This Day in History: Feb. 8

On this day, Feb. 8 ...

1965: The Supremes’ record "Stop! In the Name of Love!" is released by Motown.

Also on this day:

• 1587: Mary, Queen of Scots is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England after she is implicated in a plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.
• 1693: A charter is granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg in the Virginia Colony.
• 1862: The Civil War Battle of Roanoke Island, N.C., ends in victory for Union forces led by Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside.
• 1904: The Russo-Japanese War, a conflict over control of Manchuria and Korea, begins as Japanese forces attack Port Arthur.

• 1910: The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated.
• 1922: President Warren G. Harding has a radio installed in the White House.
• 1924: The first execution by gas in the United States takes place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City as Gee Jon, a Chinese immigrant convicted of murder, is put to death.
• 1952: Queen Elizabeth II proclaims her accession to the British throne following the death of her father, King George VI.
• 1968: Three college students are killed in a confrontation between demonstrators and highway patrolmen at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg in the wake of protests over a whites-only bowling alley.
• 1968: The science-fiction film "Planet of the Apes," starring Charlton Heston, has its world premiere in New York. (It would go into general release the following April.)
• 1989: 144 people are killed when an American-chartered Boeing 707 filled with Italian tourists slammed into a fog-covered mountain in the Azores.
• 1992: The XVI Olympic Winter Games open in Albertville, France.
• 1993: General Motors sues NBC, alleging that "Dateline NBC" rigged two car-truck crashes to show that 1973-to-87 GM pickups were prone to fires in side-impact crashes. (NBC would settle the lawsuit the following day and apologize for its "unscientific demonstration.")
• 2009: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss win five Grammys, including album of the year, for "Raising Sand."
• 2009: R&B singer Chris Brown is arrested on suspicion of making a criminal threat. (He would later be sentenced to five years of probation for beating his longtime girlfriend, singer Rihanna).
• 2014: In an assertion of same-sex marriage rights, Attorney General Eric Holder announces that same-sex spouses could not be compelled to testify against each other, should be eligible to file for bankruptcy jointly and are entitled to the same rights and privileges as federal prison inmates in opposite-sex marriages.