August 8

August 8 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221st in leap years), with 145 days remaining.

Events

1585 - John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in quest for the North West Passage.

1588 - Battle of Gravelines ends - Defeated by the English during an invasion attempt, the surviving parts of the Spanish Armada begin to sail home. Only 67 of the original 130 ships will later reach Spain and most of these will be in poor condition.

1647 - Battle of Dangan Hill - Irish forces are defeated by British Parliamentary forces.

1786 - Mont Blanc is climbed for the first time by Dr. Michael-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat.

1844 - During a meeting held in Nauvoo, the Quorum of Twelve, headed by Brigham Young, is created as the leading body of the Mormon Church.

1863 - American Civil War: Following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (Davis will refuse the request upon receipt).

1876 - Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph.

1911 - Public Law 62-5 sets the number of representatives in the United States House of Representatives at 435. The law will take effect in 1913.

1918 - World War I: Battle of Amiens - Canadian troops, backed by Australians, begin a string of almost continuous victories with a push through the German front lines. German General Erich Ludendorff will later call this the "black day of the German army."

1929 - The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight (will end on August 29).

1938 - The Mauthausen concentration camp opens.

1942 - World War II: In Washington, DC, six German would-be saboteurs are executed (two others cooperate and receive life imprisonment instead).

1942- Quit India resolution was passed by the Bombay session of the AICC, which leads to the start of a historical civil disobedience movement across India

1945 - World War II - The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invades Manchuria with more than 1 million troops. This action prompts Emperor Hirohito to plead with the war council to reconsider surrender.

1945 - The United Nations Charter is ratified by the United States, and that nation becomes the first to join the new international organization.

1949 - Bhutan becomes independent

1962 - Elizabeth Ann Duncan becomes the last woman to be executed in the United States prior to the reintroduction of capital punishment in 1977. She and the two men she hired to murder her pregnant daughter-in-law in 1958 die in San Quentin's gas chamber.

1963 - Great Train Robbery: In England, a gang of 15 train robbers steal 2.6 million pounds in bank notes.

1967 - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is founded.

1974 - Watergate scandal: US President Richard Nixon announces his resignation (effective the next day, August 9).

1978 - Odie makes his first appearance in the cartoon strip Garfield

1988 - General Ne Win, ruler of Burma since 1962, resigned suddenly.

1989 - STS-28: The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret five-day military mission.

1991 - Collapse of Warsaw radio mast, the tallest construction ever built

2000 - Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.

2000 - 'Universal 2000 Talent and Beauty Girl Contest' occurred. As a result, S.H.E was formed.