8 August 2024 (MIA)

 

North Macedonia

 

1943 – Esma Redzhepova, Macedonian singer and humanist is born. Dubbed the queen of Roma music, Redzhepova dedicated her life to humanity and kindness. She died in Skopje on Dec. 11, 2016.

 

2001 – Prilep convoy made up of five vehicles and 120 reservists was ambushed near Karpalak by Albanian terrorists. Defending the independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state, Nane Naumovski, Sasho Kitanoski, Branko Sekuloski, Goran Minoski, Marko Despotoski, Erdovan Shabanoski, Ljube Grujoski, Darko Veljanoski, Pece Sekuloski and Vebi Rusidoski, all ARM reservists, were killed in the attack.

 

World

 

1220 – Sweden is defeated by Estonian tribes in the Battle of Lihula.

 

1503 – King James IV of Scotland marries Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh, Scotland.

 

1576 – The cornerstone for Tycho Brahe’s Uraniborg observatory is laid on Ven, Denmark.

 

1585 – John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in search of the Northwest Passage.

 

1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines: The naval engagement ends, ending the Spanish Armada’s attempt to invade England.

 

1605 – The city of Oulu, Finland, is founded by Charles IX of Sweden.

 

1647 – The Irish Confederate Wars and Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Battle of Dungan’s Hill: English Parliamentary forces defeat Irish forces.

 

1709 – Bartolomeu de Gusmão demonstrates the lifting power of hot air in an audience before the King of Portugal in Lisbon, Portugal.

 

1786 – Mont Blanc on the French – Italian border is climbed for the first time by Jacques Balmat and Dr. Michel-Gabriel Paccard.

 

1793 – The insurrection of Lyon occurs during the French Revolution.

 

1794 – Joseph Whidbey leads an expedition to search for the Northwest Passage near Juneau, Alaska.

 

1876 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph.

 

1885 – More than 1.5 million people attend the funeral of Ulysses S. Grant in New York City.

 

1908 – Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It is the Wright Brothers’ first public flight.

 

1918 – World War I: The Battle of Amiens begins a string of almost continuous victories with a push through the German front lines (Hundred Days Offensive).

 

1927 – The predecessor to the Philippine Stock Exchange opens.

 

1929 – The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight.

 

1940 – The “Aufbau Ost” directive is signed by Wilhelm Keitel.

 

1942 – Quit India Movement is launched in India against the British rule in response to Mohandas Gandhi’s call for swaraj or complete independence.

 

1946 – First flight of the Convair B-36, the world’s first mass-produced nuclear weapon delivery vehicle, the heaviest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft, with the longest wingspan of any military aircraft, and the first bomber with intercontinental range.

 

1960 – South Kasai secedes from the Congo.

 

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

 

1963 – The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), the current ruling party of Zimbabwe, is formed by a split from the Zimbabwe African People’s Union.

 

1967 – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is founded by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

 

1969 – At a zebra crossing in London, photographer Iain Macmillan takes the photo that becomes the cover of the Beatles album Abbey Road.

 

1973 – Kim Dae-jung, a South Korean politician and later president of South Korea, is kidnapped.

 

1974 – President Richard Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announces his resignation from the office of the President of the United States effective noon the next day.

 

1980 – The Central Hotel Fire occurs in Bundoran, Ireland.

 

1988 – The “8888 Uprising” occurs in Burma.

 

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

 

1990 – Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is annexed to Iraq. This would lead to the Gulf War shortly afterward.

 

1991 – The Warsaw radio mast, at one time the tallest construction ever built, collapses.

 

2000 – Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor and 30 years after its discovery by undersea explorer E. Lee Spence.

 

2008 – A EuroCity express train en route from Kraków, Poland to Prague, Czech Republic strikes a part of a motorway bridge that had fallen onto the railroad track near Studénka railway station in the Czech Republic and derails, killing eight people and injuring 64 others.

 

2008 – The opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics take place in Beijing.

 

2010 – 2010 China floods: A mudslide in Zhugqu County, Gansu, China, kills more than 1,400 people.

 

2018 – US State Department imposes new sanctions on Russia for nerve attack in Britain.

 

2019 – Nuclear accident at Russian nuclear-weapon testing site at closed city Sarov kills five scientists in mysterious circumstances.