From Historynet: Today in History February 8

1587          Mary, Queen of Scots  is beheaded in Fotheringhay Castle for her alleged part in the conspiracy to usurp 

Elizabeth I .

1807          At Eylau, Napoleon's 

Marshal Pierre Agureau  attacks Russian forces in a heavy snowstorm.

1861          Delegates from seceded states adopt a provisional Confederate Constitution.

1862          Union troops under Gen. Ambrose Burnside  defeat a Confederate defense force at the Battle of Roanoke Island, N.C.

1865          Confederate raider William Quantrill  and men attack a group of Federal wagons at New Market, Kentucky.

1887          Congress passes the Dawes Act, which gives citizenship to Indians living apart from their tribe.

1900          British General Buller  is beaten at Ladysmith, South Africa as the British flee over the Tugela River.

1904          In a surprise attack at Port Arthur, Korea, the Japanese disable seven Russian warships.

1910          The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated.

1924          The gas chamber is used for the first time to execute a murderer.

1942          The Japanese land on Singapore.

1943          British General Orde Wingate  leads a guerrilla force of "Chindits" against the Japanese in Burma.

1952          Elizabeth  becomes Queen of England after her father, King George VI , dies.

1962          The U.S. Defense Department reports the creation of the Military Assistance Command in South Vietnam.

1965          South Vietnamese bomb the North Vietnamese communications center at Vinh Linh.

1971          South Vietnamese ground forces, backed by American air power, begin Operation Lam Son 719, a 17,000 man incursion into Laos that ends three weeks later in a disaster.

1990          CBS television temporarily suspends 

Andy Rooney  for his anti-gay and ant-black remarks in a magazine interview.