August 8

2023 Calendar

August 8 is the 220th day of the year (221st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 145 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events Edit

Up to 1900 Edit

117 – Roman Emperor Trajan dies, and is succeeded by Hadrian.
1220 - Sweden is defeated by Estonian tribes in the Battle of Lihula.
1503 – King James IV of Scotland marries Margaret Tudor.
1576 - The cornerstone for Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg Observatory is laid in Ven, Sweden.
1585 - John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in search for the Northwest Passage.
1588 – The Spanish Armada is beaten by the English at the Battle of Gravelines.
1605 – The city of Oulu in Finland, is founded by Charles IX of Sweden.
1647 - Battle of Dungan's Hill, Ireland - English Parliamentary forces defeat Irish forces during the Irish Confederate Wars and Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
1709 - Bartolomeu de Gusmao demonstrates the lifting power of hot air in front of an audience and the King of Portugal in Lisbon.
1786 – Mont Blanc is climbed for the first time, by an expedition led by Jacques Bilmat and Michel-Gabriel Paccard.
1789 – Australia's first police force begins in Sydney, called Nightwatch.
1794 - Joseph Whidbey leads an expedition to find the Northwest Passage near Juneau, Alaska.
1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte sails to St. Helena to spend the rest of his life in exile.
1844 – The Twelve Apostles, led by Brigham Young become the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
1863 - American Civil War: General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Jefferson Davis, which is rejected.
1876 - Thomas Edison receives a patent for the mimeograph.
1885 - Over 1.5 million people attend the funeral of Ulysses S. Grant in New York City.
1900 – The first Davis Cup tennis match begins in Brookline, Massachusetts.

1901 – 2000 Edit

1908 - Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at a racecourse in Le Mans, France.
1918 - World War I: Battle of Amiens.
1927 - The predecessor of the Philippine Stock Exchange is founded.
1929 - German airship Graf Zeppelin starts on its round-the-world flight.
1942 - The Walt Disney movie Bambi has its world premiere in London.
1942 - The Quit India movement in India begins against British rule in response to Mahatma Gandhi's call for total independence.
1945 - The London Charter is signed by the United Kingdom, France, United States and the Soviet Union, creating the laws and procedures for the Nuremberg Trials.
1960 - South Kasai secedes from the Congo.
1963 – The Great Train Robbery occurs in England. Thieves steal 2.6 million pounds.
1963 - Zimbabwe's main political party, ZANU, is founded.
1967 – ASEAN is founded by Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia.
1969 - At a zebra crossing in London, Iain Macmillan takes the photograph that becomes the cover of The Beatles' Abbey Road album.
1973 - Kim Dae Jung, future South Korean President, is kidnapped.
1974 – Richard Nixon announces his resignation as President of the United States, due to the Watergate scandal. Gerald Ford becomes President the next day.
1975 - 62 dams break in China, killing a total of over 231,000 people, in the worst-ever reservoir disaster.
1983 - President Efrain Rios Montt is removed from power in Guatemala.
1988 – The 8888 Uprising against Burma's military regime occurs.
1989 - Space Shuttle Columbia takes on a secret five-day military mission.
1990 - Iraq occupies Kuwait, as Iraq declares it to be part of its territory.
1991 – In Poland, the world-famous Warsaw Radio Mast collapses.
1994 - Yitzhak Rabin visits Jordan for the first time.
1997 - Ibrahim-al-Ibrahim Mosque in Gibraltar opens. It is Europe's southernmost Mosque, and was a gift from King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.
2000 - Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface, 136 years after it sank.

From 2001 Edit

2001 - Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman divorce.
2007 - An EFF 2 tornado touches down in Kings County and Richmond County, New York, as the most powerful tornado to hit the state.
2008 – The Summer Olympics begin in Beijing, China, at exactly 8:08:08pm local time.
2008 - A EuroCity express train strikes part of a motorway bridge that had fallen on the railway track near Studenka Railway Station in the Czech Republic, killing 8 people and injuring 64.
2009 - Nine people are killed when a tour helicopter and a small private airplane collide over the Hudson River at Hoboken, New Jersey.
2010 - A mudslide in Zhungqu County, Gansu Province, China, kills over 1,400 people.
2013 - A suicide bombing at a funeral in Quetta, Pakistan, kills at least 31 people.
2016 - Japanese Emperor Akihito indicates that he might want to abdicate.
2016 - A bomb attack in Quetta, Pakistan, kills over 70 people.
2017 - US President Donald Trump threatens North Korea with "fire and fury" over its nuclear tests in the continuing stand-off between the two countries.

Births Edit

Up to 1900 Edit

422 - Casper II, Maya ruler (d. 487)
1079 - Emperor Horikawa of Japan (d. 1107)
1170 - Saint Dominic, friar and founder of the Dominicans (d. 1221)
1306 - Rudolf II, Count Palatine of the Rhine (d. 1353)
1518 - Conrad Lycosthenes, French-born German humanist (d. 1561)
1605 - Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, British colonial Governor of Maryland (d. 1675)
1646 - Godfrey Kneller, German-born painter (d. 1723)
1693 - Laurent Belissen, French composer (d. 1762)
1694 – Francis Hutcheson, Scottish-Irish philosopher (d. 1746)
1720 - Carl Fredrik Pechlin, Swedish politician (d. 1796)
1748 - Johann Friedrich Gmelin, German physician and naturalist (d. 1804)
1754 - Hipólito Ruiz López, Spanish botanist (d. 1815)
1790 - Ferenc Kölcsey, Hungarian poet and politician (d. 1838)
1797 - Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury, French painter (d. 1890)
1824 – Maria Alexandrovna, Tsarina of Russia (d. 1880)
1832 - George, King of Saxony (d. 1904)
1839 - Nelson A. Miles, American general (d. 1925)
1846 - Frank Brown, Governor of Maryland (d. 1920)
1849 - Vera Zasulich, Russian writer and revolutionary (d. 1919)
1857 - Cécile Chaminade, French composer and pianist (d. 1944)
1861 - William Bateson, British geneticist (d. 1925)
1875 – Artur da Silva Bernardes, President of Brazil (d. 1955)
1876 - Varghese Payapilly Palakkapilly, Indian Syrian Catholic priest (d. 1929)
1879 – Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary (d. 1919)
1879 - Bob Smith, American founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (d. 1950)
1880 - Earle Page, 11th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1961)
1881 - Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist, German field marshal (d. 1954)
1882 - Ladislas Starevich, Polish stop-motion animator (d. 1965)
1882 - Oscar K. Allen, American politician, Governor of Louisiana (d. 1936)
1884 - Sara Teasdale, American poet (d. 1933)
1891 - Adolf Busch, German violinist (d. 1952)
1896 – Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, American writer (d. 1953)
1900 - Victor Young, American violinist, composer and bandleader (d. 1956)

1901 – 1950 Edit

1901 – Nina Berberova, Russian writer (d. 1993)
1901 – Ernest Lawrence, American physicist (d. 1958)
1902 – Paul Dirac, British physicist (d. 1984)
1904 – Ciriaco Errasti, Spanish footballer (d. 1984)
1904 – Achille Varzi, Italian racing driver (d. 1948)
1907 – Benny Carter, American musician (d. 2003)
1908 – Arthur Goldberg, US Supreme Court Justice (d. 1990)
1909 – Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham, 9th Governor-General of New Zealand (d. 1977)
1909 – Jack Renshaw, Australian politician, 31st Premier of New South Wales (d. 1987)
1910 – Sylvia Sidney, American actress (d. 1999)
1913 – Boris Afanasiev, Russian ice hockey player, coach and footballer (d. 1983)
1914 – Unity Mitford, British fascist sympathiser (d. 1948)
1915 – James Elliott, American runner and coach (d. 1981)
1919 – Dino de Laurentiis, Italian movie producer (d. 2010)
1919 – Ciriaco Cañete, Filipino martial artist (d. 2016)
1919 – Samuel Pearson Goddard, American politician, 12th Governor of Arizona (d. 2006)
1920 – Leo Chiosso, Italian lyricist (d. 2006)
1920 – Carol Lambrino, Romanian royal (d. 2006)
1920 – Jimmy Witherspoon, American singer (d. 1997)
1921 – Esther Williams, American swimmer and actress (d. 2013)
1921 – John Herbert Chapman, Canadian physicist (d. 1979)
1922 – Alberto Granado, Argentine-Cuban biochemist, writer and travel companion of Che Guevara (d. 2011)
1922 – Rory Calhoun, American actor (d. 1999)
1922 – Rudi Gernreich, Austrian-American fashion designer (d. 1985)
1922 – Gertrude Himmelfarb, American historian
1923 – Antonio Qarracino, Argentine cardinal (d. 1998)
1923 – Jimmy Witherspoon, American blues and jazz singer (d. 1997)
1925 – Alija Izetbegovic, Bosnian politician (d. 2003)
1926 – Richard Anderson, American actor (d. 2017)
1927 – Johnny Temple, American baseball player (d. 1994)
1928 – Simon Diaz, Venezuelan musician, singer and composer (d. 2014)
1929 – Ronald Biggs, British train robber (d. 2013)
1929 – Leoncio Evita Enoy, Equatorial Guinean writer (d. 1996)
1930 – Jerry Tarkanian, American basketball player (d. 2015)
1930 – Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib, Bengali Mother of the Nation (d. 1975)
1930 – Joan Mondale, American wife of former US Vice President Walter Mondale (d. 2014)
1930 – Terry Nation, Welsh writer and screenwriter (d. 1997)
1931 – Roger Penrose, British physicist
1932 – Luis García Meza Tejada, Bolivian leader (d. 2018)
1932 – Zito, Brazilian footballer (d. 2015)
1933 – Joe Tex, American singer (d. 1982)
1934 – Sarat Pujari, Indian actor, director and movie producer (d. 2014)
1935 – Donald P. Bellisario, American screenwriter and producer
1936 - Erol Büyükburç, Turkish singer, composer and actor (d. 2015)
1937 – Dustin Hoffman, American actor
1937 – Cornelis Vreeswijk, Dutch-Swedish composer and poet (d. 1987)
1938 – Connie Stevens, American actress, singer, director and producer
1939 – Phil Balsley, baritone singer
1940 – Dennis Tito, American businessman and space tourist
1941 – George Tiller, American physician and abortion rights activist (d. 2009)
1942 – Dennis Canavan, Scottish politician
1943 – Denis Payton, British saxophonist
1943 – Alan Boswell, English footballer (d. 2017)
1944 – John Renbourn, British guitarist and songwriter (d. 2015)
1944 – John Holmes, American pornographic actor (d. 1988)
1946 – Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
1947 – Miguel Blesa, Spanish banker (d. 2017)
1947 – Philip Nitschke, Australian humanist and found of Exit International
1948 - Akira Matsunaga, Japanese footballer
1948 – Svetlana Savitskaya, Soviet cosmonaut
1949 – Keith Carradine, American actor and singer
1950 – Martine Aubry, French politician
1950 – Lucjan Lis, Polish cyclist (d. 2015)

1951 – 1975 Edit

1951 – Louis van Gaal, Dutch football manager
1951 - Mohamed Morsi, former President of Egypt (d. 2019)
1952 – Jostein Gaarder, Norwegian writer
1953 – Nigel Mansell, British racing driver
1955 – Herbert Prohaska, Austrian footballer
1956 - Cecilia Roth, Argentine actress
1956 - David Grant, British singer and vocal coach
1956 - Chris Foreman, British guitarist and songwriter (Madness)
1957 - Dennis Drew, American keyboardist
1958 - Akihiro Nishimura, Japanese footballer
1960 - Ulrich Maly, German politician, 16th Mayor of Nuremberg
1961 – The Edge, Irish musician (U2)
1961 – Rikki Rockett, American drummer
1962 - Mike Zanier, Canadian ice hockey player
1963 - Hur Jin-ho, South Korean director and screenwriter
1963 - Jordan K. Hubbard, American computer scientist
1964 - Giuseppe Conte, Italian politician, Prime Minister of Italy
1964 – Klaus Ebner, Austrian writer
1964 - Scott Sandelin, American ice hockey player and coach
1966 – Chris Eubank, British boxer
1967 - Eric Angle, American wrestler
1967 - Marcelo Balboa, American soccer player
1968 – Huey Morgan, American singer and guitarist
1969 - Faye Wong, Chinese singer and actress
1970 - Pascal Duquenne, Belgian actor and Paralympic sportsman
1970 - Chester Williams, South African rugby union player (d. 2019)
1972 - Andrea de Rossi, Italian rugby player and coach
1972 - Axel Merckx, Belgian cyclist
1972 - Steven Tweed, Scottish footballer
1974 - Brian Harvey, English singer (East 17)
1975 - Makoto Tanaka, Japanese footballer

From 1976 Edit

1976 – JC Chasez, American singer
1976 - Laura Kuenssberg, Scottish journalist, BBC News Political Editor
1976 - Drew Lachey, American singer and actor
1976 - Lee Seung-Yeop, South Korean baseball player
1977 – Szilárd Németh, Slovakian footballer
1977 - Kurt Bernard, Costa Rican footballer
1977 - Rocky Thompson, Canadian ice hockey player
1977 - Mohammad Wasim, Pakistani cricketer
1978 – Massamasso Tchangai, Togolese footballer (d. 2010)
1978 – Louis Saha, French footballer
1979 - Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson, Icelandic handball player
1980 - Michael Urie, American actor
1981 – Roger Federer, Swiss tennis player
1981 - Vanessa Amorosi, Australian singer-songwriter
1981 - Bradley McIntosh, British singer (S Club)
1982 - Brandon Gay, American basketball player
1982 - David Florence, Scottish canoe racer
1984 – Kirk Broadfoot, Scottish footballer
1984 - Owen Jones, English journalist and writer
1985 - Toby Flood, English rugby player
1986 - Kateryna Bondarenko, Ukrainian tennis player
1986 - Peyton List, American actress
1987 – Katie Leung, Scottish actress
1987 - Pierre Boulanger, French actor
1988 – Princess Beatrice of York, member of the British Royal family
1988 - Danilo Gallinari, Italian basketball player
1988 - Flavia Bujor, Romanian-French novelist
1989 - Hannah Miley, British swimmer
1990 - Oti Mabuse, South African professional dancer
1991 - Nélson Oliveira, Portuguese footballer
1991 - Joel Matip, German footballer
1995 – Malin Reitan, Norwegian singer
1998 - Shawn Mendes, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Deaths Edit

Up to 1900 Edit

117 – Trajan, Roman Emperor (b. 53)
869 – Lothair II of Lotharingia (b. 825)
1303 - Henry of Castile the Senator (b. 1230)
1445 - Oswald von Wolkenstein, Austrian composer
1533 - Lucas van Leyden, Dutch painter (b. 1494)
1553 - Girolamo Fracastoro, Italian physician (b. 1478)
1604 - Horio Tadauji, Japanese warlord (b. 1578)
1631 - Konstantinas Sirvydas, Lithuanian lexicographer (b. 1579)
1719 - Christoph Ludwig Agricola, German painter (b. 1667)
1746 – Francis Hutcheson, Scottish-Irish philosopher (b. 1694)
1747 - Madeleine de Vercheres, New France heroine (b. 1678)
1759 - Carl Heinrich Graun, German composer (b. 1704)
1824 - Friedrich August Wolf, German philologist (b. 1759)
1827 – George Canning, shortest-serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1770)
1828 - Carl Peter Thunberg, Swedish naturalist (b. 1743)
1854 - Zenaide Laetitia Julie Bonaparte, daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte (b. 1801)
1876 - Adolph Tidemand, Norwegian painter (b. 1814)
1879 - Immanuel Hermann Fichte, German philosopher (b. 1797)
1882 - Gouverneur Kimble Warren, American general (b. 1830)
1887 – Alexander William Doniphan, American lawyer and soldier (b. 1808)
1897 - Jacob Burckhardt, Swiss art historian (b. 1818)
1898 – Eugène Boudin, French painter (b. 1824)
1899 - William Yates Atkinson, American politician, Governor of Georgia (b. 1854)

1901 – 2000 Edit

1902 – James Tissot, French artist (b. 1836)
1909 - Mary MacKillop, Scottish-born Australian Catholic nun and Saint (b. 1842)
1911 – William P. Frye, American politician (b. 1830)
1918 - Michel Zevaco, French writer (b. 1860)
1928 - Stjepan Radic, Croatian politician (b. 1871)
1930 - Launceston Elliot, Scottish weightlifter (b. 1874)
1940 – Johnny Dodds, jazz musician (b. 1892)
1944 – Chaim Soutine, Russian painter (b. 1894)
1950 - Fergus McMaster, Australian businessman (Qantas) (b. 1879)
1959 - Albert Namatjira, Australian artist (b. 1902)
1961 - Mei Lanfang, Chinese writer (b. 1916)
1962 - Kunio Yanagita, Japanese writer and ethnologist (b. 1875)
1965 – Shirley Jackson, American writer (b. 1919)
1972 – Andrea Feldman, actor (b. 1948)
1973 - Vilhelm Moberg, Swedish writer and historian (b. 1898)
1973 - Nikos Zachariades, Greek Communist politician (b. 1893)
1974 – Baldur von Schirach, Nazi Youth leader (b. 1907)
1975 – Cannonball Adderley, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1928)
1977 – Edgar Douglas Adrian, English doctor, won the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, (b. 1889)
1985 – Louise Brooks, silent movie actress (b. 1906)
1987 – Danilo Blanusa, Croatian mathematician (b. 1903)
1988 - Alan Napier, English-American actor (b. 1903)
1991 – James Irwin, astronaut (b. 1930)
1991 - Julissa Gomez, American gymnast (b. 1972)
1996 - Nevill Francis Mott, British physicist (b. 1905)
1997 – Sviatoslav Richter, Ukrainian pianist (b. 1915)

From 2001 Edit

2004 – Fay Wray, American actress (b. 1907)
2005 - Ilse Werner, German actress (b. 1921)
2005 - Barbara Bel Geddes, American actress (b. 1922)
2009 – Daniel Jarque, Spanish footballer (b. 1983)
2010 – Massamasso Tchangai, Togolese footballer (b. 1978)
2010 – Patricia Neal, American actress (b. 1926)
2012 - Sancho Gracia, Spanish entertainer (b. 1936)
2013 - Igor Kurnosov, Russian chess player (b. 1985)
2013 - Karen Black, American actress (b. 1939)
2013 - Barbara Mertz, American writer (b. 1927)
2013 - Jack Clement, American record and music producer, singer and songwriter (b. 1931)
2014 - Danny Murphy, American actor (b. 1955)
2014 - Menahem Golan, Israeli director, producer and screenwriter (b. 1929)
2014 - Peter Sculthorpe, Australian composer and conductor (b. 1929)
2014 - J. J. Murphy, Northern Irish actor (b. 1928)
2015 - Sean Price, American rapper (b. 1972)
2015 - Kayyar Kinhanna Rai, Indian independence activist (b. 1915)
2015 - Gus Mortson, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1925)
2016 - Edward Daly, Irish Roman Catholic bishop (b. 1933)
2017 - Glen Campbell, American singer (b. 1936)
2017 - Barbara Cook, American singer and actress (b. 1927)
2017 - Dick MacPherson, American football player (b. 1930)
2017 - Gonzague Saint Bris, French novelist and biographer (b. 1948)
2017 - Janet Seidel, Australian jazz singer (b. 1955)
2017 - Cathleen Synge Morawetz, Canadian mathematician (b. 1923)
2017 - Blanche Blackwell, Jamaican socialite (b. 1912)
2017 - Eugene Burger, American magician and philosopher (b. 1939)
2017 - Rius, Mexican intellectual, political cartoonist and writer (b. 1934)
2017 - Ken Roberts, English rugby league player
2018 - Nicholas Bett, Kenyan athlete (b. 1990)
2018 - Jarrod Lyle, Australian golfer (b. 1981)
2018 - Takeshi Onaga, Japanese politician and governor of Okinawa Prefecture (b. 1950)
2018 - Mikhail Shakhov, Ukrainian wrestler (b. 1931)
2019 - Ernie Colón, American comic artist (b. 1931)
2019 - Manfred Max-Neef, Chilean economist (b. 1932)
2019 - Jean-Pierre Mocky, French film director, screenwriter and actor (b. 1929)
2019 - Dave Parks, American football player (b. 1941)
2019 - Fabrizio Saccomanni, Italian politician and economist (b. 1942)

Observances Edit

Father's Day (Taiwan)
Chocolate Day (Chile)
International Cat Day