July 8
is the 189th day of the year (190th in
leap years) in the
Gregorian Calendar, with 176 days remaining.
*
1099 -
First Crusade: 15,000 starving
Christian soldiers march in religious procession around
Jerusalem as its
Muslim defenders mock them.
*
1283 -
War of the Sicilian Vespers:
Battle of Malta*
1497 -
Vasco da Gama sets sail on first direct European voyage to
India.
*
1579 -
Our Lady of Kazan, a holy
icon of the
Russian Orthodox Church, was discovered underground in the city of
Kazan,
Tatarstan.
*
1663 -
Charles II of England grants
John Clarke a
Royal Charter to
Rhode Island.
*
1680 - The first confirmed
tornado in America kills a servant at
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
*
1709 -
Great Northern War:
Battle of Poltava:
Peter I of Russia defeats
Charles XII of Sweden at
Poltava thus effectively ending
Sweden's role as a major power in
Europe.
*
1716 -
Great Northern War:
Battle of Dynekilen*
1758 -
French and Indian War:
French forces hold
Fort Carillon against
British at
Ticonderoga, New York.
*
1760 -
French and Indian War:
Battle of the Ristigouche - British defeat French forces in last naval battle in
New France.
*
1775 - The
Olive Branch Petition is adopted by the
Continental Congress of the
Thirteen Colonies.
*
1776 - The
Liberty Bell was rung to summon citizens of
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania for the reading of the
Declaration of Independence by the
Continental Congress.
*
1822 -
Chippewas turn over huge tract of land in
Ontario to the
United Kingdom.
*
1859 - King
Charles XV /
Carl IV accedes to the throne of
Sweden-Norway.
*
1876 - White supremacists kill five Black Republicans in
Hamburg, SC.
*
1889 - The first issue of the
Wall Street Journal is published.
* 1889 - At the last championship bare-knuckle
boxing match,
John L. Sullivan defeats
Jake Kilrain after 75 rounds.
*
1892 -
St. John's,
Newfoundland was devastated in the
Great Fire of 1892.
*
1896 -
William Jennings Bryan delivers his
Cross of Gold speech advocating
bimetalism at the
1896 Democratic National Convention in
Chicago.
*
1898 - The shooting death of crime boss
Soapy Smith releases
Skagway, Alaska from his iron grip.
*
1932 - The
Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the
Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22.
*
1933 -
NFL team
Pittsburgh Steelers was established.
*
1947 - Reports are broadcast that a
UFO has crash landed in
Roswell, New Mexico.
*
1966 -
King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of
Burundi was deposed by his son
Prince Charles Ndizi.
*
1969 -
IBM CICS is made generally available for the 360
mainframe computer.
*
1982 -
Senegalese
Trotskyist political party LCT is legally recognized.
*
1990 - At 12:34:56 (both AM and PM) the time and date by British reckoning was 12:34:56 7/8/90 i.e. 1234567890.
*
1992 -
Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe Helsinki Summit creates the office of
High Commissioner on National Minorities (
HCNM).
*
1997 -
Mayo Clinic researchers warn that the
dieting-drug "
fen-phen" can cause severe
heart and
lung damage.
* 1997 -
NATO invites the
Czech Republic,
Hungary, and
Poland to join the alliance in
1999.
*
1999 -
Allen Lee Davis is executed by
electrocution by the state of
Florida. That is the last use of the
Electric Chair for
capital punishment in
Florida.
*
1528 -
Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy (d.
1580)
*
1545 - Prince
Don Carlos of Spain (d.
1568)
*
1593 -
Artemisia Gentileschi, Italian painter (d.
1653)
*
1621 -
Jean de la Fontaine, French writer (d.
1695)
*
1760 -
Christian Kramp, French mathematician (d.
1826)
*
1766 -
Dominique Jean Larrey, French surgeon (d.
1842)
*
1819 -
Francis Leopold McClintock, British naval officer and explorer (d.
1907)
*
1836 -
Joseph Chamberlain, British politician (d.
1914)
*
1838 -
Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, German inventor (d.
1917)
*
1839 -
John D. Rockefeller, American businessman and philanthropist (d.
1937)
*
1851 -
Arthur Evans, English archaeologist (d.
1941)
*
1857 -
Alfred Binet, French psychologist
*
1867 -
Käthe Kollwitz, German painter and graphic artist (d.
1945)
*
1878 -
Jimmy Quinn, Scottish footballer (d.
1945)
*
1882 -
Percy Grainger, Australian composer (d.
1961)
*
1885 -
Ernst Bloch, German philosopher (d.
1977)
*
1892 -
Richard Aldington, English poet (d.
1962)
* 1892 -
Pavel Korin, Russian painter (d.
1967)
*
1895 -
Igor Tamm, Russian physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1971)
*
1904 -
Henri Cartan, French mathematician
*
1906 -
Philip Johnson, American architect (d.
2005)
*
1907 -
George W. Romney, chairman of the American Motors Corporation (1954-62) (d.
1995)
*
1908 -
Louis Jordan, American singer and saxophonist (d.
1975)
* 1908 -
Nelson A. Rockefeller, 41st
Vice President of the United States (d.
1979)
*
1914 -
Jyoti Basu, Indian politician
* 1914 -
Billy Eckstine, American jazz singer and bandleader (d.
1993)
*
1918 -
Craig Stevens, American actor (d.
2000)
*
1919 -
Walter Scheel, German politician
*
1923 -
Harrison Dillard, American athlete
*
1926 -
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-born psychiatrist (d.
2004)
*
1932 -
Jerry Vale, American singer
*
1933 -
Marty Feldman, English comedian and actor (d.
1982)
*
1935 -
Steve Lawrence, American entertainer and singer
* 1935 -
Vitali Sevastyanov, cosmonaut
*
1941 -
Dario Gradi, Italian-born football manager
*
1942 -
Phil Gramm, American politician
*
1947 -
Kim Darby, American actress
*
1948 -
Raffi Cavoukian, Armenian children's entertainer
*
1949 -
Frank Delima, American comedian
*
1951 -
Anjelica Huston, American actress
*
1958 -
Kevin Bacon, American actor
*
1961 -
Toby Keith, American singer
*
1968 -
Akio Suyama, Japanese
seiyu (voice actor)
*
1968 -
Billy Crudup, American actor
* 1968 -
Michael Weatherly, American actor
*
1970 -
Beck, American singer
*
1972 -
Saurav Ganguly, Indian cricketer
*
1973 -
Kathleen Robertson, Canadian actress
*
1974 -
Zhanna Friske, Russian actress and singer
*
1976 -
Talal El Karkouri, Moroccan footballer
*
1977 -
Wang Zhizhi, Chinese basketball player
*
1980 -
Robbie Keane, Irish footballer
*
1981 -
Anastasia Myskina, Russian tennis player
*
1982 -
Hakim Warrick, American basketball player
* 1982 -
Sophia Bush, American actress
*
1984 -
Alexis Dziena, American actress
*
810 -
Pepin, King of Italy (b.
773)
*
975 - King
Edgar of England*
1153 -
Pope Eugene III*
1538 -
Diego de Almagro, Spanish explorer (b.
1475)
*
1623 -
Pope Gregory XV (b.
1554)
*
1689 -
Edward Wooster, English Connecticut pioneer (b.
1622)
*
1695 -
Christiaan Huygens, Dutch scientist (b.
1629)
*
1716 -
Robert South, English churchman (b.
1634)
*
1721 -
Elihu Yale, American benefactor of Yale University (b.
1649)
*
1726 -
John Ker, Scottish spy (b.
1673)
*
1784 -
Torbern Bergman, Swedish chemist (b.
1735)
*
1822 -
Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet (b.
1792)
*
1826 -
Luther Martin, American statesman (b.
1748)
*
1850 -
Prince Adolphus, 1st Duke of Cambridge (b.
1774)
*
1855 - Sir
William Edward Parry, English Arctic explorer (b.
1790)
*
1859 - King
Oscar I of Sweden and Norway (b.
1799)
*
1898 -
Soapy Smith, American con artist (b.
1860)
*
1905 -
Walter Kittredge, American musician (b.
1834)
*
1917 -
Tom Thomson, Canadian painter (b.
1877)
*
1933 -
Anthony Hope, British author (b.
1863)
*
1934 -
Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer (b.
1848)
*
1939 -
Havelock Ellis, British physician (b.
1859)
*
1943 -
Jean Moulin, French Resistance leader (b.
1899)
*
1950 -
Othmar Spann, Austrian philosopher (b.
1878)
*
1956 -
Giovanni Papini, Italian essayist (b.
1881)
*
1957 -
Grace Coolidge,
First Lady of the United States (b.
1879)
*
1967 -
Fatima Jinnah, Pakistani Mother of the Nation (b.
1893)
*
1967 -
Vivien Leigh, English actress (b.
1913)
*
1973 -
Wilfred Rhodes, English cricketer (b.
1877)
*
1979 -
Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Japanese physicist,
Nobel laureate (b.
1906)
* 1979 -
Robert B. Woodward, American chemist,
Nobel laureate (b.
1917)
*
1981 -
Wild Bill Hallahan, American baseball player (b.
1902)
*
1986 -
Skeeter Webb, American baseball player (b.
1909)
*
1987 -
Gerardo Diego, Spanish poet (b.
1896)
*
1988 -
Ray Barbuti, American athlete (b.
1905)
*
1990 -
Howard Duff, American actor (b.
1913)
*
1991 -
Thomas Lynch, English Artist.
*
1994 -
Kim Il Sung, North Korean leader (b.
1912)
*
1999 -
Pete Conrad, American astronaut (b.
1930)
*
2001 -
John O'Shea, New Zealand film director (b.
1920)
*
2002 -
Ward Kimball, American animator (b.
1914)
*
2004 -
Paula Danziger, American author (b.
1944)
*
2006 -
June Allyson, American actress (b.
1917)
*Annual
Soapy Smith wake, held each year in
Skagway, Alaska in the Gold Rush Cemetery and in
Hollywood, California at the
Magic CastleLiturgical Feast days
*
Saint Adrian Fortescue, martyr
*
Saint Auspicius, bishop of Trier
*
Saint Bosilus, abbot [Durham]
*
Saint Claudius and companions [PCP (Paris)]
*
Saint Edgar (died 975)
*
Saint Evodius, bishop of Rouen, confessor (Translation) [Rouen]
*
Saint Grimbald, abbot, confessor [BLS; GTZ: England]
*
Saint Kilian of Würzburg, bishop, and companions (Olman, priest, and Totnam, deacon), martyrs 689 [common]
*
Saint Nummius, confessor [Paris, as
St. Nom]
*
Saint Procopius, martyr [common; Osnabrück]
*
Saint Quintinus, martyr (Invention) [Angers, LeMans]
*
Saint Theobald=Thibaut, abbot
*
Saints Aquila and Priscilla, martyrs [Châlons-sur-Marne, Amiens]
*
Saint Barbara (Translation)
*
Saint Elizabeth, queen of Portugal *
Saint Landrada, virgin [GTZ: Mons]
*
Saint Sunniva and companions, virgins [GTZ: Norway]
*
Saint Withburge, virgin
*
Saint Grimbald*
BBC: On This Day*
Epic Idiot: On This DayJuly 7 -
July 9 -
June 8 -
August 8 --
listing of all days
