On May 8, ...

... 1945, as V-E Day was being celebrated in Europe, Sétif, Algeria, French troops killed anticolonialist demonstrators, setting off waves of violence that left thousands dead. Colonized by France in 1830, Algeria would not win independence until adoption of the 1962 Accords d'Évian.
... 1996, South Africa's Constitutional Assembly adopted a new South African Constitution intended to replace the Interim Constitution in effect since the end of apartheid rule in 1994. Later in the year, however, the Constitutional Court rejected aspects of the new instrument. An amended Constitution finally entered into force on February 7, 1997.