August 9

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 Conde, 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 Andre 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 Ketelbey, 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 Mario 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 Hercules 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 Vavrova, Czech actress (d. 2009)
1967 Ralph Hasenhuttl, 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 Aristizabal Vasquez, 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 Saenz Pena, 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 Jose 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 Valdes, 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