August 8: Encyclopedia - August 8

August 8

August 8 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221st in leap years), with 145 days remaining.

August 8 - Events

• 1509 - The Emperor Krishnadeva Raya is crowned in the town of Chittoor in the present-day state of Andhra Pradesh, India. His accession marks the beginning of the regeneration of the Vijayanagara Empire after a period of internal strife.
• 1585 - John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in quest for the Northwest Passage.
• 1588 - Battle of Gravelines ends - Defeated by the English during an invasion attempt, the surviving parts of the Spanish Armada begin to sail home. Only 67 of the original 130 ships will later reach Spain and most of these will be in poor condition.
• 1605 - The city of Oulu, Finland, is founded by Charles IX of Sweden.
• 1647 - Battle of Dangan Hill - Irish forces are defeated by British Parliamentary forces.
• 1786 - Mont Blanc is climbed for the first time by Dr. Michael-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat.
• 1839 - Beta Theta Pi was founded in Oxford, OH.
• 1844 - During a meeting held in Nauvoo, the Quorum of Twelve, headed by Brigham Young, is created as the leading body of the Mormon Church.
• 1863 - American Civil War: Following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (Davis will refuse the request upon receipt).
• 1876 - Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph.
• 1911 - Public Law 62-5 sets the number of representatives in the United States House of Representatives at 435. The law will take effect in 1913.
• 1918 - World War I: Battle of Amiens - Canadian troops, backed by Australians, begin a string of almost continuous victories with a push through the German front lines. German General Erich Ludendorff will later call this the "black day of the German army."
• 1929 - The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight (will end on August 29).
• 1930 - Betty Boop premieres in the animated film "Dizzy Dishes".
• 1938 - The Mauthausen concentration camp opens.
• 1942 - World War II: In Washington, DC, six German would-be saboteurs are executed (two others cooperate and receive life imprisonment instead).
• 1942- Quit India resolution was passed by the Bombay session of the AICC, which leads to the start of a historical civil disobedience movement across India
• 1945 - World War II - The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invades Manchuria with more than 1 million troops. Japan surrenders on August 15
• 1945 - The United Nations Charter is ratified by the United States, and that nation becomes the third to join the new international organization.
• 1949 - Bhutan becomes independent
• 1962 - Elizabeth Ann Duncan becomes the last woman to be executed in the United States prior to the reintroduction of capital punishment in 1977. She and the two men she hired to murder her pregnant daughter-in-law in 1958 die in San Quentin's gas chamber.
• 1963 - Great Train Robbery: In England, a gang of 15 train robbers steal 2.6 million pounds in bank notes.
• 1967 - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is founded.
• 1968 - Jurō Wada, a doctor at the Sapporo Medical School, successfully performs Japan's first heart transplant.
• 1969 - An iconic picture of the Beatles is taken to be used on their album Abbey Road.
• 1972 - Richard Nixon accepts the nomination as candidate for the presidency at the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida and chooses Maryland Govenor Spiro Agnew to be his running mate.
• 1973 - U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew goes on television to denounce accusations he had taken kickbacks from contractors while governor of Maryland. He calls the charges as "damned lies" and vows not to resign. (See also October 10)
• 1973 - Kim Dae-Jung, a South Korean politician and later president of South Korea, is kidnapped from a Tokyo hotel.
• 1974 - Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his resignation (effective the next day, August 9).
• 1976 - Boston, the self-titled debut album for the rock band Boston is released. It sells over 17 million copies and becomes the #1 best-selling debut album in history.
• 1978 - Odie makes his first appearance in the cartoon strip Garfield
• 1988 - General Ne Win, ruler of Burma since 1962, suddenly resigns.
• 1988 - Chicago's Wrigley Field installs lights and attempts to play first game at night.
• 1989 - STS-28: The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret five-day military mission.
• 1991 - Collapse of Warsaw radio mast, the tallest construction ever built
• 1999 - The series finale of Mystery Science Theater 3000 airs on the Sci-Fi Channel.
• 2000 - Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.

August 8 - Births

• 1079 - Emperor Horikawa of Japan (d. 1107)
• 1602 - Gilles de Roberval, French mathematician (d. 1675)
• 1605 - Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, colonial Governor of Maryland (d. 1675)
• 1646 - Godfrey Kneller, German-born painter (d. 1723)
• 1673 - John Ker, Scottish spy (d. 1726)
• 1693 - Laurent Belissen, French composer (d. 1762)
• 1694 - Francis Hutcheson, Irish philosopher (d. 1746)
• 1720 - Carl Fredrik Pechlin, Swedish politician (d. 1796)
• 1814 - Esther Morris, suffragist and the first U. S. woman judge (d. 1902)
• 1839 - Nelson Miles, U.S. general (d. 1925)
• 1866 - Matthew Henson, Arctic explorer (d. 1955)
• 1875 - Artur da Silva Bernardes, President of Brazil (d. 1955)
• 1879 - Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary (d. 1919)
• 1880 - Earle Page, eleventh Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1961)
• 1891 - Adolf Busch, German violinist (d. 1952)
• 1892 - Rafael Moreno Aranzadi, Spanish footballer (d. 1922)
• 1896 - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, American author (d. 1953)
• 1901 - Ernest O. Lawrence, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
• 1902 - Paul Dirac, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
• 1905 - André Jolivet, French composer (d. 1974)
• 1907 - Benny Carter, American musician and arranger (d. 2003)
• 1908 - Arthur Goldberg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1980)
• 1910 - Sylvia Sidney, American actress (d. 1999)
• 1911 - Rosetta LeNoire, American actress (d. 2002)
• 1915 - James "Jumbo" Elliott, American track coach (d. 1981)
• 1919 - Dino De Laurentiis, Italian film producer
• 1920 - Leo Chiosso, Italian lyricist
• 1921 - William Asher, American film producer
• 1921 - John Herbert Chapman, British physicist
• 1921 - Webb Pierce, American singer (d. 1991)
• 1921 - Vulimiri Ramalingaswami, Indian medical scientist
• 1921 - Esther Williams, American actress and swimmer
• 1922 - Rory Calhoun, American actor (d. 1999)
• 1922 - Rudi Gernreich, Austrian-born fashion designer (d. 1985)
• 1925 - Alija Izetbegovic, President of Bosnia-Herzegovina (d. 2003)
• 1927 - Johnny Temple, baseball player (d. 1994)
• 1928 - Don Burrows, Australian jazz musician
• 1929 - Larisa Bogoraz, Soviet dissident (d. 2004)
• 1929 - Ronald Biggs, British criminal
• 1931 - Sir Roger Penrose, British physicist
• 1932 - Mel Tillis, American singer
• 1035 - John Laws, Australia radio personality
• 1936 - Donald P. Bellisario, American television producer
• 1936 - Keith Barron, English actor
• 1937 - Dustin Hoffman, American actor
• 1938 - Connie Stevens, American singer and actress
• 1939 - Alexander Watson, American ambassador and diplomat
• 1944 - Peter Weir, Australian film director
• 1944 - Uli Derickson, Czech-born flight attendant
• 1944 - Brooke Bundy, American actress
• 1949 - Keith Carradine, American actor
• 1951 - Mamoru Oshii, Japanese film director
• 1952 -Jostein Gaarder, Norwegian author
• 1952 - Robin Quivers, American radio personality
• 1953 - Don Most American actor
• 1954 - Nigel Mansell, English race car driver
• 1955 - Herbert Prohaska, Austrian footballer
• 1956 - Branscombe Richmond, American actor
• 1958 - Deborah Norville, American reporter and television host
• 1961 - The Edge, Irish guitarist (U2)
• 1966 - Chris Eubank, English boxer
• 1973 - Scott Stapp, American singer (Creed)
• 1974 - Ulises De la Cruz, Ecuadoran footballer
• 1976 - J.C. Chasez, American singer (*NSYNC)
• 1976 - Drew Lachey, American singer
• 1978 - Louis Saha, French footballer
• 1979 - Richard Harwood, British cellist
• 1980 - Sabine Klaschka, German tennis player
• 1980 - Pat Noonan, American soccer player
• 1981 - Vanessa Amorosi, Australian singer and songwriter
• 1981 - Roger Federer, Swiss tennis player
• 1983 - Matt Kade, King among men
• 1988 - Princess Beatrice of York

August 8 - Deaths

• 869 - Lothair II of Lotharingia (b. 825)
• 1445 - Oswald von Wolkenstein, Austrian composer
• 1553 - Girolamo Fracastoro, Italian physician (b. 1478)
• 1588 - Alonso Sánchez Coello, Spanish painter
• 1604 - Horio Tadauji, Japanese warlord (b. 1578)
• 1684 - George Booth, 1st Baron Delamer (b. 1622)
• 1694 - Antoine Arnauld, French philosopher and mathematician (b. 1612)
• 1759 - Carl Heinrich Graun, German composer
• 1828 - Carl Peter Thunberg, Swedish naturalist (b. 1743)
• 1879 - Immanuel Hermann Fichte, German philosopher (b. 1797)
• 1887 - Alexander William Doniphan, American lawyer and soldier (b. 1808)
• 1898 - Eugène Boudin, French painter (b. 1824)
• 1902 - James Tissot, French artist (b. 1836)
• 1911 - William P. Frye, American politician (b. 1830)
• 1933 - Adolf Loos, Austrian architect (b. 1870)
• 1940 - Johnny Dodds, American musician (b. 1892)
• 1944 - Chaim Soutine, Russian painter (b. 1894)
• 1965 - Shirley Jackson, American author (b. 1916)
• 1972 - Andrea Feldman, American actor (b. 1948)
• 1975 - Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1928)
• 1985 - Louise Brooks, American actress (b. 1906)
• 1987 - Danilo Blanuša, Croatian mathematician (b. 1903)
• 1991 - James Irwin, astronaut (b. 1930)
• 1995 - Joan Croydon, theatre actress who made one movie (The Bad Seed) (b. 1923)
• 1996 - Nevill Mott, English physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics (b. 1905)
• 1997 - Sviatoslav Richter, Ukrainian pianist (b. 1915)
• 2004 - Fay Wray, American actress (b. 1907)
• 2005 - Barbara Bel Geddes, American actress (b. 1922)
• 2005 - John H. Johnson, African-American publisher; billionaire (b. 1918)
• 2005 - Gene Mauch, American athlete and manager (b. 1925)
• 2005 - Monica Sjoo, Swedish artist (cancer)
• 2005 - Ilse Werner, German actress (b. 1921)

August 8 - Holidays and observances

• Taiwan: Father's Day. (In Mandarin, Ba Ba means father and 8-8, or August 8).
• Sweden - Namesday of Queen Silvia, an Official Flag Day.

August 8 - Religious observances

• Roman Catholic Church: Memorial of St Dominic de Guzman, priest, (1170-1221).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "August 8", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki