Events
of the day
1220
โ Sweden is defeated by Estonian tribes in the
Battle of Lihula.
1503 โ King James IV of Scotland marries Margaret
Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England at
Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, Scotland.
1576 โ The cornerstone for Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg
observatory is laid on Hven.
1585 โ John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in search
of the Northwest Passage.
1588 โ Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines
โ The naval engagement ends, ending the Spanish
Armada's attempt to invade England.
1605 โ The city of Oulu, Finland, is founded by
Charles IX of Sweden.
1647 โ The Irish Confederate Wars and Wars of
the Three Kingdoms: Battle of Dungans Hill โ English
Parliamentary forces defeat Irish forces.
1709 โ Bartolomeu de Gusmรฃo demonstrates the lifting
power of hot air in an audience before the King
of Portugal in Lisbon
1786 โ Mont Blanc on the French โ Italian border
is climbed for the first time by Jacques Balmat
and Dr Michel-Gabriel Paccard.
1793 โ The insurrection of Lyon occurs during
the French Revolution.
1794 โ Joseph Whidbey leads an expedition to search
for the Northwest Passage near Juneau, Alaska.
1844 โ 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 โ 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 โ The Republic of Ploieลti, a failed Radical-Liberal
rising against Domnitor Carol of Romania.
1876 โ Thomas Edison receives a patent for his
mimeograph.
1908 โ Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at
a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It is the Wright
Brothers' first public flight.
1918 โ 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 โ The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins
a round-the-world flight.
1940 โ The "Aufbau Ost" directive is
signed by Wilhelm Keitel.
1942 โ Quit India Movement is launched in India
against the British rule in response to Mahatma
Gandhi's call for swaraj or complete independence.
1945 โ World War II: The Soviet Union declares
war on Japan and begins the Manchurian Strategic
Offensive Operation.
1946 โ First flight of the Convair B-36, the world's
first mass-produce nuclear weapon delivery vehicle.
1960 โ South Kasai secedes from the Congo.
1963 โ Great Train Robbery: in England, a gang
of 15 train robbers steal 2.6 million pounds in
bank notes.
1967 โ The Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) is founded by Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
1973 โ 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 โ The Central Hotel Fire occurs in Bundoran,
Ireland.
1988 โ The "8888 Uprising" occurs in
Burma.
1989 โ Space Shuttle program: STS-28 Mission โ
Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret five-day
military mission.
1990 โ Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is annexed
to Iraq. This would lead to the Gulf War shortly
afterward.
1991 โ The Warsaw radio mast, at one time the
tallest construction ever built, collapses.
2000 โ 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 โ 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 โ 2008 South Ossetia war broke out. Between
Georgia on one side, Russia, South Ossetia and
Abkhazia on the other.
2010 โ 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)
Farmerโs Day or Nane Nane, Swahili for "8-8".
(Tanzania)
Father's Day or Bฤ bฤ Day (็ธ็ธ็ฏ), Bฤ Bฤ is Mandarin
for "father" and "8-8", or
August 8. (Taiwan)
Flag Day, namesday of Queen Silvia. (Sweden)
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