August 8

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 - Hipolito Ruiz Lopez, Spanish botanist (d. 1815)
1790 - Ferenc Kolcsey, 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 - Cecile 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 Canete, 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 Garcia 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 Buyukburc, 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 - Szilard Nemeth, 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 - Nelson 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 - Eugene 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 Colon, 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