June 8

June 8 is the 159th day of the year (160th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 206 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1950

68 – The Roman Senate proclaims Galba Emperor.
218 – Battle of Antioch.
793 – Vikings or raiding tribes from Scandinavia, attack and steal valuable objects from Lindisfarne, a monastery off the coast of Northumbria in England.
1042 – Edward the Confessor becomes King of England.
1191 – Richard I of England arrives in Acre, Palestine, beginning his Crusade.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Trois Rivieres – American attackers are driven back at Trois-Rivières, Quebec, present-day Canada.
1783 – An eruption occurs in the Laki crater in Iceland. It causes widespread famine, killing several thousand Icelanders and also has devastating effects on other parts of Europe and in other parts of the World.
1794 – Maximilien Robespierre founds the cult of Supreme Being.
1856 – A group of Pitcairn Islanders, descendents of Bounty mutineers, land on Norfolk Island and settle there.
1861 – American Civil War: Tennessee secedes from the Union.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cross Keys – Confederate forces save the army of Northern Virginia from a Union assault on the James Peninsula.
1866 – Canada's Parliament meets at Parliament Hill in Ottawa for the first time.
1867 – Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and Elisabeth of Bavaria are crowned King and Queen of Hungary in Budapest.
1887 – Herman Hollerith applies for a US patent for his punched card calculator.
1895 – In Ecuador, Eloy Alfaro comes to power in a military coup and starts a series of liberal reforms.
1906 – Theodore Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act into law.
1912 – Carl Laemmle incorporates Universal Pictures.
1912 – In the High Jump, Marc Wright becomes the first person to clear a height of 4 metres.
1914 – The Brazilian Sports Federation is founded – a precursor to the Brazilian Football Federation.
1924 – Climbers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine go missing while attempting to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. It is unknown whether they managed to reach the summit.
1928 – The National Revolutionary Army captures Peking, renaming it Beiping.
1929 – Margaret Bondfield becomes the first female cabinet minister in the UK, when she becomes Minister of Labour.
1930 – Carol II of Romania becomes King.
1941 – World War II: The Allies invade Syria and Lebanon.
1942 – World War II: Japanese imperial submarines I-21 and I-24 shell Sydney and Newcastle, New South Wales.
1949 – The novel 1984 by George Orwell goes on sale in London.
1949 – The FBI publishes a list of celebrities it considers to be members of the Communist Party.
1950 – Thomas Blamey becomes the only Australian-born field marshal in Australian history.

From 1951

1953 – The United States Supreme Court rules that restaurants in Washington, DC can't refuse to serve black patrons.
1953 – Flint, Michigan is hit by a tornado, killing 115 people.
1959 – The USS Barbero and United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.
1966 – Topeka, Kansas is hit by a tornado that kills 16 people.
1966 – An F-4 Starfighter aircraft collides with an XB-70 Valkyrie Prototype No.2, destroying both planes during a photo shoot near Edwards Air Force Base, killing 2 people.
1967 – Six-Day War: The USS Liberty incident occurs, killing 34 people and injuring 171. On the same day, Israel's army enters Hebron.
1968 – James Earl Ray is arrested in London for the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr..
1972 – US bombers drop a napalm bomb in South Vietnam. One of the most striking images of the Vietnam War was taken on this day, of 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc running down a road with burns resulting from the attack.
1975 – The Soviet Venera 9 probe is sent to Venus.
1982 – Falklands War: 56 servicemen are killed in an Argentine attack on two British landing ships.
1984 – Homosexuality is declared legal in New South Wales.
1986 – Kurt Waldheim is elected President of Austria over Kurt Steyrer.
1987 – The New Zealand government creates a national nuclear-free zone.
1990 – The 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy begins.
1992 – World Ocean Day is observed for the first time.
1996 – UEFA Euro 1996 in England begins.
2001 – Mamoru Takuma kills 8 people and injures 15 in a mass stabbing at an elementary school in the Osaka prefecture of Japan.
2002 – Lennox Lewis defeats Mike Tyson in their Heavyweight Boxing fight in Memphis, Tennessee. They had previously fought each other during a press conference in January of the same year.
2003 – In a referendum in Poland, 77% of voters approve joining the EU.
2004 – The first transit of Venus since 1882 occurs.
2006 – Raphaella de Gouvello reaches the island of Réunion, completing the first journey-by–surfboard across the Indian Ocean.
2007 – Newcastle, New South Wales is hit by flooding, killing 9 people.
2007 – Paris Hilton, heiress and celebrity, gets a 45-day jail sentence for drunk driving which gets much attention.
2008 – Akihabara shopping district, Chiyoda, Tokyo: Tomohiro Kato drives a two-ton truck into a crowd before attacking people with a knife.
2009 – Gabon's President Omar Bongo dies after more than 41 ¹⁄₂ years in office.
2012 – UEFA Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine begins. In the opening game, the Poland national football team and the Greece national football team draw 1–1.
2014 – Abdel Fattah el-Sisi becomes President of Egypt.
2014 – At least 28 people are killed in an attack on Jinnah International Airport in Lahore, Pakistan.
2017 – United Kingdom general election, 2017: Theresa May's Conservative Party loses its overall majority despite keeping its status as the largest party and making gains in Scotland; Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party performs better than expected, including gains in Kensington and Canterbury; The Scottish National Party loses 21 seats but remains by-far the largest Scottish party; UKIP lose heavily.
2023 – Very bad flooding starts in South Korea.

Births

Up to 1900

862 – Emperor Xizong of Tang (d. 888)
1438 – Melozzo de Forli, Italian painter (d. 1494)
1552 – Gabriello Chiabera, Italian poet (d. 1638)
1594 – Gottfried Heinrich zu Pappenheim, German general (d. 1632)
1625 – Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Italian scientist (d. 1712)
1671 – Tommaso Albinoni, Italian composer (d. 1751)
1717 – John Collins, 3rd Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1795)
1724 – John Smeaton, British civil engineer (d. 1794)
1743 – Alessandro Cagliostro, Italian adventurer (d. 1795)
1745 – Caspar Wessel, Danish mathematician (d. 1818)
1772 – Robert Stevenson, Scottish civil engineer (d. 1850)
1810 – Robert Schumann, German composer (d. 1856)
1837 – Ivan Kramskoi, Russian painter (d. 1887)
1840 – Manuel José de Arriaga, President of Portugal (d. 1917)
1842 – John Q. A. Brackett, 36th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1918)
1847 – Ida Saxton McKinley, First Lady of the United States (d. 1907)
1851 – Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval, French physicist, physician and inventor (d. 1940)
1852 – Guido Banti, Italian physician (d. 1925)
1855 – George Charles Haité, British painter and illustrator (d. 1924)
1859 – Smith Wigglesworth, British religious figure (d. 1947)
1860 – Alicia Boole Stott, Irish mathematician (d. 1940)
1867 – Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect (d. 1959)
1872 – Jan Frans De Boever, Belgian painter (d. 1949)
1885 – Karl Genzken, German physician (d. 1957)
1895 – Santiago Bernabéu Yeste, Spanish footballer (d. 1978)
1897 – John G. Bennett, British scientist and writer (d. 1974)

1901 – 1950

1901 – Salustiano Sanchez, Spanish-American supercentenarian, oldest-living man (d. 2013)
1903 – Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-born American writer (d. 1987)
1903 – Ralph Yarborough, U.S. Senator and Texas politician (d. 1996)
1904 – Bruce Goff, American architect (d. 1982)
1910 – Fernand Fonssagrives, French photographer (d. 2003)
1910 – John W. Campbell Jr., science fiction writer, publisher, editor (d. 1971)
1911 – Edmundo Rivero, Argentine singer (d. 1986)
1912 – Harry Holtzman, American abstract artist (d. 1987)
1915 – Kayyar Kinhanna Rai, Indian independence activist (d. 2015)
1916 – Francis Crick, British scientist, Nobel laureate, helped discover the molecular structure of DNA (d. 2004)
1916 – Luigi Comencini, Italian movie director (d. 2007)
1917 – Byron White, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court (d. 2002)
1918 – Robert Preston, actor (d. 1987)
1918 – John D. Roberts, American chemist
1918 – George Edward Hughes, British philosopher and logician (d. 1994)
1921 – Alexis Smith, Canadian actress (d. 1993)
1923 – Alice Coleman, English geographer and academic
1924 – Lyn Nofziger, American political operative
1924 – Kenneth Waltz, American political scientist (d. 2013)
1925 – Barbara Bush, former First Lady of the United States (d. 2018)
1926 – Julio Silva Solar, Chilean lawyer and politician (d. 2014)
1927 – LeRoy Neiman, American painter
1929 – Jerry Stiller, American comedian, actor
1930 – Robert Aumann, German-Israeli mathematician
1930 – Marcel Léger, Canadian politician (d. 1993)
1933 – Joan Rivers, American comedienne, writer (d. 2014)
1934 – Millicent Martin, English singer and actress
1934 – Mikio Aoki, Japanese politician
1936 – James Darren, actor, singer
1936 – Kenneth G. Wilson, American physicist (d. 2013)
1936 – Robert Floyd, American computer scientist (d. 2001)
1938 – Angelo Amato, Italian cardinal
1939 – Bernie Casey, American football player and actor
1940 – Nancy Sinatra, American singer
1941 – Fuzzy Haskins, American musician ("P Funk")
1941 – George Pell, Australian cardinal and Archbishop of Sydney
1942 – Jacques Dubochet Swiss biochemist
1942 – Chuck Negron, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1942 – Doug Mountjoy, Welsh snooker player
1942 – Horst Wolter, German footballer
1943 – Colin Baker, British actor
1943 – William Calley, American war criminal
1944 – Boz Scaggs, singer, songwriter
1944 – Marc Ouellet, Canadian cardinal
1946 – Graham Henry, New Zealand rugby player and coach
1946 – Pearlette Louisy, Governor-General of Saint Lucia
1947 – Eric F. Wieschaus, American biologist
1947 – Sara Paretsky, American writer
1947 – Annie Haslam, English singer-songwriter and painter
1948 – Jürgen von der Lippe, German show master
1950 – Sonia Braga, Brazilian actress
1950 – Kathy Baker, American actress
1950 – Steven Fromholz, American entertainer, singer and songwriter (d. 2014)

1951 – 1975

1951 – Bonnie Tyler, Welsh singer and guitarist
1953 – Ivo Sanader, former Prime Minister of Croatia
1953 – Olav Stedje, Norwegian singer-songwriter
1954 – Sergei Storchak, Russian politician
1954 – Greg Ginn, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1955 – Griffin Dunne, actor
1955 – Sir Tim Berners-Lee, British inventor of the World Wide Web
1955 – José Antonio Camacho, Spanish footballer
1956 – Udo Bullmann, German politician
1957 – Scott Adams, American cartoonist ("Dilbert")
1957 – Dimple Kapadia, Indian movie actress
1958 – Keenen Ivory Wayans, comedian, actor, director
1960 – Mick Hucknall, English singer/songwriter ("Simply Red")
1961 – Mary King, English equestrian
1962 – Nick Rhodes, English musician ("Duran Duran")
1962 – Thomas Steen, Swedish ice hockey player and coach
1962 – Kristine W, American singer-songwriter and producer
1964 – Butch Reynolds, American athlete
1965 – Rob Pilatus, German-born singer and dancer (d. 1998)
1966 – Julianna Margulies, American actress (ER)
1969 – Marcos Siega, American director
1970 – Gabrielle Giffords, United States Congresswoman
1970 – Kelli Williams, actress (The Practice)
1970 – Kwame Kilpatrick, 68th Mayor of Detroit
1971 – Troy Vincent, American football player
1973 – Lexa Doig, Canadian actress (Andromeda)
1973 – Shappi Khorsandi, Iranian-English comedienne
1973 – Bryant Reeves, American basketball player
1975 – Shilpa Shetty, Indian actress

From 1976

1976 – Lindsay Davenport, American tennis player
1977 – Kanye West, American rapper, producer
1978 – Eun Ji Won, South Korean rapper, producer and actor
1978 – Matthew Bellamy, British musician (Muse)
1979 – Derek Trucks, American musician
1981 – Alex Band, American singer-songwriter, musician and producer
1981 – Rachel Held Evans, American Christian author (d. 2019)
1981 – Sara Watkins, violinist (Nickel Creek)
1982 – Irina Lazareanu, Romanian model
1982 – Dickson Etuhu, Nigerian footballer
1982 – Nadia Petrova, Russian tennis player
1983 – Kim Clijsters, Belgian tennis player
1983 – Pantelis Kapetanos, Greek footballer
1984 – Javier Mascherano, Argentine footballer
1984 – Andrea Casiraghi, Monegasque royalty
1985 – Pierre Spies, South African rugby player
1985 – Alexandre Despatie, Canadian diver
1986 – Carl Ikeme, English-born footballer
1986 – Patrick Kaleta, American ice hockey player
1987 – Issiar Dia, Senegalese footballer
1987 – Danielle Foote, Australian singer
1989 – Amaury Vassili, French singer
1989 – Richard Fleeshman, English singer-songwriter and actor
1990 – Mickey Bushell, British Paralympic athlete
1990 – Alexander Yakin, Russian actor
1991 – Nick Benson, American actor
1997 – Jelena Ostapenko, Latvian tennis player
2002 – Countess Eloise of Orange-Nassau van Amsberg, Dutch royal
2004 – Francesca Capaldi, American actress
2006 – Deng Minghe, Chinese actor (d. 2015)

Deaths

Up to 1900

62 – Octavia, daughter of Nero
632 – Muhammad the Prophet, founder of Islam (b. 570)
1042 – Harthacanute, King of Denmark and England (b. 1018)
1154 – William of York, English saint and archbishop
1376 – Edward, the Black Prince, son of Edward III of England (b. 1330)
1383 – Thomas de Ros, 5th Baron de Ros, English crusader (b. 1338)
1384 – Kanami, Japanese actor (b. 1333)
1476 – George Neville, English archbishop and statesman (b. 1432)
1505 – Hongzhi Emperor of China (b. 1470)
1611 – Jean Bertaut, French poet (b. 1522)
1621 – Anne de Xainctonge, French saint (b. 1567)
1628 – Rudolph Goclenius, German philosopher (b. 1547)
1701 – Philippe, Duke of Orléans (b. 1640)
1714 – Sophia of Hanover (b. 1630)
1716 – Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine (b. 1658)
1771 – George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, British statesman (b. 1716)
1795 – Louis XVII of France (b. 1785)
1809 – Thomas Paine, American writer (b. 1737)
1835 – Gian Domenico Romagnosi, Italian physicist (b. 1761)
1845 – Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States (b. 1767)
1874 – Cochise, Apache chief (b. between 1810 and 1823)
1876 – George Sand, French writer (b. 1804)
1889 – Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet (b. 1844)
1900 – Henry Wellesley, 3rd Duke of Wellington, English nobleman (b. 1846)

1901 – 2000

1924 – George Mallory, English mountain climber (b. 1886)
1924 – Andrew Irvine, English mountain climber (b. 1902)
1945 – Karl Hanke, Nazi official (b. 1903)
1951 – Oswald Pohl, German SS officer (b. 1892)
1956 – Marie Laurencin, French painter (b. 1883)
1966 – Anton Melik, Slovenian geographer (b. 1890)
1969 – Aino Sibelius, wife of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (b. 1871)
1970 – Abraham Maslow, American psychologist and academic (b. 1908)
1980 – Ernst Busch, German actor and singer (b. 1900)
1980 – Alfredo Brilhante da Costa, Brazilian footballer (b. 1904)
1982 – Satchel Paige, American baseball player (b. 1906)
1984 – Gordon Jacob, English composer (b. 1895)
1987 – Alexander Iolas, Greek-American gallery owner and art collector (b. 1907)
1990 – José Figueres Ferrer, President of Costa Rica (b. 1906)
1993 – Root Boy Slim, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1945)
1998 – Sani Abacha, President of Nigeria (b. 1943)
1998 – Maria Reiche, German mathematician and archaeologist (b. 1903)

From 2001

2003 – Leighton Rees, Welsh darts player (b. 1940)
2006 – Robert Donner, American actor (b. 1931)
2007 – Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, 1st President of Somalia (b. 1908)
2007 – Richard Rorty, American philosopher (b. 1931)
2009 – Omar Bongo, President of Gabon (b. 1935)
2009 – Harold Norse, American writer and poet (b. 1916)
2013 – Willi Sitte, German artist (b. 1921)
2013 – Yoram Kaniuk, Israeli writer, artist and journalist (b. 1930)
2013 – Taufiq Kiemas, Indonesian politician, husband of Megawati Sukarnoputri (b. 1942)
2013 – Paul Cellucci, 69th Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1948)
2014 – Yoshihito, Prince Katsura, Japanese royal (b. 1948)
2014 – Alexander Imich, Polish-American chemist, parapsychologist and supercentenarian, oldest-living man (b. 1903)
2014 – J. Stanley Marshall, American educator and academic (b. 1923)
2015 – Chea Sim, Cambodian politician (b. 1932)
2015 – David Rotem, Israeli politician (b. 1949)
2015 – Frank Cappuccino, American boxing referee (b. 1929)
2016 – Qahhor Mahkamov, former President of Tajikistan (b. 1932)
2016 – Pierre Aubert, Swiss politician (b. 1927)
2016 – Sascha Lewandowski, German football manager (b. 1971)
2016 – Marina Malfatti, Italian actress (b. 1933)
2017 – Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, Nicaraguan diplomat, priest and politician (b. 1933)
2017 – Marcelo Guinle, Argentine politician (b. 1947)
2017 – Glenne Headly, American actress (b. 1955)
2017 – Jan Notermans, Dutch footballer (b. 1932)
2017 – Jill Singer, Australian journalist (b. 1957)
2017 – Sam Panopoulos, Greek-American cook (b. 1934)
2017 – Norro Wilson, American country singer-songwriter and record producer (b. 1938)
2018 – Per Ahlmark, Swedish politician and writer (b. 1939)
2018 – Anthony Bourdain, American chef, author and television personality (b. 1956)
2018 – Maria Bueno, Brazilian tennis player (b. 1939)
2018 – Freddy Eugen, Danish cyclist (b. 1941)
2018 – Eunice Gayson, British actress (b. 1928)
2018 – Danny Kirwan, British singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1950)
2018 – Liu Yichang, Hong Kong writer (b. 1918)
2018 – John McKenzie, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1937)
2018 – Theodore J. Sophocleus, American politician (b. 1939)
2018 – Thomas Stuttaford, British medical columnist and politician (b. 1931)
2019 – Lucho Avilés, Uruguayan-Argentine entertainment journalist (b. 1938)
2019 – Spencer Bohren, American guitarist (b. 1950)
2019 – Jorge Brovetto, Uruguayan engineer, academic and politician (b. 1933)
2019 – Norman Dewis, British racing driver and engineer (b. 1920)
2019 – Justin Edinburgh, English footballer and manager (b. 1969)
2019 – Frank Lucchesi, American baseball player, coach and manager (b. 1927)
2019 – Andre Matos, Brazilian heavy metal singer and guitarist (b. 1971)

Observances

World Ocean Day
Bounty Day (Norfolk Island)
Primoz Trubar Day (Slovenia)
Engineers' Day (Peru)
World Brain Tumor Day