On this day: June 8

Events on June 8

• 1772 Alexander Fordyce flees to France to avoid debt repayment, triggering the credit crisis of 1772 in the British Empire and the Dutch Republic. Wikipedia
• 1783 Laki, a volcano in Iceland, begins an eight-month eruption which kills over 9,000 people and starts a seven-year famine. Wikipedia
• 1789 James Madison introduces twelve proposed amendments to the United States Constitution in Congress. Wikipedia
• 1794 Maximilien Robespierre inaugurates the French Revolution's new state religion, the Cult of the Supreme Being, with large organized festivals all across France. Wikipedia
• 1856 A group of 194 Pitcairn Islanders, descendants of the mutineers of HMS Bounty, arrives at Norfolk Island, commencing the Third Settlement of the Island. Wikipedia
• 1861 American Civil War: Tennessee secedes from the Union. Wikipedia
• 1862 American Civil War: The Confederate Army won a resounding victory at the Battle of Cross Keys, one of the two decisive battles in Jackson's Valley campaign. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1928 Second Northern Expedition: The National Revolutionary Army captures Beijing, whose name is changed to Beiping ("Northern Peace"). Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: The completion of Operation Alphabet, the evacuation of Allied forces from Narvik at the end of the Norwegian campaign. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: The Allies commenced the Syria–Lebanon campaign against Vichy French possessions in the Levant. Wikipedia
• 1949 George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is published in the United States Wikipedia
• 1949 Nineteen Eighty-Four, a dystopian political novel by the English writer George Orwell about life under a fictional totalitarian government, was published. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1968 James Earl Ray, the man who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested at London Heathrow Airport. Wikipedia
• 1972 Vietnam War: Associated Press photographer Nick Ut took a Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph of a naked nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc fleeing after being burned by napalm. Wikipedia
• 1972 Vietnam War: Nine-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc is burned by napalm, an event captured in a photograph moments later while the young girl is seen running naked down a road, in what would become an iconic, Pulitzer Prize-winning photo. Wikipedia
• 1982 Falklands War: The Argentine Air Force attacked British transport ships (damaged ship pictured) while unloading supplies off Bluff Cove in the Falkland Islands, killing 56 British servicemen and wounding 150 others. Wikipedia
• 1984 Homosexuality is decriminalized in the Australian state of New South Wales. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1992 The first World Oceans Day is celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Wikipedia
• 1995 Downed U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines in Bosnia. Wikipedia
• 2001 Mamoru Takuma kills eight and injures 15 in a mass stabbing at an elementary school in the Osaka Prefecture of Japan. Wikipedia
• 2007 A major storm caused the bulk carrier Pasha Bulker to run aground in New South Wales, Australia. Wikipedia
• 2007 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-117 carrying two truss segments and solar arrays to the International Space Station. Wikipedia
• 2023 Former US President Donald Trump is indicted on federal charges of misusing classified information. Wikipedia

Born on June 8

• 1625 Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Italian-French mathematician and astronomer (died 1712) Wikipedia
• 1671 Tomaso Albinoni, Italian violinist and composer (died 1751) Wikipedia
• 1810 Robert Schumann, German composer and critic (died 1856) Wikipedia
• 1867 Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, designed the Price Tower and Fallingwater (died 1959) Wikipedia
• 1895 Santiago Bernabéu, Spanish footballer and manager (died 1978) Wikipedia
• 1899 Ernst-Robert Grawitz, German physician and SS officer, facilitator of medical experiments on concentration camp inmates (died 1945) Wikipedia
• 1903 Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-French author and poet (died 1987) Wikipedia
• 1916 Francis Crick, English biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2004) Wikipedia
• 1921 Suharto, Indonesian soldier and politician, 2nd President of Indonesia (died 2008) Wikipedia
• 1925 Barbara Bush, American wife of George H. W. Bush, 41st First Lady of the United States (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1930 Robert Aumann, German-American mathematician and economist, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1933 Joan Rivers, American comedian, actress, and television host (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1936 Kenneth G. Wilson, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013) Wikipedia
• 1940 Nancy Sinatra, American singer and actress Wikipedia
• 1947 Eric F. Wieschaus, American biologist, geneticist, and academic Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1951 Bonnie Tyler, Welsh singer-songwriter (died 2026) Wikipedia
• 1953 Ivo Sanader, Croatian historian and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Croatia Wikipedia
• 1955 Tim Berners-Lee, English computer scientist, invented the World Wide Web Wikipedia
• 1976 Lindsay Davenport, American tennis player Wikipedia
• 1977 Kanye West, American rapper, producer, director, and fashion designer Wikipedia
• 1983 Kim Clijsters, Belgian tennis player; winner of six Grand Slam tournament titles. Wikipedia
• 1984 Javier Mascherano, Argentine footballer and manager Wikipedia

Died on June 8

• 632 Muhammad, the central figure of Islam. (born 570/571) Wikipedia
• 1042 Harthacnut, English-Danish king (born 1018) Wikipedia
• 1290 Beatrice Portinari, object of Dante Alighieri's adoration (born 1266) Wikipedia
• 1376 Edward, the Black Prince, English son of Edward III of England (born 1330) Wikipedia
• 1714 Sophia of Hanover, German nobility, ancestress of all British Monarchs since 1714 (born 1630) Wikipedia
• 1768 Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German archaeologist and scholar (born 1717) Wikipedia
• 1795 Louis XVII of France (born 1785) Wikipedia
• 1809 Thomas Paine, English-American theorist and author (born 1737) Wikipedia
• 1845 Andrew Jackson, American general, judge, and politician, 7th President of the United States (born 1767) Wikipedia
• 1876 George Sand, French author and playwright (born 1804) Wikipedia
• 1970 Abraham Maslow, American psychologist and academic (born 1908) Wikipedia
• 1998 Sani Abacha, Nigerian general and politician, 10th President of Nigeria (born 1943) Wikipedia
• 2009 Omar Bongo, Gabonese captain and politician, President of Gabon (born 1935) Wikipedia
• 2018 Anthony Bourdain, American chef and travel documentarian (born 1956) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Chlodulf of Metz Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Jacques Berthieu, S.J. Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Jadwiga (Hedwig) of Poland Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Mariam Thresia Chiramel Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart (Droste zu Vischering) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Medard Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Melania the Elder Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Roland Allen (Episcopal Church (USA)) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Thomas Ken (Church of England) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: William of York Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: June 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• First Indochina War day (France) Wikipedia
• Bounty Day (Norfolk Island) Wikipedia
• Caribbean American HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Wikipedia
• Engineer's Day (Peru) Wikipedia
• Primož Trubar Day (Slovenia) Wikipedia
• World Brain Tumor Day Wikipedia
• World Oceans Day Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “June 8” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.