July 8 - Definition and Overview

July 8 is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 176 days remaining.

Events

• 1099 - First Crusade: 15,000 starving Christian soldiers march in religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders mocked them.
• 1497 - Vasco da Gama sets sail on first direct European voyage to India.
• 1630 - The Massachusetts Bay Colony celebrates its first Thanksgiving Day.
• 1663 - Charles II of England grants John Clarke a Royal Charter to Rhode Island.
• 1680 - The first confirmed tornado in America killed a servant at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• 1709 - 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.
• 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.
• 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
• 1889 - The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published.
• 1889 - During the last championship bare-knuckle boxing match, John L. Sullivan defeats Jake Kilrain after 75 rounds.
• 1896 - William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech, Chicago.
• 1947 - Reports are broadcast that a UFO has crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico.
• 1969 - IBM CICS is made generally available for the 360 mainframe computer
• 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 executed by electrocution by the state of Florida. Last use of the Electric Chair for capital punishment in Florida.
• 2003 - Wikipedia introduces its Hebrew (http://he.wikipedia.org/) and Hungarian (http://hu.wikipedia.org/) versions

Births

• 1593 - Artemisia Gentileschi, painter (d. 1651)
• 1621 - Jean de la Fontaine, fablist
• 1760 - Christian Kramp, mathematician.
• 1819 - Francis Leopold McClintock, naval officer and explorer
• 1836 - Joseph Chamberlain, British politician (d. 1914)
• 1838 - Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, inventor of rigid dirigibles (d. 1917)
• 1839 - John D. Rockefeller, capitalist, founder of Standard Oil (d. 1937)
• 1851 - Arthur Evans, archaeologist (d. 1941)
• 1867 - Käthe Kollwitz, painter and graphic artist (d. 1945)
• 1882 - Percy Grainger, composer (d. 1961)
• 1885 - Ernst Bloch, philosopher (d. 1977)
• 1904 - Henri Cartan, French mathematician
• 1908 - Louis Jordan, singer, saxophonist (d. 1975)
• 1908 - Nelson A. Rockefeller, United States vice president during Gerald Ford's presidency (d. 1979)
• 1918 - Craig Stevens, actor (d. 2000)
• 1919 - Walter Scheel, politician
• 1923 - Harrison Dillard, American athlete
• 1932 - Barbara Loden, actress
• 1933 - Marty Feldman, comedian, actor
• 1935 - Steve Lawrence, entertainer, singer
• 1935 - Vitali Sevastyanov, cosmonaut
• 1941 - Dario Gradi, football manager
• 1942 - Phil Gramm, politician
• 1945 - Micheline Calmy-Rey, member of the Swiss Federal Council
• 1951 - Anjelica Huston, actress
• 1958 - Kevin Bacon, actor
• 1961 - Andy Fletcher, musician (Depeche Mode)
• 1961 - Toby Keith, country music singer
• 1968 - Billy Crudup, actor
• 1970 - Beck, rock and roll singer
• 1972 - Saurav Ganguly, Indian cricket player
• 1975 - Kathleen Robertson, actress
• 1977 - Wang Zhizhi, Chinese basketball player
• 1980 - Robbie Keane, Irish international footballer
• 1981 - Anastasia Myskina, Russian tennis player

Deaths

• 975 - King Edgar of England
• 1153 - Pope Eugene III
• 1623 - Pope Gregory XV
• 1695 - Christiaan Huygens, Dutch scientist
• 1822 - Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet (b. 1792)
• 1826 - Luther Martin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, only a few days after both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died. (The two died on July 4, 1826.)
• 1850 - Prince Adolphus of the United Kingdom, 1st Duke of Cambridge
• 1859 - King Oscar I of Sweden-Norway
• 1905 - Walter Kittredge, American musician and composer during the Civil War. (b. 1934)
• 1917 - Tom Thomson, Canadian painter
• 1933 - Anthony Hope, author ("The Prisoner of Zenda")
• 1939 - Havelock Ellis, physician, psychologist (b. 1859)
• 1943 - Jean Moulin, leader of the French Resistance in WW II
• 1950 - Othmar Spann, Austrian philosopher and economist
• 1959 - Major Dale R. Buis, US Army, first U.S. soldier to die in Vietnam.
• 1986 - Skeeter Webb, Professional baseball Player (b. 1909)
• 1988 - Ray Barbuti, American athlete
• 1990 - Howard Duff, actor
• 1994 - Kim Il Sung, North Korean leader
• 2001 - John O'Shea, New Zealand Director (b. 1920)
• 2002 - Ward Kimball, Disney animator
• 2003 - Ladan and Laleh Bijani, Iranian twins died after an unsuccessful separation operation
• 2004 - Paula Danziger, author

Holidays and observances

• Feast day of Saint Grimbald

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