August
8
Events
1220
– Sweden is defeated by Estonian tribes in the
Battle of Lihula.
1503 – King James IV of Scotland marries Margaret
Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England
at Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, Scotland.
1576 – The cornerstone for Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg
observatory is laid on Hven.
1585 – John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in
search of the Northwest Passage.
1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines
– The naval engagement ends, ending the Spanish
Armada's attempt to invade England.
1605 – The city of Oulu, Finland, is founded
by Charles IX of Sweden.
1647 – The Irish Confederate Wars and Wars of
the Three Kingdoms: Battle of Dungans Hill –
English Parliamentary forces defeat Irish forces.
1709 – Bartolomeu de Gusmão demonstrates the
lifting power of hot air in an audience before
the King of Portugal in Lisbon
1786 – Mont Blanc on the French – Italian border
is climbed for the first time by Jacques Balmat
and Dr Michel-Gabriel Paccard.
1793 – The insurrection of Lyon occurs during
the French Revolution.
1794 – Joseph Whidbey leads an expedition to
search for the Northwest Passage near Juneau,
Alaska.
1844 – The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, headed
by Brigham Young, is reaffirmed as the leading
body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints (LDS 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 (which is refused
upon receipt).
1870 – The Republic of Ploieşti, a failed Radical-Liberal
rising against Domnitor Carol of Romania.
1876 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his
mimeograph.
1908 – Wilbur Wright makes his first flight
at a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It is the
Wright Brothers' first public flight.
1918 – World War I: the Battle of Amiens begins
a string of almost continuous victories with
a push through the German front lines (Hundred
Days Offensive).
1929 – The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins
a round-the-world flight.
1940 – The "Aufbau Ost" directive
is signed by Wilhelm Keitel.
1942 – Quit India Movement is launched in India
against the British rule in response to Mahatma
Gandhi's call for swaraj or complete independence.
1945 – World War II: The Soviet Union declares
war on Japan and begins the Manchurian Strategic
Offensive Operation.
1946 – First flight of the Convair B-36, the
world's first mass-produce nuclear weapon delivery
vehicle.
1960 – South Kasai secedes from the Congo.
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 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
1973 – Kim Dae-Jung, a South Korean politician
and later president of South Korea, is kidnapped.
1974 President Richard M. Nixon formally resigns
from the office of the President of the United
States, in a televised address
1980 – The Central Hotel Fire occurs in Bundoran,
Ireland.
1988 – The "8888 Uprising" occurs
in Burma.
1989 – Space Shuttle program: STS-28 Mission
– Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret
five-day military mission.
1990 – Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is
annexed to Iraq. This would lead to the Gulf
War shortly afterward.
1991 – The Warsaw radio mast, at one time the
tallest construction ever built, collapses.
2000 – Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is
raised to the surface after 136 years on the
ocean floor and 30 years after its discovery
by undersea explorer E. Lee Spence and 5 years
after being filmed by a dive team funded by
novelist Clive Cussler.
2007 – An EF2 tornado touches down in Kings
County and Richmond County, New York State,
the most powerful tornado in New York to date
and the first in Brooklyn since 1889.
2008 – 2008 South Ossetia war broke out. Between
Georgia on one side, Russia, South Ossetia and
Abkhazia on the other.
2010 – 2010 China floods: A mudslide in Zhugqu
County, Gansu, China, kills more than 1,400
people.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Cyriacus
Dominic de Guzman, founder of the Dominican
Order.
Hormisdas
Largus
Mary MacKillop
Smaragdus (and companions)
August 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Earliest day on which Melon Day can fall, while
August 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second
Sunday in August. (Turkmenistan)
Farmer’s Day or Nane Nane, Swahili for "8-8".
(Tanzania)
Father's Day or Bā bā Day (爸爸節), Bā Bā is Mandarin
for "father" and "8-8",
or August 8. (Taiwan)
Flag Day, namesday of Queen Silvia. (Sweden)
For details, contact Datacentre
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