August 9

2023 Calendar

August 9 is the 221st day of the year (222nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 144 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

117 – Trajan, Roman emperor (b. 53)
378 – Valens, Roman emperor (killed in battle) (b. 328)
378 – Traianus, Roman general
803 – Byzantine Empress Irene (b. 752)
1048 – Pope Damasus II
1107 – Emperor Horikawa of Japan (b. 1079)
1250 – King Eric IV of Denmark (b. 1216)
1472 – Janos Vitez, Croatian humanist (b. 1408)
1534 – Thomas Cajetan, Italian theologian (b. 1470)
1580 – Metrophanes III, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 1520)
1601 – Michael the Brave, Prince of Wallachia (b. 1558)
1816 – Johann August Apel, German jurist and writer (b. 1771)
1837 – Xavier Sigalon, French painter (b. 1787)
1854 – Frederick Augustus II of Saxony (b. 1797)
1864 – John Brown Francis, Governor of Rhode Island (b. 1791)
1880 – William Bigler, 12th Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1814)

From 1901

1902 – Edward VII of the United Kingdom is crowned king, while his consort, Alexandra of Denmark is crowned queen of the United Kingdom.
1907 – The first Boy Scout camp ends on Brownsea Island, Dorset, England, UK, having been led by Robert Baden-Powell.
1910 – Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition leaves Kristiania, present-day Oslo. The public does not know that it is destined for the South Pole.
1912 – An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 in Persia kills around 5,500 people.
1914 – World War I: Start of the Battle of Mulhouse, part of an eventually unsuccessful French attempt to retake Alsace from Germany.
1925 – A train robbery occurs in Lucknow, India.
1936 – Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal of the 1936 Summer Olympics.
1942 – Mahatma Gandhi is arrested by British colonial police in Bombay, starting the Quit India Movement for Indian independence.
1942 – World War II: Battle of Savo Island - Allied forces are surprised and defeated by the Japanese Imperial Navy cruise force in initial stages of the Battle of Guadalcanal.
1944 – The US Forest Service and Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey the Bear for the first time.
1945 – World War II: The United States drops an atomic bomb, "Fat Man" on the city of Nagasaki.
1965 – Singapore gains independence from Malaysia.
1965 – A fire at a Titan missile base near Searcy, Arkansas kills 53 construction workers.
1968 – British Eagle Flight 802 crashes near Langenbruck, north of Munich, Bavaria, Germany, killing all 48 people on board.
1969 – Members of Charles Manson's gang murder Sharon Tate, her unborn son, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Jay Sebring, and Steven Parent.
1970 – A Lockheed L-188 Electra plane crashes near Cuzco, Peru, killing 99 of the 100 people on board, as well as 2 people on the ground.
1971 – The Troubles: British security forces in Northern Ireland begin Operation Demetrius. In the violence that followed, hundreds are arrested or interred, thousands are made homeless, and 20 people are killed.
1974 – Gerald Ford becomes President of the United States after the resignation of Richard Nixon over the Watergate scandal.
1974 – The oil tanker Metula runs aground off Tierra del Fuego.
1988 – Wayne Gretzky, star of ice hockey, is transferred from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the most controversial transactions in ice hockey history.
1990 – The United Nations Security Council declares Iraq's occupation of Kuwait null and void.
1992 – The 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona end.
1993 – Albert II of Belgium is proclaimed King.
1993 – The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses a 38-year hold on national leadership.
1999 – Boris Yeltsin names Vladimir Putin as Prime Minister of Russia.
1999 – Charles Kennedy is elected leader of the British Liberal Democrats.
2001 – 15 people are killed and 132 are injured in a suicide bombing in Downtown Jerusalem.
2005 – Space Shuttle Discovery lands safely back on Earth, after a two-week space mission, following spacewalks to carry out repairs on the Shuttle.
2012 – 2012 Summer Olympics: Nicola Adams becomes the first Olympic gold medalist in women's boxing. On the same day, Kenya's David Rudisha sets a new record in the men's 800 meters.
2018 – A Saudi airstrike in Dahyan, Yemen, kills at least 51 people, including 29 children.

Births

Up to 1800

1201 – Arnold Fitz Thedmar, English chronicler (d. 1274)
1537 – Francesco Barozzi, Italian mathematician, astronomer and humanist (d. 1604)
1544 – Bogislaw III, Duke of Pomerania (d. 1606)
1594 – Izaak Walton, English writer (d. 1683)
1603 – Johannes Cocceius, German Protestant theologian (d. 1669)
1648 – Johann Michael Bach, German composer (d. 1694)
1653 – John Oldham, English poet and translator (d. 1683)
1663 – Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1713)
1669 – Eudoxia Lopukhina, Tsarina of Russia (d. 1731)
1696 – Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1772)
1722 – Prince Augustus William of Prussia (d. 1758)
1726 – Francesco Cetti, Italian Jesuit scientist (d. 1778)
1736 – Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé, French statesman (d. 1818)
1754 – Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French architect (d. 1825)
1757 – Thomas Telford, Scottish civil engineer (d. 1834)
1757 – Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, American political figure (d. 1854)
1759 – Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths, German scholar (d. 1839)
1776 – Amedeo Avogadro, Italian chemist (d. 1856)
1783 – Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia (d. 1801)
1794 – Achille Valenciennes, French zoologist (d. 1865)
1797 – Charles Robert Malden, British naval officer who discovered Malden Island (d. 1855)

1801 – 1900

1805 – Joseph Locke, British railway and civil engineer (d. 1860)
1817 – Justo Arosemena, Panamanian statesman (d. 1896)
1819 – William T. G. Morton, American dentist and anesthesia pioneer (d. 1868)
1834 – Manuel Pardo, 20th President of Peru (d. 1878)
1845 – André Bessette, Canadian saint (d. 1937)
1847 – Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo, Queen of Spain (d. 1876)
1863 – Alvaro Figueroa, 1st Count of Romanones, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1950)
1867 – Evelina Haverfield, Scottish nurse and activist (d. 1920)
1871 – Leonid Andreyev, Russian writer (d. 1919)
1872 – Archduke Joseph August of Austria, Austrian field marshal (d. 1962)
1874 – Reynaldo Hahn, Venezuelan-born composer (d. 1947)
1875 – Albert Ketèlbey, English composer (d. 1959)
1884 – John S. McCain, Sr., American admiral (d. 1945)
1887 – Hans Oster, German general and Resistance activist (d. 1945)
1892 – S. R. Ranganathan, Indian mathematician (d. 1972)
1894 – Mikhail Zoshchenko, Russian writer (d. 1958)
1896 – Jean Piaget, Swiss child psychologist (d. 1980)
1899 – P. L. Travers, Australian writer, writer of Mary Poppins (d. 1996)

1901 – 1950

1901 – Charles Farrell, American actor (d. 1990)
1902 – Zino Francescatti, French violinist (d. 1991)
1903 – Tom Tyler, American actor (d. 1954)
1904 – Hasso von Boehmer, German military and Resistance activist (d. 1945)
1908 – Tommaso Landolfi, Italian writer (d. 1979)
1909 – Adam von Trott zu Solz, German jurist, diplomat and Resistance activist (d. 1944)
1910 – Robert van Gulik, Dutch sinologist, diplomat, writer and musician (d. 1967)
1911 – William Alfred Fowler, American physicist (d. 1996)
1912 – Anne Brown, American soprano (d. 2009)
1914 – Tove Jansson, Finnish writer of the Moomin books (d. 2001)
1914 – Ferenc Fricsay, Hungarian conductor (d. 1963)
1914 – Joe Mercer, English footballer (d. 1990)
1914 – Alastair Windsor, 2nd Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, British aristocrat (d. 1943)
1916 – Manea Manescu, Romanian politician (d. 2009)
1918 – Robert Aldrich, American director (d. 1983)
1919 – Joop den Uyl, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1987)
1920 – Enzo Biagi, Italian journalist and writer (d. 2007)
1921 – J. James Exon, American politician, 33rd Governor of Nebraska (d. 2005)
1922 – Philip Larkin, English poet (d. 1985)
1923 – Gerrit Kouwenaar, Dutch poet (d. 2014)
1924 – Marta Becket, American actress, dancer, choreographer and painter (d. 2017)
1927 – Marvin Minsky, American scientist (d. 2016)
1927 – Daniel Keyes, American writer (d. 2014)
1927 – Robert Shaw, English actor (d. 1978)
1928 – Bob Cousy, American professional basketball player (NBA)
1930 – Jacques Parizeau, Quebec politician and economist (d. 2015)
1931 – Mário Zagallo, Brazilian footballer
1931 – James Freeman Gilbert, American geophysicist (d. 2014)
1932 – Anand Panyarachun, former Prime Minister of Thailand
1932 – Tam Dalyell, Scottish politician (d. 2017)
1933 – Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Japanese television personality, children's writer
1934 – Graeme Gibson, Canadian novelist and union leader (d. 2019)
1936 – Patrick Tse, Hong Kong-Chinese actor, director, producer and screenwriter
1937 – Hans Nowak, German footballer (d. 2012)
1938 – Leonid Kuchma, former President of Ukraine
1938 – Rod Laver, Australian tennis player
1938 – Otto Rehhagel, German football manager
1939 – Romano Prodi, former Prime Minister of Italy
1939 – The Mighty Hannibal, American singer-songwriter and record producer (d. 2014)
1939 – Hércules Brito Ruas, Brazilian footballer
1939 – Bulle Ogier, French actress
1942 – Tommie Agee, American baseball player (d. 2001)
1943 – Ken Norton, American boxer (d. 2013)
1943 – Lorenzo Sanz, Spanish businessman
1943 – Lubomir Kavalek, Czech-American chess player
1944 – John Simpson, English journalist and correspondent
1944 – Sam Elliott, American actor
1944 – Patrick Depailler, French racing driver (d. 1980)
1945 – Posy Simmonds, cartoonist
1947 – Roy Hodgson, English football manager
1947 – Barbara Mason, American soul singer
1948 – William M. Daley, 24th White House Chief of Staff
1949 – Jonathan Kellerman, American mystery writer

1951 – 1975

1951 – James Naughtie, Scottish broadcaster
1951 – Michaele Schreyer, German politician
1952 – Prateep Ungsongtham Hata, Thai politician and activist
1953 – Michael Russell, Scottish politician
1953 – Kay Stenshjemmet, Norwegian speed skater
1953 – Jean Tirole, French economist
1955 – Maud Olofsson, Swedish politician
1955 – Charlie Morgan, English drummer
1957 – Melanie Griffith, American actress (Working Girl, The Bonfire of the Vanities)
1958 – Amanda Bearse, American actress
1959 – Stuart Hughes, Canadian actor
1959 – Kurtis Blow, American rapper
1959 – Michael Kors, American fashion designer
1959 – Idrissa Seck, former Prime Minister of Senegal
1961 – John Key, 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand
1961 – Brad Gilbert, American tennis player
1961 – Amy Stiller, American actress
1962 – Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, German politician, former Prime Minister of Saarland
1962 – Kevin Mack, American football player
1962 – John "Hot Rod" Williams, American basketball player
1963 – Maria Manuela Machado, Portuguese long-distance runner
1963 – Petra Pau, German politician
1963 – Whitney Houston, American singer and actress (d. 2012)
1963 – Jay Leggett, American actor (d. 2013)
1964 – Brett Hull, Canadian-American professional hockey player (NHL)
1966 – Vinny Del Negro, American basketball player and coach
1967 – Dana Vávrová, Czech actress (d. 2009)
1967 – Ralph Hasenhüttl, Austrian footballer and manager
1967 – Deion Sanders, American football player
1968 – Gillian Anderson, American actress
1968 – Eric Bana, Australian actor
1968 – McG, American director and producer
1969 – Troy Percival, Major League Baseball All-Star
1970 – Chris Cuomo, American journalist
1970 – Thomas Lennon, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter
1972 – Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez, Colombian singer and songwriter
1972 – Liz Vassey, American actress
1973 – Kevin McKidd, Scottish actor
1973 – Filippo Inzaghi, Italian footballer
1974 – Derek Fisher, American basketball player

From 1976

1976 – Jessica Capshaw, American actress (The Practice)
1976 – Rhona Mitra, American actress (The Practice)
1976 – Audrey Tautou, French actress
1976 – Nawaf al-Hazmi, Saudi Arabian terrorist (d. 2001)
1977 – Chamique Holdsclaw, professional basketball player (WNBA)
1977 – Adewale Ogunleye, American football player
1977 – Mikael Silvestre, French footballer
1978 – Daniela Denby-Ashe, British actress
1978 – Wesley Sonck, Belgian footballer
1979 – Lisa Nandy, English politician
1979 – Tony Stewart, American football player
1980 – Ryoo Seung-bum, South Korean actor
1981 – Jarvis Hayes, American basketball player
1981 – Li Jiawei, Singaporean table tennis player
1981 – Roland Linz, Austrian footballer
1982 – Tyson Gay, American runner
1982 – Joel Anthony, American basketball player
1982 – Yekaterina Samutsevich, Russian singer and activist (Pussy Riot)
1983 – Ashley Johnson, American actress
1985 – Luca Filippi, Italian racing driver
1985 – Anna Kendrick, American actress
1985 – Dennis Marshall, Costa Rican footballer (d. 2011)
1985 – Hayley Peirsol, American swimmer
1986 – Rafaela Zanella, Brazilian model
1987 – Marco Carmona, Mexican artist
1988 – Vasilios Koutsianikoulis, Greek footballer
1989 – Stefano Okaka, Italian footballer
1989 – Jason Heyward, American baseball player
1990 – Adelaide Kane, Australian actress
1991 – Alexa Bliss, American professional wrestler
1991 – Candela Vetrano, Argentine actress and singer
1993 – Rydel Lynch, American actress, singer, dancer and musician
1994 – Jonathan Espericueta, Mexican footballer
1994 – Forrest Landis, American actor
1996 – Deborah Burke, Canadian ice hockey player

Deaths

1901 – 2000

1909 – Jemima Blackburn, Scottish painter (b. 1823)
1910 – Hua Yuan Jia, Chinese martial artist (b. 1868)
1914 – Roque Sáenz Peña, President of Argentina (b. 1851)
1919 – Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist and philosopher (b. 1834)
1919 – Ruggero Leoncavallo, Italian composer (b. 1857)
1927 – Stephan G. Stephansson, Western Icelander poet and farmer (b. 1853)
1932 – John Charles Fields, Canadian mathematician (b. 1863)
1942 – Edith Stein, (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) at Auschwitz (b. 1891)
1945 – Harry Hillman, American athlete (b. 1881)
1948 – Hugo Boss, German fashion designer (b. 1885)
1949 – Harry Davenport, American actor (b. 1866)
1956 – Tobias Danzig, Russian-American mathematician (b. 1884)
1962 – Hermann Hesse, German writer (b. 1877)
1967 – Joe Orton, English writer (d. 1933)
1969 – Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist (b. 1903)
1969 – Murdered by Charles Manson's gang:
- Sharon Tate, American actress (murdered) (b. 1943)
- Jay Sebring, Hollywood hair stylist (b. 1933)
- Abigail Folger, Coffee heiress (b. 1943)
- Wojciech Frykowski, Polish writer (b. 1936)
- Steven Parent, American student (b. 1951)
1974 – Bill Chase, American trumpeter and bandleader (b. 1934)
1975 – Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer (b. 1906)
1976 – José Lezama Lima, Cuban writer (b. 1910)
1979 – Walter O'Malley, American baseball executive (b. 1903)
1980 – Jacqueline Cochran, American pilot (b. 1906)
1988 – Giacinto Scelsi, Italian composer (b. 1905)
1988 – Ramon Valdés, Mexican actor (b. 1923)
1990 – Wladislaw Orlicz, Polish mathematician (b. 1903)
1990 – Joe Mercer, English footballer (b. 1914)
1992 – Fereydoun Farrokhzad, Iranian singer and actor (b. 1938)
1995 – Jerry Garcia, American guitarist (Grateful Dead) (b. 1942)
1996 – Frank Whittle, British engineer and inventor (b. 1907)
1998 – Frankie Ruiz, American singer (b. 1958)
1999 – Fouad Serageddin, Egyptian politician (b. 1910)
2000 – John Harsanyi, Hungarian-born economist (b. 1920)

From 2001

2003 – Ray Harford, English football manager (b. 1945)
2003 – Gregory Hines, American actor and dancer (b. 1946)
2004 – Robert Lecourt, French politician (b. 1908)
2005 – Colette Besson, French athlete (b. 1946)
2006 – Rafael Ruiz, Spanish hockey player (b. 1916)
2006 – James Van Allen, American physicist (b. 1914)
2008 – Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet (b. 1941)
2008 – Bernie Mac, American comedian and actor (b. 1957)
2010 – Ted Stevens, American politician (b. 1923)
2012 – Mel Stuart, American director and producer (b. 1928)
2012 – Al Freeman, Jr., American actor (b. 1934)
2013 – Regina Resnik, American mezzo-soprano (b. 1923)
2014 – Andriy Bal, Ukrainian footballer and coach (b. 1958)
2014 – Charles Keating, British actor (b. 1941)
2014 – Michael Brown, American shooting victim (b. 1996)
2014 – Ed Nelson, American actor (b. 1928)
2014 – Jerome Ehlers, Australian actor (b. 1958)
2015 – Frank Gifford, American football player (b. 1930)
2015 – John Henry Holland, American computer scientist (b. 1929)
2015 – Fikret Otyam, Turkish painter and journalist (b. 1926)
2015 – Susan Sheridan, British voice actress (b. 1947)
2015 – David Nobbs, British comedy writer (b. 1935)
2015 – George E. R. Kinnear II, American admiral (b. 1928)
2016 – Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, British aristocrat and landowner (b. 1951)
2016 – Kalikho Pul, Indian politician, Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh (b. 1969)
2016 – Wang Tuoh, Taiwanese writer (b. 1944)
2016 – Ernst Neizvestny, Russian-American sculptor, painter, graphic artist and philosopher (b. 1925)
2017 – Patricio Echegaray, Argentine politician (b. 1946)
2017 – Al McCandless, American politician (b. 1927)
2017 – Peter Weibel, German racing cyclist (b. 1950)
2017 – Thomas A. Bird, British World War II army officer and architect (b. 1918)
2018 – Manfred Melzer, German Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1944)
2018 – Mehrdad Pahlbod, Iranian politician (b. 1917)
2019 – Paul Findley, American politician (b. 1921)
2019 – Altair Gomes de Figueiredo, Brazilian footballer (b. 1938)
2019 – Fahrudin Jusufi, Yugoslavian footballer (b. 1939)

Observances

National Day of Singapore
Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony
International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples
National Women's Day (South Africa and Namibia)