By: HISTORY.com Editors

1987

U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz condemns Soviet spying

Published: November 13, 2009Last Updated: May 27, 2025

Just days before he is to travel to Moscow for talks on arms control and other issues, U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz states that he is “damned upset” about possible Soviet spy activity in the American embassy in the Soviet Union. Soviet officials indignantly replied that the espionage charges were “dirty fabrications.”

Secretary Shultz was scheduled to travel to Moscow for talks on a number of matters, but the foremost issue was the reduction of medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had discussed arms reduction during their summit in Iceland in October 1986, but talks had ended on an acrimonious note. Gorbachev linked progress on the reduction of the missiles to U.S. abandonment of the proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (the so-called “Star Wars” antimissile program).

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A new summit was scheduled for December 1987, and Shultz’s visit was in preparation for that event. However, charges of Soviet espionage in the U.S. embassy in Moscow threatened to derail any discussions. In particular, U.S. officials charged that since at least the early 1980s, Soviet espionage agents had gained access to the American embassy in Moscow by working through the Marine guards stationed there. In addition, there were allegations that the new U.S. embassy under construction was riddled with Soviet spying equipment. Shultz declared, “They invaded our sovereign territory, and we’re damned upset about it.”

In the long run, the arms negotiations were not affected by the spying allegations. In December 1987, Reagan and Gorbachev negotiated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Treaty, which eliminated U.S. and Soviet medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe. In the short run, however, the episode indicated that while relations between the United States and the Soviet Union had improved dramatically in recent years, long-held animosities and suspicions lingered just beneath the surface.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on April 8th

1864

Lincoln signs charter for first U.S. college for Deaf students

It would become the nation’s leading center of higher education for deaf and hard of hearing students.

1904

Britain and France sign Entente Cordiale

On April 8, 1904, with war in Europe a decade away, Britain and France sign an agreement, later known as the Entente Cordiale, resolving long-standing colonial disputes in North Africa and establishing a diplomatic understanding between the two countries. Formally entitled a Declaration between the United Kingdom and France Respecting Egypt and Morocco, the Entente […]

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1935

Works Progress Administration established by Congress as part of FDR’s “New Deal”

On April 8, 1935, Congress votes to approve the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a central part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. In November 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, Governor Roosevelt of New York was elected the 32nd president of the United States. In his inaugural address on March 4, 1933, […]

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1944

Russians attack Germans in drive to expel them from Crimea

On April 8, 1944, Russian forces led by Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin attack the German army in an attempt to win back Crimea, in the southern Ukraine, occupied by the Axis power. The attack would result in the breaking of German defensive lines in just four days, eventually sending the Germans retreating. Crimea was the territorial […]

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1953

Jomo Kenyatta jailed for Mau Mau uprising in Kenya

Jomo Kenyatta, leader of the Kenyan independence movement, is convicted by Kenya’s British rulers of leading the extremist Mau Mau in their violence against white settlers and the colonial government. An advocate of nonviolence and conservatism, he pleaded innocent in the highly politicized trial. One of modern Africa’s first nationalist leaders, Kenyatta was a great […]

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1974

Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record

Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th career home run, breaking Babe Ruth’s legendary record of 714 homers.

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1975

Frank Robinson makes debut as first Black manager in MLB

On April 8, 1975, against the New York Yankees in Cleveland, the Indians’ Frank Robinson becomes the first African American to manage a game in Major League Baseball. Robinson, who also bats second, homers in his first at-bat in Cleveland’s 5-3 win. Nearly 28 years earlier, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson—no relation to Frank—became the […]

1:22m read

1989

Pitcher Jim Abbott, born without right hand, makes MLB debut

On April 8, 1989, California Angels rookie pitcher Jim Abbott, who was born without a right hand, makes his Major League Baseball debut in a 7-0 loss to the Seattle Mariners. His debut generates a buzz throughout the sports world. “Maybe I was unnerved by all the attention,” Abbott tells reporters afterward. The Chicago Tribune […]

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1990

Eighteen-year-old Ryan White, national symbol of the AIDS crisis, dies

On April 8, 1990, 18-year-old Ryan White dies of pneumonia, due to having contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion. He had been given six months to live in December of 1984 but defied expectations and lived for five more years, during which time his story helped educate the public and dispel widespread misconceptions about HIV/AIDS. […]

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1990

“Twin Peaks” premieres on ABC

On April 8, 1990, David Lynch’s surreal television drama “Twin Peaks” premieres on ABC, launching the question “Who killed Laura Palmer?” into the cultural zeitgeist. The naked body of the blonde homecoming queen was found washed up on the shore wrapped in plastic in the show’s opening episode, throwing the residents of the small Pacific […]

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1993

Astronaut Ellen Ochoa becomes the first Hispanic woman in space

On April 8, 1993, the space shuttle Discovery lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center. On board is astronaut Ellen Ochoa, soon to become the first Hispanic woman in space. Ochoa started at NASA in 1988 after receiving a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Two years later, she was selected as an astronaut. […]

1994

Grunge icon Kurt Cobain is found dead three days after his suicide

On April 8, 1994, rock star Kurt Cobain is found dead in his home in Seattle, Washington, with fresh injection marks in both arms and a fatal wound to the head from the 20-gauge shotgun found between his knees. Cobain’s suicide brought an end to a life marked by far more suffering than is generally […]

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2005

Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph agrees to plead guilty

Eric Rudolph agrees to plead guilty to a series of bombings, including the fatal bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, in order to avoid the death penalty. He later cited his anti-abortion and anti-homosexual views as motivation for the bombings. Eric Robert Rudolph was born September 19, 1966, in Merritt Island, Florida. He served […]

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2009

Somali pirates hijack Maersk Alabama ship

On April 8, 2009, the MV Maersk Alabama is hijacked off the coast of Somalia. The high-profile incident drew worldwide attention to the problem of piracy, commonly believed to be a thing of the past, in the waters off the Horn of Africa. Pirates had not captured a ship sailing under the American flag since […]

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2013

Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister, dies

Margaret Thatcher, the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom, dies in London at age 87 from a stroke on April 8, 2013. Serving from 1979 to 1990, Thatcher was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century. She curbed the power of Britain’s labor unions, privatized state-owned industries, led her nation to […]

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