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