Historical timeline for July 8

Hurricane Beryl makes landfall in Texas as a Category 1 hurricane, causing 44 deaths, over 2.7 residents without power, and $28 billion to $32 billion dollars worth of damage.

Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe is shot and killed with an improvised firearm due to resentment against the Unification Church.

Israel launches an offensive on Gaza amid rising tensions following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers.

Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched in the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program.

Sudan Airways Flight 139 crashes near Port Sudan Airport during an emergency landing attempt, killing 116 of the 117 people on board.

Kim Jong Il begins to assume supreme leadership of North Korea upon the death of his father, Kim Il Sung.

Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on an international science mission.

West Germany win the FIFA World Cup final against defending champions Argentina, with Andreas Brehme scoring the game's only goal.

The Island Express train travelling from Bangalore to Kanyakumari derails on the Peruman bridge and falls into Ashtamudi Lake, Kerala in India killing 105 passengers and injuring over 200 more.

A failed assassination attempt against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein results in the Dujail Massacre over the next several months.

Aeroflot Flight 4225 crashes near Almaty International Airport in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (present day Kazakhstan), killing all 166 people on board.

The inaugural 1980 State of Origin game is won by Queensland who defeat New South Wales 20–10 at Lang Park.

Israeli Mossad assassinate Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani.

Richard Nixon delivers a special congressional message enunciating Native American self-determination as official US Indian policy, leading to the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975.

King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi is deposed by his son Prince Charles Ndizi.

Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 21 is destroyed by a bomb near 100 Mile House, Canada, killing 52.

Ne Win besieges and blows up the Rangoon University Student Union building to crush the Student Movement.

Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union.

The United States Air Force accepts its first female recruits into a program called the Women's Air Force (WAF).

Reports are broadcast that a UFO crash-landed in Roswell, New Mexico in what became known as the Roswell UFO incident.