Template:On this day - October 8

Martín Fernández de Navarrete

• 976 – In Al-Andalus (present-day Spain), the caliph Hisham II appoints as prime minister Almanzor, who within a few years would take control of the army and begin to lay waste to the Christian kingdoms of the north.
• 1573 – In the Spanish Netherlands, the Siege of Alkmaar by the troops of the Spanish Empire commanded by Don Fadrique is lifted, during the Eighty Years' War.
• 1676 – Birth of Benito Jerónimo Feijoo, Spanish Benedictine monk, essayist and polygraph, one of the most outstanding figures of the early Spanish Enlightenment (d. 1764).
• 1741 – Birth of José Cadalso, Spanish military officer and writer (d. 1782).
• 1760 – Birth of Dionisio Alcalá Galiano, Spanish naval officer, military commander and scientist (d. 1805).
• 1814 – In the city of Buenos Aires, by decree of the supreme government of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, the Province of Tucumán is created.
• 1821 – Creation of the Peruvian Navy, the maritime, river and lake authority of Peru.
• 1844 – Death of Martín Fernández de Navarrete, Spanish naval officer and writer (b. 1765).
• 1851 – In the Río de la Plata, the Guerra Grande comes to an end, a conflict that lasted almost 12 years and involved the Uruguayan factions of the Blancos (led by Manuel Oribe) and the Colorados (led by Fructuoso Rivera).
• 1879 – During the War of the Pacific, Chilean forces face Peruvian forces at the Naval Battle of Angamos.
• 1881 – The Madrid-Lisbon railway line between the capitals of Spain and Portugal is inaugurated.
• 1895 – Birth of Juan Domingo Perón, politician, military officer and three-time President of Argentina (d. 1974).
• 1918 – In Spain, the President of the Council of Ministers, Antonio Maura, resigns with his entire cabinet.
• 1951 – In Spain, the Center for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research is founded.
• 1967 – In Bolivia, the Bolivian army (together with CIA advisers) captures Ernesto Che Guevara.
• 2005 – Death of Micaela Josefa Portilla Vitoria, Spanish anthropologist, historian and educator (b. 1922).
• 2007 – Costa Rica approves the Free Trade Agreement with the United States.