19 years of imprisonment. Her death removed a Catholic threat to Protestant England and contributed to the military confrontation with Spain's Armada.

A combined force of 114 French soldiers and 96 allied warriors launched a surprise nighttime attack on the unguarded stockade at Schenectady, New York, killing 60 settlers during King William's War.

Union forces under General Ambrose Burnside captured Roanoke Island, North Carolina, securing a key base for the Union naval blockade and earning Burnside promotion to corps command.

The Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise torpedo attack on the Russian Pacific Fleet at Port Arthur, Manchuria, beginning the Russo-Japanese War, the first modern conflict in which an Asian power defeated a European great power.

Japanese troops crossed the Johor Strait and invaded Singapore, beginning the battle that would result in the largest surrender of British-led forces in history, over 80,000 troops captured.

Brigadier Orde Wingate led 3,000 British, Gurkha, and Burmese troops across the Indian border into Japanese-held Burma, launching the first long-range penetration operation of World War II.

The NASDAQ electronic stock exchange began trading, eventually becoming the primary listing venue for defense technology companies that would revolutionize modern military capabilities.

Navy test pilot and Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, commanding Apollo 14, became the first person to play golf on the lunar surface, capping one of NASA's most successful military-to-space careers.

NATO forces launched Operation Moshtarak, the largest offensive since the start of the Afghanistan War, deploying 15,000 troops to clear Taliban strongholds in Helmand Province's Marjah district.