Historical Events on August 8

Events 1 - 200 of 232

• 70 Tower of Antonia destroyed by Romans
• 1220 Sweden is defeated by Estonian tribes in the Battle of Lihula
• 1303 Crete earthquake strikes with estimated magnitude of 8, triggering a major tsunami that damaged the Lighthouse of Alexandria and swept ships 2 miles inland in Egypt

• 1322 Emperor Godaigo makes Sojiji the chief monastery of Soto Sect

• 1509 Emperor Krishnadeva Raya is crowned, marking the beginning of the regeneration of the Vijayanagara Empire in Southern India
• 1549 Henry II of France declares war on England and orders the siege of Boulogne
• 1567 Duke of Alva's army enters Brussels, Belgium
• 1570 Peace of Saint-Germain-and-Laye, more freedom for Huguenots

• 1585 John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in search of the Northwest Passage

• 1605 The city of Oulu, Finland, is founded by Charles IX of Sweden.

• 1615 Dutch expedition of Joris van Spilbergen attacks and later pillages Spanish held town of Payta, north of Lima [1]
• 1647 The Irish Confederate Wars and Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Battle of Dungans Hill - English Parliamentary forces defeat Irish forces.
• 1673 Dutch battle fleet of 23 ships demands surrender of NYC
• 1700 Denmark & Sweden sign peace treaty
• 1703 Vienna-based newspaper Wiennerisches Diarium (later called Wiener Zeitung) prints 1st edition; publishes daily for almost 320 years
• 1709 1st known ascent in hot-air balloon, Bartolomeu de Gusmao (indoors)
• 1758 British troops occupy & plunder Cherbourg
• 1786 Jacques Balmat and Michel Paccard are 1st to climb to top of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe

• 1793 The insurrection of Lyon occurs during the French Revolution.
• 1794 Joseph Whidbey and George Vancouver lead an expedition to search for the Northwest Passage near Juneau, Alaska
• 1796 Boston African Society establishes with 44 members
• 1809 70 disciples of Gaon of Vilnius, arrive in Palestine
• 1814 Peace negotiations begin in Ghent, Belgium
• 1816 Bavaria joins Holy Alliance
• 1829 "Stourbridge Lion" steam locomotive goes into service for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, in Honesdale, Pennsylvania; built by Foster, Rastrick and Co. in Stourbridge, England
• 1829 French government of De Polignac forms
• 1831 Battle of Hasselt - Dutch army drives out Belgians
• 1839 Beta Theta Pi is founded in Oxford, Ohio.
• 1843 Natal (in South Africa) is made a British colony

• 1853 Russian fleet appears at Nagasaki, Japan
• 1854 Smith & Wesson patents metal bullet cartridges
• 1860 Queen of Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) arrives in NYC
• 1863 American Civil War: Tennessee's "military" Governor Andrew Johnson frees his personal slaves. Celebrated as a holiday by Tennessee African Americans (early 20th century)
• 1864 Comet C/1864 N1 (Tempel) approaches within 0.0964 AUs of Earth
• 1864 Union troops/fleet occupy Fort Gaines, Alabama
• 1868 Earthquake destroys the city of Arica, Chile
• 1870 1st America's Cup: New York Yacht Club’s first defense of America’s Cup; 'Magic' (NYYC) defeats 'Cambria' (Royal Thames YC, England; finishes 8th) and 16 fellow defenders from NY Harbour to Sandy Hook Light Vessel on the Atlantic and return (38 miles)
• 1870 The Republic of Ploieşti, a failed Radical-Liberal rising against Domnitor Carol of Romania.
• 1876 Dan O'Leacy completes 500 mile walk in 139h32m

• 1882 Snow falls on Lake Michigan
• 1900 1st International Lawn Tennis Challenge (precursor to Davis Cup) begins at Longwood Cricket Club in Massachusetts, won 3-0 by US over British Isles
• 1910 The US Army installs the first tricycle landing gear on the Army's Wright Flyer.
• 1911 Public Law 62-5 sets the number of representatives in the United States House of Representatives at 435. The law would come into effect in 1913.
• 1911 The millionth patent is filed in the United States Patent Office by Francis Holton for a tubeless vehicle tire.
• 1913 Richard Corfields "Camel Corps" opens "Mad Mullah" in Burao Somalia

• 1914 French troops under Gen Bonneau occupy Mulhouse at Elzas
• 1914 Montenegro declares war on Germany
• 1916 A's set AL record with 19th consecutive loss on road
• 1918 World War I: The Allies launch the Hundred Days Offensive, beginning with the Battle of Amiens where 500 tanks and 10 Allied divisions attacked German lines
• 1919 Treaty of Rawalpindi, British recognise Afghanistan's independence
• 1920 Tigers beat Yanks 1-0 in shortest AL game, 73 minutes
• 1922 Pirates set record of 46 hits in a doubleheader (against Phillies)
• 1924 British-Russian trade agreement signed
• 1925 1st national march of Ku Klux Klan (between 25,000 and 40,000 marchers) in Washington, D.C.

• 1929 Salem airport in Oregon dedicated
• 1930 MLB St Louis Cardinals are 12 games back in NL, & go on to win pennant
• 1931 Washington Senators pitcher Bobby Burke no-hits Boston Red Sox, 5-0 at Griffith Stadium, Washington D. C.
• 1936 A Finnish quinella in the 3,000m steeplechase at the Berlin Olympics; Volmari Iso-Hollo beats teammate Kaarlo Tuominen in world record time (9:03.8)
• 1936 American Glenn Morris' decathlon total of 7,254 points is a world record; teammates Bob Clark & Jack Parker complete US sweep in the gruelling event at the Berlin Olympics
• 1936 Corbett National Park and Tiger Reserve founded in Uttarakhand, British India, as Hailey National Park (later renamed) - India's first National Park [1]
• 1937 Bonneville Dam on Columbia River begins producing power
• 1938 Great Trek Centenary Celebrations commence; the Great Trek was a migration involving Boers leaving the Cape Colony and settling in the interior of South Africa

• 1940 31 German aircraft shot down over England

• 1941 20 divisions of Soviet 6th/12th Army surrender at Oeman
• 1942 "Monty" appointed commander of British 8th Army at Alamein
• 1942 6 convicted Nazi saboteurs who landed in US executed in Washington, D.C.
• 1942 British Flower class corvette HMS Dianthus sinks U-379
• 1942 Soviet anti-offensive of Voronezh under Marshal Timosjenko
• 1943 Common Chiefs of staff meet in Quebec
• 1943 US amphibians land at St Agata on North coast of Sicily
• 1943 Vegetables & fruit rationed in Holland
• 1944 Canada/Polish troops occupy Cramesnil/Secqueville/Cintheaux/St-Aignan
• 1944 First test flight of the Junkers Ju 287. a proposed German Luftwaffe jet bomber; it was never fully put into production
• 1944 US 15th Army corps occupies Le Mans
• 1945 England & Australian Services draw 4th Victory Test

• 1945 USSR declares war against Japan in WW II
• 1945 USSR establishes a communist government in North Korea
• 1946 Dreyfuss family, owners of MLB Pittsburgh Pirates since 1900, sells club to Frank McKinney and John Galbreath for $25 million
• 1946 First flight of the Convair B-36.
• 1946 India agrees to give Bhutan 32 sq miles
• 1947 Pakistan's National Flag is approved.
• 1949 Bhutan, land of Dragon, becomes an independent monarchy

• 1952 Syngman Ree re-elected president of South Korea

• 1953 US & South Korea initial a mutual security pact

• 1955 Geneva conference held to discuss peaceful uses of atomic energy
• 1956 Fire & explosion kill 263 miners at Marcinelle, Belgium
• 1956 WDIQ (now KMCT) TV channel 2 in Dozier, AL (PBS) begins
• 1957 USSR offers Syria economic/military aid
• 1960 "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" hits #1
• 1960 Charges against 53 of the 76 Africans detained after the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa are dropped
• 1960 South Kasai secedes from the Congo.
• 1961 Ham Tigercats (CFL) beat Buff Bills (NFL) 38-21 in Hamilton, Ontario
• 1961 Verne Gagne beats Gene Kiniski in Minneapolis, to become NWA champ
• 1963 Great Train Robbery in England, £2.6 million ($7.3 million)
• 1963 Kingsmen release "Louie, Louie", radio stations label it obscene
• 1963 Verne Gagne beats Fritz Von Erich in Amarillo, to become NWA champ
• 1964 1st Rolling Stones concert in Netherlands at The Kurhaus of Scheveningen, in The Hague
• 1964 Dutch Opera forms in Amsterdam

• 1967 Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand meet to form Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
• 1968 Jarry Park is approved by Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau for interim use by Expos
• 1968 Race riot in Miami, Florida

• 1969 The Beatles are photographed by Iain MacMillan crossing the street as they walk away from EMI Recording Studios, for the cover of their "Abbey Road" album [1]

• 1971 A British soldier is shot dead by the Irish Republican Army in Belfast
• 1971 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
• 1972 NY Yanks sign 30-year lease to play in remodeled Yankee Stadium

• 1974 US President Richard Nixon announces he will resign at 12pm the next day
• 1975 As a result of rainfall from Typhoon Nina, the Banqiao Dam in China fails, causing the collapse of almost 6 million buildings and 229,000 deaths

• 1976 Chicago White Sox suit up in shorts
• 1977 Maurine Stuart, ordained as Zen priest by Eido Tai Shimano Roshi
• 1977 Texas Rangers turn their 1st triple play (vs A's)
• 1978 Pioneer-Venus 2 with 5 atmospheric probes launched toward Venus

• 1980 LBV Conference Center & Club Lake Villas open
• 1981 At a summit South African Trade Unions resolve to defy apartheid and labour laws

• 1983 Jury in KC, Mo, awards TV anchorwoman Christine Craft $500,000 in sex discrimination suit against KMBC-TV (later overturned)

• 1984 Milwaukee 10-game losing streak ends
• 1984 Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco becomes the first female Olympic champion of a Muslim nation, and the first of her country in the 400m hurdles at the Los Angeles Olympics
• 1985 Baseball's new agreement permits 2 new NL teams in 1993
• 1985 Japan launches Planet A, a probe to Halley's comet
• 1986 Altaf Hussain's address at Nishtar Park Karachi, announcing the establishment of the MQM political movement.
• 1986 Texas paroles American rock singer David Crosby from state prison, 5 months into his 5 year prison sentence for drug and weapons convictions; he credits the respite with helping him to break his cocaine addiction
• 1987 Brewers' Rob Deer struck-out 5 times in a game
• 1987 Pakistan all out 708 v England at The Oval, Botham 3-217
• 1988 -11] Army in Rangoon, Myanmar fires on pro-democracy students, killing thousands during the "8888 Uprising"
• 1988 Angola, Cuba and South Africa agree to a ceasefire in the Angolan Civil War
• 1988 Ceasefire between Iran and Iraq takes effect after 8 years of war
• 1988 Cubs & Phillies attempt to play 1st night game ever at Wrigley Field but are rained out in 4th inning with Chicago leading, 3-1
• 1988 Discovery of most distant galaxy (15 * 10 ^ 12 light yrs) announced
• 1988 Duchess of York gives birth to 6 lb 12 oz baby girl
• 1988 Jennifer Levin's parents file $25M suit against Dorrian Red Hand Bar
• 1988 Minnesota Twins pull 2nd triple-play of year in 6-2 win over Cleveland

• 1988 Renovated Central Park Zoo reopens after 4 years (New York City)
• 1988 Russian troops begin pull out of Afghanistan after 9 years of war
• 1988 Temperature hits high of 88 deg F on 8/8/88 in NYC

• 1989 US space shuttle STS-28 launched
• 1990 Baltimore Orioles pull their 10th triple play (1-6-3 vs Oakland)

• 1990 Iraq annexes Kuwait as its 19th province

• 1991 Shi'ite Muslims release British hostage John McCarthy

• 1991 The Warsaw radio mast, at one time the tallest construction ever built, collapses.
• 1991 With two months left, White Sox set new home attendance (2,150,951)
• 1992 Bulgarian canoeist Nikolay Bukhalov completes the C-1 500 / 1,000 double winning the latter at the Barcelona Olympics
• 1992 Fermín Cacho wins Spain's first ever Olympic gold medal in a running event when he takes out the 1,500m at the Barcelona Games
• 1992 Germany goes through the field hockey competition undefeated to win gold with a 2-1 win over Australia in the men's final at the Barcelona Olympics
• 1992 Lou Whitaker hits his 200th career HR

• 1992 Spanish centre forward Kiko scores twice as the home team takes the football Olympic gold medal with a 3-2 win over Poland in front of 95,000 at Camp Nou, Barcelona

• 1993 Tropical storm Bret ravages Venezuela, about 100 killed

• 1995 10.75" (27.305 cm) of rainfall at Lockington Dam, Lockington, Ohio (state record)
• 1995 Jeff King of Pirates is 16th NL player to HR twice in one inning
• 1996 American jazz artist Mel Tormé (70), suffers a stroke, ending his 65-year singing career
• 1997 Mariners Randy Johnson strikes out 19 Chicago White Sox
• 1997 The UN approves a sale-price formula for Iraqi crude oil sales under the oil-for-food plan
• 2000 Confederate submarine CSS H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor, off the coast of South Carolina [1]

• 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 Russo-Georgian War: Russia launches a full-scale land, air and sea invasion of Georgia, referring to it as a 'peace enforcement' operation after Georgia responded to aggression from South Ossetian
• 2008 XXIX Summer Olympic Games open in Beijing, China
• 2012 16 people are killed from flooding from heavy rain in Manilla, Philippines
• 2012 China announces that it plans to close 23 rare earth mines and up to 50 smelting companies
• 2013 14 people are killed by a bomb explosion in Nangarhar, Afghanistan
• 2013 28 people are killed by a suicide bombing in Quetta, Pakistan

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