September 8 is the 251st day of the year (252nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 114 days remaining until the end of the year.

• 70 – Roman forces under Titus sack Jerusalem.
• 617 – Battle of Huoyi: Li Yuan defeats a Sui Dynasty army, opening the path to his capture of the imperial capital Chang'an and the eventual establishment of the Tang Dynasty.
• 1264 – The Statute of Kalisz, guaranteeing Jews safety and personal liberties and giving battei din jurisdiction over Jewish matters, is promulgated by Boleslaus the Pious, Duke of Greater Poland.
• 1331 – Stephen Uroš IV Dušan declares himself king of Serbia
• 1380 – Battle of Kulikovo – Russian forces defeat a mixed army of Tatars and Mongols, stopping their advance.
• 1504 – Michelangelo's David is unveiled in Florence.
• 1514 – Battle of Orsha – in one of the biggest battles of the century, Lithuanians and Poles defeat the Russian army.
• 1551 – The foundation day in Vitória, Brazil
• 1565 – The Knights of Malta lift the Turkish siege of Malta that began on May 18.
• 1655 – Warsaw falls without resistance to a small force under the command of Charles X Gustav of Sweden during The Deluge, making it the first time the city is captured by a foreign army.
• 1727 – A barn fire during a puppet show in the village of Burwell in Cambridgeshire, England kills 78 people, many of whom are children.
• 1755 – French and Indian War: Battle of Lake George.
• 1756 – French and Indian War: Kittanning Expedition.
• 1761 – Marriage of King George III of the United Kingdom to Duchess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
• 1781 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina, the war's last significant battle in the Southern theater, ends in a narrow British tactical victory.
• 1793 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Hondschoote.
• 1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Bassano – French forces defeat Austrian troops at Bassano del Grappa.
• 1810 – The Tonquin sets sail from New York Harbor with 33 employees of John Jacob Astor's newly created Pacific Fur Company on board. After a six-month journey around the tip of South America, the ship arrives at the mouth of the Columbia River and Astor's men establish the fur-trading town of Astoria, Oregon.
• 1831 – William IV and Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
• 1860 – The steamship Lady Elgin sinks on Lake Michigan, with the loss of around 300 lives.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Sabine Pass – on the Texas-Louisiana border at the mouth of the Sabine River, a small Confederate force thwarts aUnion invasion of Texas.
• 1883 – The Northern Pacific Railway (reporting mark NP) was completed in a ceremony at Gold Creek, Montana. Former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in an event attended by rail and political luminaries.
• 1888 – In Spain, the first travel of Isaac Peral's submarine, was the first practical submarine ever made.
• 1888 – In London, the body of Jack the Ripper's second murder victim, Annie Chapman, is found.
• 1888 – In England the first six Football League matches are played.
• 1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited.
• 1900 – Galveston Hurricane of 1900: a powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people.
• 1914 – World War I: Private Thomas Highgate becomes the first British soldier to be executed for desertion during the war.
• 1921 – 16-year-old Margaret Gorman wins the Atlantic City Pageant's Golden Mermaid trophy; pageant officials later dubbed her the first Miss America.
• 1923 – Honda Point Disaster: nine US Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast. Seven are lost, and twenty-three sailors killed.
• 1926 – Germany is admitted to the League of Nations.
• 1930 – 3M begins marketing Scotch transparent tape.
• 1934 – Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner SS Morro Castle kills 135 people.
• 1935 – US Senator from Louisiana, Huey Long, nicknamed "Kingfish", is fatally shot in the Louisiana State Capitol building.
• 1941 – World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins. German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad.
• 1943 – World War II: The O.B.S. (German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone) in Frascati is bombed by USAAF.
• 1943 – World War II: United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the Allied armistice with Italy.
• 1944 – World War II: London is hit by a V-2 rocket for the first time.
• 1944 – World War II: Menton is liberated from Germany.
• 1945 – Cold War: United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.
• 1951 – Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, California, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan in formal recognition of the end of the Pacific War.
• 1954 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established.
• 1959 – The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) is established.
• 1960 – In Huntsville, Alabama, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicates the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA had already activated the facility on July 1).
• 1962 – Newly independent Algeria, by referendum, adopts a constitution.
• 1962 – Last run of the famous Pines Express over the Somerset and Dorset Railway line (UK) fittingly using the last steam locomotive built by British Railways, 9F locomotive 92220 Evening Star.
• 1965 – Pakistan Navy raids Indian coasts without any resistance in Operation Dwarka, Pakistan celebrates Victory Day annually.
• 1966 – The Severn Bridge is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.
• 1966 – The first Star Trek series premieres on NBC.
• 1967 – The formal end of steam traction in the North East of England by British Railways.
• 1971 – In Washington, D.C., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated, with the opening feature being the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.
• 1974 – Watergate Scandal: US President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.
• 1975 – Gays in the military: US Air Force Tech Sergeant Leonard Matlovich, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, appears in his Air Force uniform on the cover of Time magazine with the headline "I Am A Homosexual". He is given a general discharge, which was later upgraded to honorable.
• 1988 – Yellowstone National Park is closed for the first time in U.S. history due to ongoing fires.
• 1989 – Partnair Flight 394 drove into the North Sea, killing 55 people. The investigation showed that the tail of the plane vibrated loose in flight due to sub-standard connecting bolts that had been fraudulently sold as aircraft-grade.
• 1991 – The Republic of Macedonia becomes independent.
• 1994 – USAir Flight 427, on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport, suddenly crashes in clear weather killing all 132 aboard; resulting in the most extensive aviation investigation in world history and altering manufacturing practices in the industry.
• 2004 – NASA's unmanned spacecraft Genesis crash-lands when its parachute fails to open.
• 2005 – Two EMERCOM Il-76 aircraft land at a disaster aid staging area at Little Rock Air Force Base; the first time Russia has flown such a mission to North America.
• 2013 – 11 people are killed in a train collision in Iași County, Romania.