On this day in history

May 8

30 births · 12 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

Eurovision Song Contest 2018

8 years ago

Born this day

1884

Harry S. Truman

Would be 142

Photo (modified): National Archives and Records Administration. Office of Presidential Libraries. Harry S. Truman Library. · Public domain

Oldest record

666th

Treaty of Brétigny

event anniversary

Famous births30

1753 · 273 yrs

Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla

Don Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla Gallaga Mandarte y Villaseñor (8 May 1753 – 30 July 1811), commonly known as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or simply Miguel Hidalgo (Spanish:), was a Mexican Catholic priest and prominent leader of the Mexican War of Independence, who is recognized as the Father of…

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ReligionDied aged 58

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1786 · 240 yrs

Jean-Marie Vianney

John Vianney (born Jean-Marie Vianney and later Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney; 8 May 1786 – 4 August 1859) was a French Catholic priest and member of the Third Order of Mary who is often referred to as the Curé d'Ars ("the parish priest of Ars").

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ReligionDied aged 73

View profile Photo (modified): Romary · CC BY-SA 3.0

1828 · 198 yrs

Henry Dunant

Henry Dunant (French pronunciation:; born Jean-Henri Dunant; 8 May 1828 – 30 October 1910), also known as Henri Dunant, was a Swiss humanitarian, businessman, social activist, and co-founder of the Red Cross. His humanitarian efforts won him the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

BusinessDied aged 82

View profile Photo (modified): Frédéric Boissonnas · Public domain

1884 · 142 yrs

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in April.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 142

View profile Photo (modified): National Archives and Records Administration. Office of Presidential Libraries. Harry S. Truman Library. · Public domain

1899 · 127 yrs

Friedrich Hayek

Friedrich August von Hayek (8 May 1899 – 23 March 1992) was an Austrian economist and philosopher. He is known for his contributions to political economy, political philosophy and intellectual history.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 127

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1902 · 124 yrs

André Lwoff

André Michel Lwoff (8 May 1902 – 30 September 1994) was a French microbiologist and Nobel laureate.

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ScienceWould be 124

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1903 · 123 yrs

Fernandel

Fernand Joseph Désiré Contandin (French pronunciation:; 8 May 1903 – 26 February 1971), better known as Fernandel, was a French comic actor.

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FilmWould be 123

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1906 · 120 yrs

Roberto Rossellini

Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such as Rome, Open City (1945), Paisan (1946), and Germany, Year Zero (1948).

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FilmWould be 120

View profile Photo (modified): newspaper press photo, Rome, Italy · Public domain

1911 · 115 yrs

Robert Johnson

Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His singing, guitar playing and songwriting on his landmark 1936 and 1937 recordings have influenced later generations of musicians.

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MusicWould be 115

View profile Photo (modified): Robert Johnson (self-portrait) · Public domain

1914 · 112 yrs

Romain Gary

Romain Gary (born Roman Leibovich Kacew; 21 May 1914 – 2 December 1980), also known by the pen name Émile Ajar, was a Lithuanian-born French novelist, diplomat, film director, and military aviator. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt twice (once under a pen name).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 112

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1916 · 110 yrs100 Club

João Havelange

Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid "João" de Havelange (Brazilian Portuguese:, French:; 8 May 1916 – 16 August 2016) was a Brazilian lawyer, businessman, and athlete who was the seventh president of FIFA from 1974 to 1998. His tenure as president is the second longest in FIFA's history, behind that of Jules Rimet.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

SportsWould be 110

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1926 · 100 yrs

Don Rickles

Donald Jay Rickles (May 8, 1926 – April 6, 2017) was an American stand-up comedian and actor, known primarily for his insult comedy. His film roles include Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), Enter Laughing (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), and Casino (1995).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

TelevisionWould be 100

View profile Photo (modified): John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0

Showing 12 of 30

Famous deaths12

1794 · 232 yrs

Antoine Lavoisier

Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( lə-VWAH-zee-ay; French:; 26 August 1743 – 8 May 1794), also Antoine Lavoisier after the French Revolution, was a French nobleman and chemist who was central to the 18th-century chemical revolution and who had a large influence on both the history of chemistry and the history of biology.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 50

View profile Photo (modified): Jacques-Louis David · Public domain

1842 · 184 yrs

Jules Dumont d'Urville

Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (French pronunciation:; 23 May 1790 – 8 May 1842) was a French explorer and naval officer who explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 51

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

1873 · 153 yrs

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, and politician. He was a paradigmatic philosopher of liberalism and has been described as "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century" by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyDied aged 66

View profile Photo (modified): London Stereoscopic Company · Public domain

1880 · 146 yrs

Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert (UK: FLOH-bair, US: floh-BAIR; French:; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 58

View profile Photo (modified): Nadar · Public domain

1903 · 123 yrs

Paul Gauguin

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (French:; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influential practitioner of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 54

View profile Photo (modified): Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel · Public domain

1904 · 122 yrs

Eadweard Muybridge

Eadweard Muybridge ( ED-wərd MY-brij; 9 April 1830 – 8 May 1904, born Edward James Muggeridge) was an English photographer known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 74

View profile Photo (modified): Rainer Zenz Public domain This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where · Public domain

1936 · 90 yrs

Oswald Spengler

Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (29 May 1880 – 8 May 1936) was a German polymath whose areas of interest included history, philosophy, mathematics, science, and art, as well as their relation to his organic theory of history.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyWould be 146

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1979 · 47 yrs

Talcott Parsons

Talcott Parsons (December 13, 1902 – May 8, 1979) was an American sociologist of the classical tradition, best known for his social action theory and structural functionalism. Parsons is considered one of the most influential figures in sociology in the 20th century.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 123

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1988 · 38 yrs

Robert A. Heinlein

Robert Anson Heinlein ( HYNE-lyne; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, engineer, and naval officer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 119

View profile Photo (modified): Photographer unknown, published by Doubleday · Public domain

1995 · 31 yrs

Teresa Teng

Deng Li Jun (simplified Chinese: 邓丽君; traditional Chinese: 鄧麗君; pinyin: Dèng Lìjūn; 29 January 1953 – 8 May 1995), also known as Teresa Teng, was a Taiwanese singer, television personality, musician, and philanthropist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 73

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

2012 · 14 yrs

Maurice Sendak

Maurice Bernard Sendak (June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. Born to Polish-Jewish parents, his childhood was impacted by the death of many of his family members during the Holocaust.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 98

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2026 · 0 yrs

Festus Mogae

Festus Gontebanye Mogae (21 August 1939 – 8 May 2026) was a Motswana politician and economist who served as the third President of Botswana from 1998 to 2008. He was re-elected in October 2004.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 87

View profile Photo (modified): Greenweek · CC BY 2.0

Events5

1360 · 666 yrs

Treaty of Brétigny

The Treaty of Brétigny was a treaty, drafted on 8 May 1360 and ratified on 24 October 1360, between Kings Edward III of England and John II of France. In retrospect, it is seen as having marked the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1945 · 81 yrs

Victory in Europe Day

Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945; it marked the official cessation of all German military operations.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

2005 · 21 yrs

2005 Spanish Grand Prix

The 2005 Spanish Grand Prix (formally the Formula 1 Gran Premio Marlboro de España 2005) was a Formula One motor race, held on 8 May 2005 at Circuit de Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sports

2018 · 8 yrs

Eurovision Song Contest 2018

The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 was the 63rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It consisted of two semi-finals on 8 and 10 May and a final on 12 May 2018, held at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal, and presented by Filomena Cautela, Sílvia Alberto, Catarina Furtado, and Daniela Ruah.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Culture

2022 · 4 yrs

COVID-19 pandemic in North Korea

The COVID-19 pandemic in North Korea was part of a global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). North Korea confirmed its first case on 8 May 2022.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

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