2008 facts for kids

2023 Calendar

2008 is the 274th day of the year (275th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 91 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events
Births
Deaths
Holidays and observances
Images for kids
See also

Events

Up to 1900

1132 – Battle of Nocera between Ranulf II of Alife and Roger II of Sicily.
1148 – King Louis VII of France lays siege to Damascus during the Second Crusade.
1245 – Pope Innocent IV forces King Sancho II of Portugal out, and replaces him with Afonso III of Portugal.
1411 – The Battle of Harlaw, one of the bloodiest in Scotland, takes place.
1487 – Citizens of Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, strike against a ban on foreign beer.
1534 – Jacques Cartier plants a cross on the Gaspe peninsula in present-day Quebec, taking possession of the territory and naming it after Francis I of France.
1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is deposed and replaced by her 1-year-old son King King James VI.
1701 – Detroit, Michigan is founded.
1783 – The Kingdom of Georgia and the Russian Empire sign the Treaty of Georgievsk.
1814 – War of 1812: General Phineas Riall advances toward Niagara to halt Jacob Brown's American invaders.
1823 – Chile abolishes Slavery.
1823 – The Naval Battle of Lake Maracaibo takes place.
1832 – Benjamin Bonneville leads the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains by using Wyoming's South Pass.
1847 – After 17 months of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Kernstown – Confederate General Jubal Early defeats Union troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep Yankees out of the Shenandoah Valley.
1866 – Reconstruction: Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War.

1901 – 1950

1901 – O. Henry is released from prison in Austin, Texas after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.
1910 – James MacGillivray publishes the first account of Paul Bunyan in the Detroit News.
1911 – Hiram Bingham III re-discovers Machu Picchu "the Lost City of the Incas".
1915 – Passenger ship Eastland capsizes in central Chicago, with the loss of 845 lives.
1922 – The draft of the British Mandate for Palestine is officially confirmed the Council of the League of Nations.
1923 – The Treaty of Lausanne, settling the boundaries of modern Turkey, is signed in Switzerland by Greece, Bulgaria and other countries that fought in World War I.
1924 – Archaeologist Themistoklis Sofoulis becomes Prime Minister of Greece.
1927 – The Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled at Ypres.
1929 – The Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, goes into effect (it was first signed in Paris on August 27, 1928 by most leading world powers).
1931 – A fire at a home for aged people in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania kills 48 people.
1935 – The dust bowl heat wave reaches its peak, sending temperatures to 109 °F (44 °C) in Chicago and 104 °F (40 °C) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1938 – The first successful climb of the Eiger North Face is made.
1943 – World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, those of the Americans by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.
1950 – Bumper 8 becomes the first aircraft to be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1951 – 2000

1956 – At New York City's Copacabana Club, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis perform their last comedy show together which started on July 25, 1946, almost exactly ten years earlier.
1959 – At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, US vice-president Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev have a "kitchen debate."
1965 – Vietnam War: Four F-4C Phantoms escorting a bombing raid at Kang Chi are the targets of anti-aircraft missiles in the first such attack against American planes in the war. One is shot down and the other three sustain damage.
1966 – Michael Petkey makes the first BASE jump from El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, along with Brian Schubert. They both end up with broken bones.
1967 – During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declares to a crowd of over 100,000 in Montreal: Vive le Québec libre! (Long live free Quebec!). The statement, interpreted as support for Quebec independence, delighted many Quebecers but angered the Canadian government and many English Canadians.
1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
1974 – Watergate scandal: The United States Supreme Court unanimously rule that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.
1974 – Konstantinos Karamanlis arrives in Greece, following the collapse of the military junta.
1977 – End of the four-day long Libyan-Egyptian War.
1983 – George Brett, batting for the Kansas City Royals against the New York Yankees, has a game-winning home run nullified in the "Pine Tar Incident".
1990 – Iraqi forces start massing on the Kuwaiti border, preparing for the invasion on August 2.
1998 – Russel Eugene Weston Jr. bursts into the United States Capitol and opens fire killing two police officers. He is later ruled to be incompetent to stand trial.

From 2001

2001 – Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the last Tsar of Bulgaria when he was a child, is sworn in as Prime Minister of Bulgaria, and became the only monarch in history to regain political power through democratic election to a different office. He becomes Prime Minister under the name Simeon Saksburggotsky.
2001 – The Taiwan Solidarity Union is established.
2002 – James Traficant is expelled from the United States House of Representatives on a vote of 420 to 1.
2002 – Alfred Moisiu becomes President of Albania.
2005 – Lance Armstrong wins the Tour de France for seventh consecutive year. After being revealed to have taken illegal drugs to improve his performance during his career, all of his Tour de France titles are removed from the record in 2012.
2010 – Love Parade disaster: At a stampede at a music festival in Duisburg, Germany, 19 people are crushed to death. 2 later die in hospital, as a result of their injuries.
2010 – Over 80,000 people record their lives for the YouTube documentary A Life in a Day.
2012 – President of Ghana John Atta Mills dies aged 68. His Vice President John Dramani Mahama is sworn in as President later the same day.
2013 – A passenger train carrying over 218 people crashes just outside Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, northwest Spain, killing at least 80 people and injuring at least 130. It was travelling from Madrid to Ferrol on the Galician coast when it crashed. It occurred a day before the regional July 25 holiday in Galicia.
2014 – Air Algerie Flight 5017 crashes in Mali on a flight between Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and Algiers, Algeria.
2014 – Reuven Rivlin becomes the 10th President of Israel, succeeding Shimon Peres.
2015 – Barack Obama makes the first visit by a US President to Kenya.
2016 – The International Olympic Committee decides against banning the entire Russian team from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, after its track-and-field athletes had already been banned following a doping scandal.

Births

Up to 1900

923 – Suzaku, Emperor of Japan (d. 952)
1468 – Catherine of Saxony, Archduchess of Austria (d. 1524)
1574 – Thomas Platter the Younger, Swiss physician (d. 1629)
1720 – Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, Prussian princess and Queen of Sweden (d. 1782)
1725 – John Newton, cleric and hymnist (d. 1807)
1737 – Alexander Dalrymple, Scottish geographer (d. 1808)
1740 – Juan Ignacio Molina, Chilean naturalist (d. 1829)
1757 – Vladimir Borovikovski, Russian painter (d. 1825)
1759 – King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia (d. 1824)
1783 – Simón Bolívar, South American liberator (d. 1830)
1783 – Frédéric de Lafresnaye, French ornithologist (d. 1861)
1786 – Joseph Nicollet, mathematician and explorer (d. 1843)
1798 – John Adams Dix, American general, senator and Governor of New York (d. 1879)
1802 – Alexandre Dumas, père, French writer (d. 1870)
1803 – Adolphe Charles Adam, French composer (d. 1956)
1817 – Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (d. 1905)
1823 – Arthur I. Boreman, Governor of West Virginia (d. 1896)
1826 – Ivan Bloch, Polish banker (d. 1902)
1828 – Nikolay Chernyshevsky, Russian writer (d. 1889)
1832 – John J. Bagley, 16th Governor of Michigan (d. 1881)
1841 – Francisco da Veiga Beirao, Portuguese politician (d. 1916)
1847 – Margarete Steiff, German seamstress, known for Steiff stuffed toys (d. 1909)
1851 – Friedrich Schottky, German mathematician (d. 1935)
1853 – William Gillette, actor and writer (d. 1937)
1857 – Henrik Pontoppidan, Danish writer (d. 1943)
1857 – Juan Vicente Gomez, Venezuelan officer, politician and dictator (d. 1935)
1858 – Wolfgang Kapp, Prussian civil servant and journalist (d. 1922)
1860 – Alphonse Mucha, Czech artist (d. 1939)
1860 – Princess Charlotte of Prussia (d. 1919)
1864 – Frank Wedekind, German writer (d. 1918)
1867 – Vicente Acosta, El Salvadorean poet (d. 1908)
1878 – Lord Dunsany, writer (d. 1957)
1880 – Ernest Bloch, Swiss composer (d. 1959)
1883 – Katia Mann, wife of Thomas Mann (d. 1980)
1884 – Maria Caserini, Italian actress (d. 1969)
1886 – Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Japanese writer (d. 1965)
1888 – Arthur Richardson, Australian cricketer and coach (d. 1973)
1895 – Robert Graves, English writer (d. 1985)
1896 – Hermann Kasack, writer (d. 1966)
1897 – Amelia Earhart, American aviator (d. 1937) (disappeared)
1899 – Chief Dan George, Native American actor (d. 1981)
1899 – Bernice Madigan, American supercentenarian (d. 2015)
1900 – Zelda Fitzgerald, American artist (d. 1948)

1901 – 1950

1908 – Cootie Williams, trumpeter (d. 1985)
1914 – Frances Oldham Kelsey, Canadian physician (d. 2015)
1914 – Edwin Mirvish, retailer and impresario (d. 2007)
1916 – John D. MacDonald, novelist (d. 1986)
1917 – Robert Farnon, conductor, composer and arranger (d. 2005)
1918 – Ruggiero Ricci, American violinist (d. 2012)
1920 – Bella Abzug, American politician and activist (d. 1998)
1920 – Constance Dowling, American actress (d. 1969)
1921 – Giuseppe Di Stefano, Italian tenor (d. 2008)
1923 – Warren E. Hearnes, 46th Governor of Missouri (d. 2009)
1926 – Hans Günter Winkler, German equestrian jumper
1929 – Peter Yates, British movie director (d. 2011)
1930 – Keshubhai Patel, Indian politician, former Chief Minister of Gujarat
1931 – Ermanno Olmi, Italian director
1933 – John Aniston, Greek-American actor
1933 – Doug Sanders, American golfer
1934 – Rudy Collins, American drummer (Dizzy Gillespie Quintet)
1935 – Pat Oliphant, Australian political cartoonist
1936 – Ruth Buzzi, comedienne
1936 – Dan Inosanto, American martial artist and actor
1937 – Manoj Kumar, Indian actor, director, producer and screenwriter
1939 – Walt Bellamy, American basketball player (d. 2013)
1940 – Stanley Hauerwas, Christian theologian
1942 – Chris Sarandon, American actor
1944 – Jan-Carl Raspe, German Red Army Faction militant (d. 1977)
1945 – Azim Premji, Indian businessman
1947 – Robert Hays, actor
1947 – Peter Serkin, American pianist
1949 – Michael Richards, comedian
1949 – Joan Enric Vives Sicilia, Catalan bishop and co-Prince of Andorra

1951 – 1975

1951 – Lynda Carter, American actress
1951 – Chris Smith, British politician
1952 – Gus Van Sant, American movie director
1953 – Claire McCaskill, American politician, United States Senator for Missouri
1956 – Charlie Crist, American politician, 44th Governor of Florida, 2007 – 2011
1956 – Pat Finn, American game show host and producer
1957 – Pam Tillis, American country music singer
1958 – Konrad Graber, Swiss Federal Councillor
1960 – Catherine Destivelle, Algerian-born French rock climber and mountaineer
1963 – Karl Malone, American basketball player
1964 – Pedro Passos Coelho, Prime Minister of Portugal
1964 – Barry Bonds, American Major League Baseball player
1964 – Banana Yoshimoto, Japanese writer
1965 – Andrew Gaze, Australian basketball player and broadcaster
1965 – Kadeem Hardison, actor
1966 – Martin Keown, English footballer
1966 – Hilarion, Russian writer and theologian
1968 – Kristin Chenoweth, American actress and singer
1968 – Laura Leighton, American actress
1969 – Rick Fox, American basketball player
1969 – Jennifer Lopez, American actress, dancer, fashion designer and singer
1970 – Julia Bradbury, English journalist and presenter
1971 – Dino Baggio, Italian footballer
1971 – John Partridge, English actor, singer and dancer
1975 – Tracey Crouch, English politician

From 1976

1977 – Danny Dyer, British actor
1977 – Mehdi Mahdavikia, Iranian footballer
1978 – Andy Irons, American surfer (d. 2010)
1979 – Rose Byrne, Australian actress
1979 – Ryan Humphrey, American basketball player
1981 – Summer Glau, American actress
1982 – Elisabeth Moss, American actress
1982 – Anna Paquin, Canadian-born actress
1983 – Daniele De Rossi, Italian footballer
1985 – Lukas Rosol, Czech tennis player
1986 – Andrei Lutai, Russian figure skater
1986 – Vugar Gashimov, Azerbaijani chess player (d. 2014)
1986 – Natalie Tran, Australian actress and writer
1987 – Mara Wilson, American actress
1987 – Jovan Belcher, American football player (d. 2012)
1989 – Kim Tae-Hwan, South Korean footballer
1989 – Felix Loch, German luger
1990 – Daveigh Chase, American actress
1990 – Jay McGuiness, English singer (The Wanted)
1991 – Lin Yue, Chinese diver
1991 – Emily Bett Rickards, Canadian actress
1992 – Mitch Grassi, American singer
1992 – Mikael Kingsbury, Canadian skier
1998 – Bindi Irwin, daughter of Steve Irwin

Deaths

Up to 1950

811 – Gao Yang, Chinese chancellor (b. 740)
1115 – Matilda, Countess of Tuscany (b. 1046)
1129 – Shirakawa, Emperor of Japan (b. 1053)
1568 – Carlos, Prince of Asturias, son of Philip II of Spain (b. 1545)
1594 – John Boste, English martyr and saint (b. 1544)
1739 – Benedetto Marcello, Italian composer (b. 1686)
1768 – Nathaniel Lardner, English theologian (b. 1684)
1862 – Martin Van Buren, 8th President of the United States (b. 1782)
1883 – Matthew Webb, British swimmer (b. 1848)
1891 – Hermann Raster, German-American journalist and politician (b. 1827)
1906 – Ferdinand von Saar, Austrian writer, dramatist and poet (b. 1833)
1908 – Vicente Acosta, El Salvadorean poet (b. 1867)
1910 – Arkhip Kuindzhi, Russian painter (b. 1841)
1920 – Ludwig Ganghofer, German writer (b. 1855)
1922 – Saint George Ashe, British rower (b. 1871)
1927 – Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Japanese writer (b. 1892)

1951 – 2000

1957 – Sacha Guitry, French actor and director (b. 1885)
1960 – Hans Albers, German actor and singer (b. 1891)
1962 – Wilfrid Noyce, English mountaineer (b. 1917)
1965 – Constance Bennett, American actress (b. 1904)
1969 – Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (b. 1904)
1970 – Beatrice Roberts, American actress (b. 1901)
1973 – Konstantinos Dovas, Greek general and Prime Minister (b. 1898)
1974 – James Chadwick, British physicist (b. 1891)
1976 – Julius Döpfner, German cardinal (b. 1913)
1980 – Peter Sellers, British actor (b. 1925)
1980 – Uttam Kumar, Indian actor, director and producer (b. 1926)
1985 – Ezechiele Ramini, Italian missionary and martyr (b. 1953)
1986 – Fritz Albert Lipmann, American biochemist (b. 1899)
1991 – Isaac Bashevis Singer, writer, received Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978 (b. 1902)
1992 – Arletty, French singer and actress (b. 1898)
1995 – Marjorie Cameron, American writer, painter, actress and occultist (b. 1922)
1996 – Mohammed Farah Aidid, Somali warlord
1997 – William J. Brennan, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (b. 1906)
1997 – Saw Maung, Burmese dictator (b. 1928)