August 8

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

Up to 1900

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

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

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.
2022 – June Spencer, English actress, retires at the age of 103, after 79 years in the industry.

Births

Up to 1900

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

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

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

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

Up to 1900

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

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

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

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