June 8

Events

• 218 - Battle of Antioch: With the support of the Syrian legions, Elagabalus defeats the forces of emperor Macrinus. He flees, but is captured near Chalcedon and later executed in Cappadocia.
• 793 - Vikings raid the abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria, commonly accepted as the beginning of Norse activity in the British Isles.
• 1042 - Edward the Confessor becomes King of England - the country's penultimate Anglo-Saxon king.
• 1191 - Richard I arrives in Acre, beginning his crusade.
• 1663 - Portuguese victory at the Battle of Ameixial ensures Portugal's independence from Spain.
• 1776 - American Revolutionary War: American attackers are driven back at the Battle of Trois-Rivières.
• 1783 - Laki, a volcano in Iceland, begins an eight-month eruption which kills over 9,000 people and starts a seven-year famine.
• 1789 - James Madison introduces twelve proposed amendments to the United States Constitution in Congress.
• 1794 - Robespierre inaugurates the French Revolution's new state religion, the Cult of the Supreme Being, with large organized festivals all across France.
• 1856 - A group of 194 Pitcairn Islanders, descendants of the mutineers of, arrives at Norfolk Island, commencing the Third Settlement of the Island.
• 1861 - American Civil War: Tennessee secedes from the Union.
• 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Cross Keys: Confederate forces under General Stonewall Jackson save the Army of Northern Virginia from a Union assault on the James Peninsula led by General George B. McClellan.
• 1867 - Coronation of Franz Joseph as King of Hungary following the Austro-Hungarian compromise.
• 1887 - Herman Hollerith applies for US patent #395,781 for the 'Art of Compiling Statistics', which was his punched card calculator.
• 1906 - Theodore Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act into law, authorizing the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value.
• 1912 - Carl Laemmle incorporates Universal Pictures.
• 1918 - A solar eclipse is observed at Baker City, Oregon by scientists and an artist hired by the United States Navy.
• 1928 - Second Northern Expedition: The National Revolutionary Army captures Peking, whose name is changed to Beijing.
• 1929 - Margaret Bondfield is appointed Minister of Labour. She is the first woman appointed to the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.
• 1940 - World War II: The completion of Operation Alphabet, the evacuation of Allied forces from Narvik at the end of the Norwegian Campaign.
• 1941 - World War II: The Allies commence the Syria-Lebanon Campaign against the possessions of Vichy France in the Levant.
• 1942 - World War II: The Japanese imperial submarines I-21 and I-24 shell the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle.
• 1949 - Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members.
• 1949 - George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is published.
• 1953 - An F5 tornado hits Beecher, Michigan, killing 116, injuring 844, and destroying 340 homes.
• 1953 - The United States Supreme Court rules in District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. that restaurants in Washington, D.C., cannot refuse to serve black patrons.
• 1959 - and the United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.
• 1966 - An F-104 Starfighter collides with XB-70 Valkyrie prototype no. 2, destroying both aircraft during a photo shoot near Edwards Air Force Base. Joseph A. Walker, a NASA test pilot, and Carl Cross, a United States Air Force test pilot, are both killed.
• 1966 - Topeka, Kansas, is devastated by a tornado that registers as an "F5" on the Fujita scale: The first to exceed US$100 million in damages. Sixteen people are killed, hundreds more injured, and thousands of homes damaged or destroyed.
• 1966 - The National Football League and American Football League announced a merger effective in 1970.
• 1967 - Six-Day War: The USS Liberty incident occurs, killing 34 and wounding 171.
• 1972 - Vietnam War: Nine-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc is burned by napalm, an event captured by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut moments later while the young girl is seen running down a road, in what would become an iconic, Pulitzer Prize-winning photo.
• 1982 - Bluff Cove Air Attacks during the Falklands War: Fifty-six British servicemen are killed by an Argentine air attack on two landing ships, and.
• 1984 - Homosexuality is declared legal in the Australian state of New South Wales.
• 1987 - New Zealand's Labour government establishes a national nuclear-free zone under the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987.
• 1992 - The first World Oceans Day is celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• 1995 - Downed U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines in Bosnia.
• 2001 - Mamoru Takuma kills eight and injures 15 in a mass stabbing at an elementary school in the Osaka Prefecture of Japan.
• 2004 - The first Venus Transit in well over a century takes place, the previous one being in 1882.
• 2007 - Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, is hit by the State's worst storms and flooding in 30 years resulting in the death of nine people and the grounding of a trade ship, the.
• 2008 - At least 37 miners go missing after an explosion in a Ukrainian coal mine causes it to collapse.
• 2008 - At least seven people are killed and ten injured in a stabbing spree in Tokyo, Japan.
• 2009 - Two American journalists are found guilty of illegally entering North Korea and sentenced to 12 years of penal labour.
• 2014 - At least 28 people are killed in an attack at Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, Pakistan.

  Births

• 862 - Emperor Xizong of Tang
• 1508 - Primož Trubar, Slovenian Protestant reformer
• 1552 - Gabriello Chiabrera, Italian poet and author
• 1593 - George I Rákóczi, prince of Transylvania
• 1625 - Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Italian-French mathematician and astronomer
• 1671 - Tomaso Albinoni, Italian violinist and composer
• 1717 - John Collins, American lawyer and politician, 3rd Governor of Rhode Island
• 1724 - John Smeaton, English engineer, designed the Coldstream Bridge and Perth Bridge
• 1745 - Caspar Wessel, Norwegian-Danish mathematician and cartographer
• 1757 - Ercole Consalvi, Italian cardinal
• 1788 - Charles A. Wickliffe, American politician, 14th Governor of Kentucky
• 1810 - Robert Schumann, German composer and critic
• 1829 - John Everett Millais, English painter and illustrator
• 1831 - Thomas J. Higgins, Canadian-American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient
• 1842 - John Q. A. Brackett, American lawyer and politician, 36th Governor of Massachusetts
• 1851 - Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval, French physician and physicist
• 1852 - Guido Banti, Italian physician and pathologist
• 1854 - Douglas Cameron, Canadian politician, 8th Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba
• 1855 - George Charles Haité, English painter and illustrator
• 1858 - Charlotte Scott, English mathematician
• 1859 - Smith Wigglesworth, English evangelist
• 1860 - Alicia Boole Stott, Irish-English mathematician and theorist
• 1867 - Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, designed the Price Tower and Fallingwater
• 1868 - Robert Robinson Taylor, American architect
• 1872 - Jan Frans De Boever, Belgian painter and illustrator
• 1875 - Ernst Enno, Estonian poet and author
• 1876 - Alexandre Tuffère, Greek-French triple jumper
• 1885 - Karl Genzken, German physician
• 1891 - William Funnell, Australian public servant
• 1893 - Ernst Marcus, German zoologist
• 1893 - Gaby Morlay, French actress
• 1894 - Erwin Schulhoff, Czech composer and pianist
• 1895 - Santiago Bernabéu Yeste, Spanish footballer and manager
• 1897 - John G. Bennett, English mathematician and technologist
• 1899 - Eugène Lapierre, Canadian organist, composer and arts administrator
• 1899 - Ernst-Robert Grawitz, German physician
• 1900 - Lena Baker, African-American maid executed for capital murder, later pardoned posthumously
• 1903 - Ralph Yarborough, American colonel and politician
• 1903 - Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-French author and poet
• 1910 - C. C. Beck, American illustrator
• 1910 - John W. Campbell, American journalist and author
• 1910 - Fernand Fonssagrives, French-American photographer, sculptor, and painter
• 1911 - Edmundo Rivero, Argentinian singer-songwriter
• 1912 - Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, British abstract painter
• 1912 - Maurice Bellemare, Canadian lawyer and politician
• 1912 - Harry Holtzman, American painter
• 1915 - Kayyar Kinhanna Rai, Indian journalist, author, and poet
• 1916 - Francis Crick, English biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1916 - Luigi Comencini, Italian director and screenwriter
• 1916 - Richard Pousette-Dart, American painter and educator
• 1917 - Byron White, American football player and judge
• 1918 - George Edward Hughes, Irish-New Zealand philosopher and logician
• 1918 - Robert Preston, American captain, actor, and singer
• 1918 - John D. Roberts, American chemist and academic
• 1918 - John H. Ross, American captain and pilot
• 1919 - John R. Deane, Jr., American general
• 1920 - Gwen Harwood, Australian poet and playwright
• 1921 - Gordon McLendon, American broadcaster and businessman
• 1921 - Olga Nardone, American actress
• 1921 - LeRoy Neiman, American soldier and painter
• 1921 - Alexis Smith, Canadian-born American actress and singer
• 1921 - Suharto, Indonesian soldier and politician, 2nd President of Indonesia
• 1924 - Billie Dawe, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
• 1924 - Kenneth Waltz, American political scientist and academic
• 1925 - Barbara Bush, American wife of George H. W. Bush, 41st First Lady of the United States
• 1927 - Jerry Stiller, American actor, comedian and producer
• 1929 - Nada Inada, Japanese psychiatrist and author
• 1930 - Robert Aumann, German-American mathematician and economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1930 - Marcel Léger, Canadian lawyer and politician
• 1931 - James Goldstone, American director and screenwriter
• 1931 - Dana Wynter, British actress
• 1932 - Ray Illingworth, English cricketer and sportscaster
• 1932 - Ian Kirkwood, Lord Kirkwood, Scottish lawyer and judge
• 1933 - Rommie Loudd, American football player and coach
• 1933 - Joan Rivers, American comedian, actress, and television host
• 1933 - Robert Stevens, English lawyer and academic
• 1934 - Millicent Martin, English actress and singer
• 1935 - Molade Okoya-Thomas, Nigerian businessman and philanthropist
• 1936 - James Darren, American actor
• 1936 - Kenneth G. Wilson, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1937 - Gillian Clarke, Welsh poet and playwright
• 1938 - Angelo Amato, Italian cardinal
• 1939 - Herb Adderley, American football player
• 1940 - Nancy Sinatra, American singer and actress
• 1941 - Robert Bradford, Northern Irish politician and activist
• 1941 - George Pell, Australian cardinal
• 1942 - Nikos Konstantopoulos, Greek politician, Greek Minister of the Interior
• 1942 - Doug Mountjoy, Welsh snooker player
• 1943 - Colin Baker, English actor
• 1943 - William Calley, American lieutenant
• 1943 - Willie Davenport, American colonel and hurdler
• 1943 - Peter Eggert, German footballer and manager
• 1943 - Pierre-André Fournier, Roman Catholic archbishop
• 1944 - Mark Belanger, American baseball player
• 1944 - Marc Ouellet, Canadian cardinal
• 1944 - Boz Scaggs, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1945 - Steven Fromholz, American singer-songwriter, producer, and poet
• 1945 - Derek Underwood, English cricketer
• 1946 - Graham Henry, New Zealand rugby player and coach
• 1947 - Annie Haslam, English singer-songwriter and painter
• 1947 - Sara Paretsky, American author
• 1947 - Eric F. Wieschaus, American biologist, geneticist, and academic Nobel Prize laureate
• 1949 - Emanuel Ax, Polish-American pianist and educator
• 1949 - Hildegard Falck, German runner
• 1950 - Kathy Baker, American actress
• 1950 - Sônia Braga, Brazilian actress and producer
• 1951 - Bonnie Tyler, Welsh singer-songwriter
• 1953 - Billy Hayes, English union leader
• 1953 - Sandy Nairne, English historian and curator
• 1953 - Ivo Sanader, Croatian historian and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Croatia
• 1953 - Olav Stedje, Norwegian singer-songwriter
• 1954 - Greg Ginn, American punk rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter
• 1954 - Kiril of Varna, Bulgarian metropolitan
• 1954 - Sergei Storchak, Ukrainian-Russian politician
• 1955 - Tim Berners-Lee, English computer scientist, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web
• 1955 - José Antonio Camacho, Spanish footballer and manager
• 1955 - Griffin Dunne, American actor, director, and producer
• 1956 - Udo Bullmann, German politician
• 1956 - Jonathan Potter, English psychologist, sociolinguist, and academic
• 1957 - Scott Adams, American author and illustrator
• 1957 - Don Robinson, American baseball player and politician
• 1957 - Sonja Vectomov, Czech/Finnish sculptor
• 1958 - Louise Richardson, Irish political scientist and academic
• 1958 - Keenen Ivory Wayans, American actor, director, and screenwriter
• 1959 - Mohsen Kadivar, Iranian philosopher
• 1960 - Mick Hucknall, English singer-songwriter
• 1960 - Terje Gewelt, Norwegian bassist
• 1960 - Thomas Steen, Swedish ice hockey player and coach
• 1961 - Mary Bonauto, American lawyer and gay rights activist
• 1963 - Karen Kingsbury, American journalist and author
• 1964 - Butch Reynolds, American runner and coach
• 1965 - Kevin Farley, American screenwriter
• 1967 - Russell E. Morris, Professor of Materials Chemistry at the University of St Andrews
• 1971 - Mark Feuerstein, American actor, director, and producer
• 1977 - Kanye West, American rapper, producer, director, and fashion designer
• 1981 - Rachel Held Evans, American Christian author
• 1982 - Nadia Petrova, Russian tennis player
• 1983 - Kim Clijsters, Belgian tennis player; winner of six Grand Slam tournament titles.
• 1984 - Javier Mascherano, Argentinian footballer
• 1989 - Timea Bacsinszky, Swiss tennis player
• 1997 - Jelena Ostapenko, Latvian tennis player

  Deaths

• 632 - Muhammad, the central figure of Islam, widely regarded as its founder
• 696 - Chlodulf, bishop of Metz
• 951 - Zhao Ying, Chinese chancellor
• 1042 - Harthacnut, English-Danish king
• 1154 - William of York, English archbishop and saint
• 1290 - Beatrice Portinari, object of Dante Alighieri's adoration
• 1376 - Edward, the Black Prince, English son of Edward III of England
• 1383 - Thomas de Ros, 4th Baron de Ros, English politician
• 1384 - Kan'ami, Japanese actor and playwright
• 1405 - Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York
• 1405 - Thomas de Mowbray, 4th Earl of Norfolk
• 1476 - George Neville, English archbishop and academic
• 1492 - Elizabeth Woodville, Queen consort of England
• 1501 - George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly, Earl of Huntly and Lord Chancellor of Scotland
• 1505 - Hongzhi Emperor of China
• 1600 - Edward Fortunatus, German nobleman
• 1611 - Jean Bertaut, French bishop and poet
• 1612 - Hans Leo Hassler, German organist and composer
• 1621 - Anne de Xainctonge, French saint, founded the Society of the Sisters of Saint Ursula of the Blessed Virgin
• 1628 - Rudolph Goclenius, German lexicographer and philosopher
• 1651 - Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese shōgun
• 1714 - Sophia of Hanover
• 1716 - Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine, German son of Landgravine Elisabeth Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt
• 1727 - August Hermann Francke, German-Lutheran pietist, philanthropist, and scholar
• 1768 - Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German archaeologist and scholar
• 1771 - George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
• 1795 - Louis XVII of France
• 1809 - Thomas Paine, English-American theorist and author
• 1831 - Sarah Siddons, Welsh actress
• 1835 - Gian Domenico Romagnosi, Italian economist and jurist
• 1845 - Andrew Jackson, American general, judge, and politician, 7th President of the United States
• 1846 - Rodolphe Töpffer, Swiss teacher, author, painter, cartoonist, and caricaturist
• 1857 - Douglas William Jerrold, English journalist and playwright
• 1874 - Cochise, American tribal chief
• 1876 - George Sand, French author and playwright
• 1885 - Ignace Bourget, Canadian bishop
• 1889 - Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet
• 1899 - Mary of the Divine Heart, German nun and saint
• 1924 - Andrew Irvine, English mountaineer and explorer
• 1924 - George Mallory, English lieutenant and mountaineer
• 1929 - Bliss Carman, Canadian-American poet and playwright
• 1945 - Karl Hanke, Polish-German soldier and politician
• 1951 - Eugène Fiset, Canadian physician, general, and politician, 18th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec
• 1951 - Oswald Pohl, German SS officer
• 1956 - Marie Laurencin, French painter and sculptor
• 1959 - Leslie Johnson, English race car driver
• 1965 - Edmondo Rossoni, Italian politician
• 1966 - Anton Melik, Slovenian geographer and academic
• 1968 - Elizabeth Enright, American author and illustrator
• 1968 - Ludovico Scarfiotti, Italian race car driver
• 1969 - Arunachalam Mahadeva, Sri Lankan politician and diplomat
• 1969 - Robert Taylor, American actor and singer
• 1970 - Abraham Maslow, American psychologist and academic
• 1971 - J.I. Rodale, American author and playwright
• 1976 - Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe, Norwegian zoologist and psychologist
• 1982 - Satchel Paige, American baseball player and coach
• 1984 - Gordon Jacob, English composer and academic
• 1987 - Alexander Iolas, Egyptian-American art collector
• 1997 - George Turner, Australian author and critic
• 1997 - Karen Wetterhahn, American chemist and academic
• 1998 - Sani Abacha, Nigerian general and politician, 10th President of Nigeria
• 1998 - Maria Reiche, German mathematician and archaeologist
• 2000 - Frédéric Dard, French author and screenwriter
• 2000 - Jeff MacNelly, American cartoonist
• 2001 - Alex de Renzy, American director and producer
• 2004 - Charles Hyder, American astrophysicist and academic
• 2004 - Mack Jones, American baseball player
• 2006 - Jaxon, American illustrator and publisher, co-founded Rip Off Press
• 2006 - Matta El Meskeen, Egyptian monk, theologian, and author
• 2008 - Šaban Bajramović, Serbian singer-songwriter
• 2009 - Omar Bongo, Gabonese captain and politician, President of Gabon
• 2010 - Crispian St. Peters, English singer-songwriter
• 2012 - Pete Brennan, American basketball player
• 2012 - Charles E. M. Pearce, New Zealand-Australian mathematician and academic
• 2012 - Ghassan Tueni, Lebanese journalist, academic, and politician
• 2013 - Paul Cellucci, American soldier and politician, 69th Governor of Massachusetts
• 2013 - Yoram Kaniuk, Israeli painter, journalist, and critic
• 2013 - Taufiq Kiemas, Indonesian politician, 5th First Spouse of Indonesia
• 2014 - Alexander Imich, Polish-American chemist, parapsychologist, and academic
• 2014 - Yoshihito, Prince Katsura of Japan
• 2015 - Chea Sim, Cambodian commander and politician
• 2017 - Sam Panopoulos, Greek cook
• 2019 - Andre Matos, Brazilian heavy metal musician

  Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day:
• * Blessed Mariam Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan
• * Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart
• * Chlodulf of Metz
• * Jacques Berthieu, S.J.
• * Jadwiga of Poland
• * Medard
• * Melania the Elder
• * Roland Allen
• * Thomas Ken
• * William of York
• * June 8
• Earliest day on which Queen's Birthday can fall, while June 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Monday in June.
• Bounty Day
• Caribbean American HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
• Engineer's Day
• Pranav Sivakumar Day
• Primož Trubar Day
• World Brain Tumor Day
• World Oceans Day