On this day in history

August 8

27 births · 8 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

2008 Summer Olympics

18 years ago

Born this day

1981

Roger Federer

Turns 45

Photo (modified): si.robi · CC BY-SA 2.0

Oldest record

1156th

Treaty of Meerssen

event anniversary

Famous births27

1748 · 278 yrs

Johann Friedrich Gmelin

Johann Friedrich Gmelin (8 August 1748 – 1 November 1804) was a German naturalist, chemist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist, and malacologist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 56

View profile Photo (modified): Materialscientist · Public domain

1879 · 147 yrs

Emiliano Zapata

Emiliano Zapata Salazar (Latin American Spanish:; 8 August 1879 – 10 April 1919) was a Mexican revolutionary and guerrilla leader.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ActivismWould be 147

View profile Photo (modified): Agustín Casasola · Public domain

1881 · 145 yrs

Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist

Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist (8 August 1881 – 13 November 1954) was a German Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) of the Wehrmacht during World War II. Born into the Prussian noble family von Kleist, Kleist entered the Prussian Army in 1900 and commanded a cavalry squadron during World War I.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryWould be 145

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1887 · 139 yrs

Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Shmuel Yosef Agnon (Hebrew: שמואל יוסף עגנון \ שְׁמוּאֵל יוֹסֵף עַגְנוֹן shmuél yoséf agnón; August 8, 1887 – February 17, 1970) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Israeli novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew literature.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 139

View profile Photo (modified): Israeli GPO photographer · Public domain

1901 · 125 yrs

Ernest Lawrence

Ernest Orlando Lawrence (August 8, 1901 – August 27, 1958) was an American physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939 for his invention of the cyclotron.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 125

View profile Photo (modified): Nobel foundation · Public domain

1902 · 124 yrs

Paul Dirac

Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac ( dih-RAK; 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was an English theoretical physicist who is considered to be one of the founders of quantum mechanics. Dirac laid the foundations for both quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory, coining the former term.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 124

View profile Photo (modified): Nobel Foundation · Public domain

1921 · 105 yrs

Esther Williams

Esther Jane Williams (August 8, 1921 – June 6, 2013) was an American competitive swimmer and actress. She set regional and national records in her late teens on the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

SportsWould be 105

View profile Photo (modified): Trailer screenshot · Public domain

1925 · 101 yrs

Alija Izetbegović

Alija Izetbegović (8 August 1925 – 19 October 2003) was a Bosnian politician, Islamic philosopher and author who served as the president of the presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1990 to 1996.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 101

View profile Photo (modified): Helene C. Stikkel · Public domain

1931 · 95 yrs

Roger Penrose

Sir Roger Penrose (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, and philosopher of science.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceAge 95

View profile Photo (modified): Biswarup Ganguly · CC BY 3.0

1937 · 89 yrs

Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key leading man actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmAge 89

View profile Photo (modified): Sara Komatsu · CC BY-SA 4.0

1940 · 86 yrs

Dennis Tito

Dennis Anthony Tito (born August 8, 1940) is an American engineer and entrepreneur. During mid-2001, he became the first space tourist to fund his own visit to space, when he spent nearly eight days in orbit as a crew member of ISS EP-1, a visiting mission to the International Space Station.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

BusinessAge 86

View profile Photo (modified): NASA · Public domain

1948 · 78 yrs

Akira Matsunaga

Akira Matsunaga (松永章, Matsunaga Akira; born August 8, 1948) is a former Japanese football player. He played for Japan national team.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

SportsAge 78

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Showing 12 of 27

Famous deaths8

1827 · 199 yrs

George Canning

George Canning (11 April 1770 – 8 August 1827) was a British statesman and Tory politician. He became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 12 April 1827, but his premiership was cut short by his death 119 days later on 8 August 1827.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 57

View profile Photo (modified): After Thomas Lawrence · Public domain

1897 · 129 yrs

Jacob Burckhardt

Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt (Swiss Standard German:; 25 May 1818 – 8 August 1897) was a Swiss historian of art and culture and an influential figure in the historiography of both fields. His best known work is The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScholarshipDied aged 79

View profile Photo (modified): Unbekannt · Public domain

1947 · 79 yrs

Anton Denikin

Anton Ivanovich Denikin (Russian: Анто́н Ива́нович Дени́кин; 16 December 1872 – 7 August 1947) was a Russian military officer who served as a lieutenant general in the Imperial Russian Army and as a leading commander of the anti-Bolshevik White movement during the Russian Civil War.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 74

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1974 · 52 yrs

Baldur von Schirach

Baldur Benedikt von Schirach (German pronunciation:; 9 May 1907 – 8 August 1974) was a German politician who was the leader (Reichsjugendführer) of the Hitler Youth from 1931 to 1940. From 1940 to 1945, he was the Gauleiter (district leader) and Reichsstatthalter (Reich governor) of Vienna.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 119

View profile Photo (modified): Office of Military Government, United States (OMGUS) · Public domain

1996 · 30 yrs

Nevill Francis Mott

Sir Nevill Francis Mott (30 September 1905 – 8 August 1996) was a British theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1977 for his work on the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems, especially amorphous semiconductors. The Prize was shared with Philip W. Anderson and John Van Vleck.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 121

View profile Photo (modified): GFHund · CC BY 3.0

2010 · 16 yrs

Patricia Neal

Patricia Neal (born Patsy Louise Neal; January 20, 1926 – August 8, 2010) was an American actress of stage and screen.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 100

View profile Photo (modified): Twentieth Century Fox · Public domain

2016 · 10 yrs

Hande Kader cinayeti

Hande Kader (1993 – August 2016) was a politically active Turkish transgender woman. Kader was familiar to millions of Turks as a figurehead for the LGBT community after being photographed at the forefront of the resistance against police forces suppressing the 2015 Gay Pride event in Istanbul.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ActivismWould be 33

View profile Photo (modified): Şener Yılmaz Aslan/MOKU · CC BY 2.0

2022 · 4 yrs

Olivia Newton-John

Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British and Australian singer, songwriter and actress. With over 100 million records sold, Newton-John is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, as well as the highest-selling female Australian recording artist of all time.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 78

View profile Photo (modified): Eva Rinaldi · CC BY-SA 2.0

Events5

AD 870 · 1156 yrs

Treaty of Meerssen

The Treaty of Mersen or Meerssen, concluded on 8 August 870, was a treaty to partition the realm of Lothair II, known as Lotharingia, by his uncles Louis the German of East Francia and Charles the Bald of West Francia, the two surviving sons of Emperor Louis I the Pious.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1914 · 112 yrs

Expedition Endurance

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (abbreviated as ITAE) of 1914–1917 is considered to be the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Conceived by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition was an attempt to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

1918 · 108 yrs

Hundred Days Offensive

The Hundred Days Offensive (8 August to 11 November 1918) was a series of massive Allied offensives that ended the First World War.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1941 · 85 yrs

Siege of Odesa 1941

The siege of Odessa, known to the Soviets as the defence of Odessa, lasted from 8 August until 16 October 1941, during the early phase of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II. Odessa was a port on the Black Sea in the Ukrainian SSR.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

2008 · 18 yrs

2008 Summer Olympics

The 2008 Summer Olympics (Chinese: 2008年夏季奥运会), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (Chinese: 第二十九届夏季奥林匹克运动会) and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (Chinese: 北京2008), were an international multi-sport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sports

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