Title: August 9 Content: == Events == === Up to 1900 === *48 BC Caesar's Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus - Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus. Pompey flees to Egypt. *378 Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople - A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths. Valens is killed, along with over half of his army. *681 Bulgaria is founded on the south bank of the Danube after defeating the Byzantine armies of Emperor Constantine IV south of the Danube delta. *1173 Construction of the Leaning Tower of Pisa begins. *1329 Quilon, the first Indian Christian Diocese, is created by Pope John XXII. French-born Jordanus becomes its first bishop. *1483 The Sistine Chapel opens. *1810 Napoleon Bonaparte annexes the departments of the kingdom of Westphalia into the French Empire. *1842 The Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed. It confirms where the US-Canada border runs to the east of the Rocky Mountains. *1854 Henry David Thoreau publishes his work Walden. *1862 American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain - Confederate general Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union general John Pope. *1890 The United Kingdom gives the North Sea island of Heligoland over to German control. *1892 Thomas Edison receives a patent for the two-way telegraph. *1896 German aviator Otto Lilienthal crashes during a flying attempt, dying the next day. === From 1901 === *1902 Edward VII of the United Kingdom is crowned king, while his consort, Alexandra of Denmark is crowned queen of the United Kingdom. *1907 The first Boy Scout camp ends on Brownsea Island, Dorset, England, UK, having been led by Robert Baden- Powell. *1910 Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition leaves Kristiania, present-day Oslo. The public does not know that it is destined for the South Pole. *1912 An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 in Persia kills around 5,500 people. *1914 World War I: Start of the Battle of Mulhouse, part of an eventually unsuccessful French attempt to retake Alsace from Germany. *1925 A train robbery occurs in Lucknow, India. *1936 Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal of the 1936 Summer Olympics. *1942 Mahatma Gandhi is arrested by British colonial police in Bombay, starting the Quit India Movement for Indian independence. *1942 World War II: Battle of Savo Island - Allied forces are surprised and defeated by the Japanese Imperial Navy cruise force in initial stages of the Battle of Guadalcanal. *1944 The US Forest Service and Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey the Bear for the first time. *1945 World War II: The United States drops an atomic bomb, "Fat Man" on the city of Nagasaki. *1965 Singapore gains independence from Malaysia. *1965 A fire at a Titan missile base near Searcy, Arkansas kills 53 construction workers. *1968 British Eagle Flight 802 crashes near Langenbruck, north of Munich, Bavaria, Germany, killing all 48 people on board. *1969 Members of Charles Manson's gang murder Sharon Tate, her unborn son, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Jay Sebring, and Steven Parent. *1970 A Lockheed L-188 Electra plane crashes near Cuzco, Peru, killing 99 of the 100 people on board, as well as 2 people on the ground. *1971 The Troubles: British security forces in Northern Ireland begin Operation Demetrius. In the violence that followed, hundreds are arrested or interred, thousands are made homeless, and 20 people are killed. *1974 Gerald Ford becomes President of the United States after the resignation of Richard Nixon over the Watergate scandal. *1974 The oil tanker Metula runs aground off Tierra del Fuego. *1988 Wayne Gretzky, star of ice hockey, is transferred from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the most controversial transactions in ice hockey history. *1990 The United Nations Security Council declares Iraq's occupation of Kuwait null and void. *1992 The 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona end. *1993 Albert II of Belgium is proclaimed King. *1993 The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses a 38-year hold on national leadership. *1999 Boris Yeltsin names Vladimir Putin as Prime Minister of Russia. *1999 Charles Kennedy is elected leader of the British Liberal Democrats. *2001 15 people are killed and 132 are injured in a suicide bombing in Downtown Jerusalem. *2005 Space Shuttle Discovery lands safely back on Earth, after a two-week space mission, following spacewalks to carry out repairs on the Shuttle. *2012 2012 Summer Olympics: Nicola Adams becomes the first Olympic gold medalist in women's boxing. On the same day, Kenya's David Rudisha sets a new record in the men's 800 meters. *2018 A Saudi airstrike in Dahyan, Yemen, kills at least 51 people, including 29 children. == Births == === Up to 1800 === *1201 Arnold Fitz Thedmar, English chronicler (d. 1274) *1537 Francesco Barozzi, Italian mathematician, astronomer and humanist (d. 1604) *1544 Bogislaw III, Duke of Pomerania (d. 1606) *1594 Izaak Walton, English writer (d. 1683) *1603 Johannes Cocceius, German Protestant theologian (d. 1669) *1648 Johann Michael Bach, German composer (d. 1694) *1653 John Oldham, English poet and translator (d. 1683) *1663 Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1713) *1669 Eudoxia Lopukhina, Tsarina of Russia (d. 1731) *1696 Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1772) *1722 Prince Augustus William of Prussia (d. 1758) *1726 Francesco Cetti, Italian Jesuit scientist (d. 1778) *1736 Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé, French statesman (d. 1818) *1754 Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French architect (d. 1825) *1757 Thomas Telford, Scottish civil engineer (d. 1834) *1757 Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, American political figure (d. 1854) *1759 Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths, German scholar (d. 1839) *1776 Amedeo Avogadro, Italian chemist (d. 1856) *1783 Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia (d. 1801) *1794 Achille Valenciennes, French zoologist (d. 1865) *1797 Charles Robert Malden, British naval officer who discovered Malden Island (d. 1855) === 1801 1900 === *1805 Joseph Locke, British railway and civil engineer (d. 1860) *1817 Justo Arosemena, Panamanian statesman (d. 1896) *1819 William T. G. Morton, American dentist and anesthesia pioneer (d. 1868) *1834 Manuel Pardo, 20th President of Peru (d. 1878) *1845 André Bessette, Canadian saint (d. 1937) *1847 Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo, Queen of Spain (d. 1876) *1863 Alvaro Figueroa, 1st Count of Romanones, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1950) *1867 Evelina Haverfield, Scottish nurse and activist (d. 1920) *1871 Leonid Andreyev, Russian writer (d. 1919) *1872 Archduke Joseph August of Austria, Austrian field marshal (d. 1962) *1874 Reynaldo Hahn, Venezuelan- born composer (d. 1947) *1875 Albert Ketèlbey, English composer (d. 1959) *1884 John S. McCain, Sr., American admiral (d. 1945) *1887 Hans Oster, German general and Resistance activist (d. 1945) *1892 S. R. Ranganathan, Indian mathematician (d. 1972) *1894 Mikhail Zoshchenko, Russian writer (d. 1958) *1896 Jean Piaget, Swiss child psychologist (d. 1980) *1899 P. L. Travers, Australian writer, writer of Mary Poppins (d. 1996) === 1901 1950 === *1901 Charles Farrell, American actor (d. 1990) *1902 Zino Francescatti, French violinist (d. 1991) *1903 Tom Tyler, American actor (d. 1954) *1904 Hasso von Boehmer, German military and Resistance activist (d. 1945) *1908 Tommaso Landolfi, Italian writer (d. 1979) *1909 Adam von Trott zu Solz, German jurist, diplomat and Resistance activist (d. 1944) *1910 Robert van Gulik, Dutch sinologist, diplomat, writer and musician (d. 1967) *1911 William Alfred Fowler, American physicist (d. 1996) *1912 Anne Brown, American soprano (d. 2009) *1914 Tove Jansson, Finnish writer of the Moomin books (d. 2001) *1914 Ferenc Fricsay, Hungarian conductor (d. 1963) *1914 Joe Mercer, English footballer (d. 1990) *1914 Alastair Windsor, 2nd Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, British aristocrat (d. 1943) *1916 Manea Manescu, Romanian politician (d. 2009) *1918 Robert Aldrich, American director (d. 1983) *1919 Joop den Uyl, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1987) *1920 Enzo Biagi, Italian journalist and writer (d. 2007) *1921 J. James Exon, American politician, 33rd Governor of Nebraska (d. 2005) *1922 Philip Larkin, English poet (d. 1985) *1923 Gerrit Kouwenaar, Dutch poet (d. 2014) *1924 Marta Becket, American actress, dancer, choreographer and painter (d. 2017) *1927 Marvin Minsky, American scientist (d. 2016) *1927 Daniel Keyes, American writer (d. 2014) *1927 Robert Shaw, English actor (d. 1978) *1928 Bob Cousy, American professional basketball player (NBA) *1930 Jacques Parizeau, Quebec politician and economist (d. 2015) *1931 Mário Zagallo, Brazilian footballer *1931 James Freeman Gilbert, American geophysicist (d. 2014) *1932 Anand Panyarachun, former Prime Minister of Thailand *1932 Tam Dalyell, Scottish politician (d. 2017) *1933 Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Japanese television personality, children's writer *1934 Graeme Gibson, Canadian novelist and union leader (d. 2019) *1936 Patrick Tse, Hong Kong-Chinese actor, director, producer and screenwriter *1937 Hans Nowak, German footballer (d. 2012) *1938 Leonid Kuchma, former President of Ukraine *1938 Rod Laver, Australian tennis player *1938 Otto Rehhagel, German football manager *1939 Romano Prodi, former Prime Minister of Italy *1939 The Mighty Hannibal, American singer-songwriter and record producer (d. 2014) *1939 Hércules Brito Ruas, Brazilian footballer *1939 Bulle Ogier, French actress *1942 Tommie Agee, American baseball player (d. 2001) *1943 Ken Norton, American boxer (d. 2013) *1943 Lorenzo Sanz, Spanish businessman *1943 Lubomir Kavalek, Czech-American chess player *1944 John Simpson, English journalist and correspondent *1944 Sam Elliott, American actor *1944 Patrick Depailler, French racing driver (d. 1980) *1945 Posy Simmonds, cartoonist *1947 Roy Hodgson, English football manager *1947 Barbara Mason, American soul singer *1948 William M. Daley, 24th White House Chief of Staff *1949 Jonathan Kellerman, American mystery writer === 1951 1975 === *1951 James Naughtie, Scottish broadcaster *1951 Michaele Schreyer, German politician *1952 Prateep Ungsongtham Hata, Thai politician and activist *1953 Michael Russell, Scottish politician *1953 Kay Stenshjemmet, Norwegian speed skater *1953 Jean Tirole, French economist *1955 Maud Olofsson, Swedish politician *1955 Charlie Morgan, English drummer *1957 Melanie Griffith, American actress (Working Girl, The Bonfire of the Vanities) *1958 Amanda Bearse, American actress *1959 Stuart Hughes, Canadian actor *1959 Kurtis Blow, American rapper *1959 Michael Kors, American fashion designer *1959 Idrissa Seck, former Prime Minister of Senegal *1961 John Key, 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand *1961 Brad Gilbert, American tennis player *1961 Amy Stiller, American actress *1962 Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, German politician, former Prime Minister of Saarland *1962 Kevin Mack, American football player *1962 John "Hot Rod" Williams, American basketball player *1963 Maria Manuela Machado, Portuguese long-distance runner *1963 Petra Pau, German politician *1963 Whitney Houston, American singer and actress (d. 2012) *1963 Jay Leggett, American actor (d. 2013) *1964 Brett Hull, Canadian-American professional hockey player (NHL) *1966 Vinny Del Negro, American basketball player and coach *1967 Dana Vávrová, Czech actress (d. 2009) *1967 Ralph Hasenhüttl, Austrian footballer and manager *1967 Deion Sanders, American football player *1968 Gillian Anderson, American actress *1968 Eric Bana, Australian actor *1968 McG, American director and producer *1969 Troy Percival, Major League Baseball All-Star *1970 Chris Cuomo, American journalist *1970 Thomas Lennon, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter *1972 Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez, Colombian singer and songwriter *1972 Liz Vassey, American actress *1973 Kevin McKidd, Scottish actor *1973 Filippo Inzaghi, Italian footballer *1974 Derek Fisher, American basketball player === From 1976 === *1976 Jessica Capshaw, American actress (The Practice) *1976 Rhona Mitra, American actress (The Practice) *1976 Audrey Tautou, French actress *1976 Nawaf al-Hazmi, Saudi Arabian terrorist (d. 2001) *1977 Chamique Holdsclaw, professional basketball player (WNBA) *1977 Adewale Ogunleye, American football player *1977 Mikael Silvestre, French footballer *1978 Daniela Denby-Ashe, British actress *1978 Wesley Sonck, Belgian footballer *1979 Lisa Nandy, English politician *1979 Tony Stewart, American football player *1980 Ryoo Seung-bum, South Korean actor *1981 Jarvis Hayes, American basketball player *1981 Li Jiawei, Singaporean table tennis player *1981 Roland Linz, Austrian footballer *1982 Tyson Gay, American runner *1982 Joel Anthony, American basketball player *1982 Yekaterina Samutsevich, Russian singer and activist (Pussy Riot) *1983 Ashley Johnson, American actress *1985 Luca Filippi, Italian racing driver *1985 Anna Kendrick, American actress *1985 Dennis Marshall, Costa Rican footballer (d. 2011) *1985 Hayley Peirsol, American swimmer *1986 Rafaela Zanella, Brazilian model *1987 Marco Carmona, Mexican artist *1988 Vasilios Koutsianikoulis, Greek footballer *1989 Stefano Okaka, Italian footballer *1989 Jason Heyward, American baseball player *1990 Adelaide Kane, Australian actress *1991 Alexa Bliss, American professional wrestler *1991 Candela Vetrano, Argentine actress and singer *1993 Rydel Lynch, American actress, singer, dancer and musician *1994 Jonathan Espericueta, Mexican footballer *1994 Forrest Landis, American actor *1996 Deborah Burke, Canadian ice hockey player == Deaths == === Up to 1900 === *117 Trajan, Roman emperor (b. 53) *378 Valens, Roman emperor (killed in battle) (b. 328) *378 Traianus, Roman general *803 Byzantine Empress Irene (b. 752) *1048 Pope Damasus II *1107 Emperor Horikawa of Japan (b. 1079) *1250 King Eric IV of Denmark (b. 1216) *1472 Janos Vitez, Croatian humanist (b. 1408) *1534 Thomas Cajetan, Italian theologian (b. 1470) *1580 Metrophanes III, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 1520) *1601 Michael the Brave, Prince of Wallachia (b. 1558) *1816 Johann August Apel, German jurist and writer (b. 1771) *1837 Xavier Sigalon, French painter (b. 1787) *1854 Frederick Augustus II of Saxony (b. 1797) *1864 John Brown Francis, Governor of Rhode Island (b. 1791) *1880 William Bigler, 12th Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1814) === 1901 2000 === *1909 Jemima Blackburn, Scottish painter (b. 1823) *1910 Hua Yuan Jia, Chinese martial artist (b. 1868) *1914 Roque Sáenz Peña, President of Argentina (b. 1851) *1919 Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist and philosopher (b. 1834) *1919 Ruggero Leoncavallo, Italian composer (b. 1857) *1927 Stephan G. Stephansson, Western Icelander poet and farmer (b. 1853) *1932 John Charles Fields, Canadian mathematician (b. 1863) *1942 Edith Stein, (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) at Auschwitz (b. 1891) *1945 Harry Hillman, American athlete (b. 1881) *1948 Hugo Boss, German fashion designer (b. 1885) *1949 Harry Davenport, American actor (b. 1866) *1956 Tobias Danzig, Russian-American mathematician (b. 1884) *1962 Hermann Hesse, German writer (b. 1877) *1967 Joe Orton, English writer (d. 1933) *1969 Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist (b. 1903) *1969 Murdered by Charles Manson's gang: **Sharon Tate, American actress (murdered) (b. 1943) **Jay Sebring, Hollywood hair stylist (b. 1933) **Abigail Folger, Coffee heiress (b. 1943) **Wojciech Frykowski, Polish writer (b. 1936) **Steven Parent, American student (b. 1951) *1974 Bill Chase, American trumpeter and bandleader (b. 1934) *1975 Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer (b. 1906) *1976 José Lezama Lima, Cuban writer (b. 1910) *1979 Walter O'Malley, American baseball executive (b. 1903) *1980 Jacqueline Cochran, American pilot (b. 1906) *1988 Giacinto Scelsi, Italian composer (b. 1905) *1988 Ramon Valdés, Mexican actor (b. 1923) *1990 Wladislaw Orlicz, Polish mathematician (b. 1903) *1990 Joe Mercer, English footballer (b. 1914) *1992 Fereydoun Farrokhzad, Iranian singer and actor (b. 1938) *1995 Jerry Garcia, American guitarist (Grateful Dead) (b. 1942) *1996 Frank Whittle, British engineer and inventor (b. 1907) *1998 Frankie Ruiz, American singer (b. 1958) *1999 Fouad Serageddin, Egyptian politician (b. 1910) *2000 John Harsanyi, Hungarian-born economist (b. 1920) === From 2001 === *2003 Ray Harford, English football manager (b. 1945) *2003 Gregory Hines, American actor and dancer (b. 1946) *2004 Robert Lecourt, French politician (b. 1908) *2005 Colette Besson, French athlete (b. 1946) *2006 Rafael Ruiz, Spanish hockey player (b. 1916) *2006 James Van Allen, American physicist (b. 1914) *2008 Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet (b. 1941) *2008 Bernie Mac, American comedian and actor (b. 1957) *2010 Ted Stevens, American politician (b. 1923) *2012 Mel Stuart, American director and producer (b. 1928) *2012 Al Freeman, Jr., American actor (b. 1934) *2013 Regina Resnik, American mezzo-soprano (b. 1923) *2014 Andriy Bal, Ukrainian footballer and coach (b. 1958) *2014 Charles Keating, British actor (b. 1941) *2014 Michael Brown, American shooting victim (b. 1996) *2014 Ed Nelson, American actor (b. 1928) *2014 Jerome Ehlers, Australian actor (b. 1958) *2015 Frank Gifford, American football player (b. 1930) *2015 John Henry Holland, American computer scientist (b. 1929) *2015 Fikret Otyam, Turkish painter and journalist (b. 1926) *2015 Susan Sheridan, British voice actress (b. 1947) *2015 David Nobbs, British comedy writer (b. 1935) *2015 George E. R. Kinnear II, American admiral (b. 1928) *2016 Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, British aristocrat and landowner (b. 1951) *2016 Kalikho Pul, Indian politician, Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh (b. 1969) *2016 Wang Tuoh, Taiwanese writer (b. 1944) *2016 Ernst Neizvestny, Russian-American sculptor, painter, graphic artist and philosopher (b. 1925) *2017 Patricio Echegaray, Argentine politician (b. 1946) *2017 Al McCandless, American politician (b. 1927) *2017 Peter Weibel, German racing cyclist (b. 1950) *2017 Thomas A. Bird, British World War II army officer and architect (b. 1918) *2018 Manfred Melzer, German Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1944) *2018 Mehrdad Pahlbod, Iranian politician (b. 1917) *2019 Paul Findley, American politician (b. 1921) *2019 Altair Gomes de Figueiredo, Brazilian footballer (b. 1938) *2019 Fahrudin Jusufi, Yugoslavian footballer (b. 1939) == Observances == * National Day of Singapore * Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony * International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples * National Women's Day (South Africa and Namibia) August 09