Here is a list of things which happened on the 8th of August over the years:
John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in search of the Northwest Passage. (1585)
Joseph Whidbey and George Vancouver lead an expedition to search for the Northwest Passage near Juneau, Alaska. (1794)
Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena, in the South Atlantic, to spend the remainder of his days in exile. (1815)
Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph. (1876)
Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It is the Wright Brothers’ first public flight. (1908)
The US Army installs the first tricycle landing gear on the Army’s Wright Flyer. (1910)
The millionth patent is filed in the United States Patent Office by Francis Holton for a tubeless vehicle tire. (1911)
Public Law 62-5 sets the number of representatives in the United States House of Representatives at 435. The law would come into effect in 1913. (1911)
The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight. (1929)
Workers go on strike at the Hoover dam. (1931)
The building of Mauthausen concentration camp begins. (1938)
World War II: in Washington, DC, six German would-be saboteurs (Operation Pastorius) are executed. (1942)
World War II: the Soviet Union declares war on Japan and begins the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation. (1945)
The United Nations Charter is signed by the United States, which becomes the third nation to join. (1945)
Britain’s “Great Train Robbery” took place as thieves made off with 2.6 million pounds in banknotes. (1963)
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is founded by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. (1967)
U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew appears on television to denounce accusations he had taken kickbacks while governor of Maryland. (1973)
Kim Dae-Jung, a South Korean politician and later president of South Korea, is kidnapped. (1973)
President Richard Nixon announced he would resign following damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal. (1974)
The United States launched Pioneer Venus II, which carried scientific probes to study the atmosphere of Venus. (1978)
U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar announced a cease-fire between Iran and Iraq. (1988)
Iran resumed work at a uranium conversion facility after suspending activities for nine months to avoid U.N. sanctions. (2005)
An EF2 tornado touches down in Kings County and Richmond County, New York State, the most powerful tornado in New York to date and the first in Brooklyn since 1889. (2007)
Sonia Sotomayor is sworn in as the first Latina justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (2009)