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

Events

• 1585 - John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in quest for the North West 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.
• 1647 - Battle of Dangan Hill - Irish forces are defeated by British Parliamentary forces.
• 1786 - Mont Blanc was climbed for the first time by Dr. Michael-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat.
• 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).
• 1938 - The Mauthausen concentration camp is opened.
• 1942 - World War II: In Washington, DC, six German would-be saboteurs are executed (two others were cooperative and received life imprisonment instead).
• 1942- Quit India resolution was passed by the Bombay session of the AICC, which led to the start of a historical civil disobidience movement across India
• 1945 - World War II - The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invades Manchuria with more than 1 million troops. This action prompts Emperor Hirohito to plead with the war council to reconsider surrender.
• 1945 _ The United Nations Charter is ratified by the United States, and that nation becomes the first 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 died 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) was founded.
• 1974 - Watergate scandal: US President Richard Nixon announces his resignation (effective August 9).
• 1978 - Odie makes his first appearance in the cartoon strip Garfield
• 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
• 2000 - Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.

Births

• 1839 - General Nelson Miles, Indian fighter (d. 1925)
• 1866 - Matthew Henson, explorer (North Pole)
• 1879 - Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary (d. 1919)
• 1880 - Earle Page, eleventh Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1961)
• 1896 - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author (d. 1953)
• 1902 - Paul Dirac, physicist (d. 1984)
• 1907 - Benny Carter, musician, arranger
• 1910 - Sylvia Sidney, actress (d. 1999)
• 1915 - James "Jumbo" Elliott, hall of fame track coach (d. 1981)
• 1919 - Dino De Laurentiis, producer
• 1920 - Leo Chiosso, Italian lyricist
• 1921 - Webb Pierce, country and western singer (d. 1991)
• 1921 - Esther Williams, actress, swimmer
• 1921 - William Asher, film producer
• 1921 - John Herbert Chapman, Physicist
• 1921 - Vulimiri Ramalingaswami,Medical scientist
• 1922 - Rudi Gernreich, fashion designer (d. 1985)
• 1922 - Rory Calhoun, actor (d. 1999)
• 1922 - Rafael Moreno Aranzadi, Spanish football player (d. 1922)
• 1925 - Alija Izetbegovic, former Bosnian president (d. 2003)
• 1927 - Johnny Temple, Major League Baseball second baseman (d. 1994)
• 1930 - Andy Warhol, painter (d. 1987)
• 1931 - Sir Roger Penrose, mathematical physicist
• 1932 - Mel Tillis, country and western singer
• 1936 - Donald P. Bellisario, television producer
• 1937 - Dustin Hoffman, actor
• 1938 - Connie Stevens, singer, actress
• 1939 - Alexander Watson, American ambassador and diplomat
• 1944 - Peter Weir, film director
• 1949 - Keith Carradine, actor
• 1951 - Mamoru Oshii, film director
• 1952 - Jostein Gaarder, Norwegian author
• 1954 - Nigel Mansell, Formula One racer
• 1958 - Deborah Norville, reporter, television host
• 1961 - The Edge (David Evans), guitarist of U2
• 1966 - Chris Eubank, world champion boxer
• 1973 - Scott Stapp, Creed frontman
• 1976 - J.C. Chasez, singer (N Sync)
• 1976 - Drew Lachey, singer
• 1980 - Pat Noonan, New England Revolution Striker
• 1981 - Vanessa Amorosi, Australian singer/songwriter
• 1981 - Roger Federer, Swiss tennis player
• 1988 - Princess Beatrice of York, 5 in line to the throne of the United Kingdom

Deaths

• 1911 - William P. Frye, American politician
• 1940 - Johnny Dodds, jazz musician (b. 1892)
• 1944 - Chaim Soutine, painter
• 1965 - Shirley Jackson, author
• 1972 - Andrea Feldman, actor
• 1975 - Cannonball Adderley
• 1985 - Milton Greene, Celebrity photographer; close friend of Marilyn Monroe
• 1985 - Louise Brooks, Silent film actress
• 1987 - Danilo Blanusa, Croatian mathematician (b. 1903)
• 1991 - James Irwin, astronaut
• 1997 - Sviatoslav Richter, Ukrainian pianist (b. 1915)
• 2004 - Fay Wray, American actress

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 7 - August 9 - July 8 - September 8 -- listing of all days