Title: August 8 Content: == 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. == 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 author 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 author (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 August 08