May 8 · This Day in America
Nazi Germany has surrendered, and on May 8, 1945, the Allied world exhales at once. In New York, the crowd floods Times Square; New Orleans turns into Mardi Gras in May; in churches across the country people simply kneel. It is also Harry Truman's 61st birthday, and the nation's flags are still at half-staff for Franklin Roosevelt, dead less than a month and spared the news by weeks. Truman refuses to let the joy run away with the day. "Our victory is only half over," he tells the country — the war against Japan grinds on, and in countless American homes the celebration is also a grieving, for the husbands and sons and brothers who did not come back. A free Europe had been bought at a price no parade could cover. The country danced anyway, and meant both halves of it.
Source: americanhistory.si.edu
Also on this day · 1886
Dr. John Pemberton carries a jug of his new syrup to Jacobs' Pharmacy in downtown Atlanta. Mixed with carbonated water, it's pronounced "excellent" and sold at the soda fountain for five cents a glass. About nine drinks a day that first year. Pemberton died in 1888, never seeing what it became — one of the most recognized things humans have ever made.
Source: guides.loc.gov
“Our victory is only half over.”President Harry S. Truman, May 8, 1945