August 9 is the 221st day of the year (222nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 144 days remaining until the end of the year.
Up to 1900
- 48 BC – Caesar's Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus - Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus. Pompey flees to Egypt.
- 378 – Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople - A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths. Valens is killed, along with over half of his army.
- 681 – Bulgaria is founded on the south bank of the Danube after defeating the Byzantine armies of Emperor Constantine IV south of the Danube delta.
- 1173 – Construction of the Leaning Tower of Pisa begins.
- 1329 – Quilon, the first Indian Christian Diocese, is created by Pope John XXII. French-born Jordanus becomes its first bishop.
- 1483 – The Sistine Chapel opens.
- 1810 – Napoleon Bonaparte annexes the departments of the kingdom of Westphalia into the French Empire.
- 1842 – The Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed. It confirms where the US-Canada border runs to the east of the Rocky Mountains.
- 1854 – Henry David Thoreau publishes his work Walden.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain - Confederate general Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union general John Pope.
- 1890 – The United Kingdom gives the North Sea island of Heligoland over to German control.
- 1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for the two-way telegraph.
- 1896 – German aviator Otto Lilienthal crashes during a flying attempt, dying the next day.
From 1901
- 1902 – Edward VII of the United Kingdom is crowned king, while his consort, Alexandra of Denmark is crowned queen of the United Kingdom.
- 1907 – The first Boy Scout camp ends on Brownsea Island, Dorset, England, UK, having been led by Robert Baden-Powell.
- 1910 – Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition leaves Kristiania, present-day Oslo. The public does not know that it is destined for the South Pole.
- 1912 – An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 in Persia kills around 5,500 people.
- 1914 – World War I: Start of the Battle of Mulhouse, part of an eventually unsuccessful French attempt to retake Alsace from Germany.
- 1925 – A train robbery occurs in Lucknow, India.
- 1936 – Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal of the 1936 Summer Olympics.
- 1942 – Mahatma Gandhi is arrested by British colonial police in Bombay, starting the Quit India Movement for Indian independence.
- 1942 – World War II: Battle of Savo Island - Allied forces are surprised and defeated by the Japanese Imperial Navy cruise force in initial stages of the Battle of Guadalcanal.
- 1944 – The US Forest Service and Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey the Bear for the first time.
- 1945 – World War II: The United States drops an atomic bomb, "Fat Man" on the city of Nagasaki.
- 1965 – Singapore gains independence from Malaysia.
- 1965 – A fire at a Titan missile base near Searcy, Arkansas kills 53 construction workers.
- 1968 – British Eagle Flight 802 crashes near Langenbruck, north of Munich, Bavaria, Germany, killing all 48 people on board.
- 1969 – Members of Charles Manson's gang murder Sharon Tate, her unborn son, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Jay Sebring, and Steven Parent.
- 1970 – A Lockheed L-188 Electra plane crashes near Cuzco, Peru, killing 99 of the 100 people on board, as well as 2 people on the ground.
- 1971 – The Troubles: British security forces in Northern Ireland begin Operation Demetrius. In the violence that followed, hundreds are arrested or interred, thousands are made homeless, and 20 people are killed.
- 1974 – Gerald Ford becomes President of the United States after the resignation of Richard Nixon over the Watergate scandal.
- 1974 – The oil tanker Metula runs aground off Tierra del Fuego.
- 1988 – Wayne Gretzky, star of ice hockey, is transferred from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the most controversial transactions in ice hockey history.
- 1990 – The United Nations Security Council declares Iraq's occupation of Kuwait null and void.
- 1992 – The 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona end.
- 1993 – Albert II of Belgium is proclaimed King.
- 1993 – The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses a 38-year hold on national leadership.
- 1999 – Boris Yeltsin names Vladimir Putin as Prime Minister of Russia.
- 1999 – Charles Kennedy is elected leader of the British Liberal Democrats.
- 2001 – 15 people are killed and 132 are injured in a suicide bombing in Downtown Jerusalem.
- 2005 – Space Shuttle Discovery lands safely back on Earth, after a two-week space mission, following spacewalks to carry out repairs on the Shuttle.
- 2012 – 2012 Summer Olympics: Nicola Adams becomes the first Olympic gold medalist in women's boxing. On the same day, Kenya's David Rudisha sets a new record in the men's 800 meters.
- 2018 – A Saudi airstrike in Dahyan, Yemen, kills at least 51 people, including 29 children.
Up to 1800
- 1201 – Arnold Fitz Thedmar, English chronicler (d. 1274)
- 1537 – Francesco Barozzi, Italian mathematician, astronomer and humanist (d. 1604)
- 1544 – Bogislaw III, Duke of Pomerania (d. 1606)
- 1594 – Izaak Walton, English writer (d. 1683)
- 1603 – Johannes Cocceius, German Protestant theologian (d. 1669)
- 1648 – Johann Michael Bach, German composer (d. 1694)
- 1653 – John Oldham, English poet and translator (d. 1683)
- 1663 – Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1713)
- 1669 – Eudoxia Lopukhina, Tsarina of Russia (d. 1731)
- 1696 – Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1772)
- 1722 – Prince Augustus William of Prussia (d. 1758)
- 1726 – Francesco Cetti, Italian Jesuit scientist (d. 1778)
- 1736 – Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé, French statesman (d. 1818)
- 1754 – Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French architect (d. 1825)
- 1757 – Thomas Telford, Scottish civil engineer (d. 1834)
- 1757 – Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, American political figure (d. 1854)
- 1759 – Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths, German scholar (d. 1839)
- 1776 – Amedeo Avogadro, Italian chemist (d. 1856)
- 1783 – Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia (d. 1801)
- 1794 – Achille Valenciennes, French zoologist (d. 1865)
- 1797 – Charles Robert Malden, British naval officer who discovered Malden Island (d. 1855)
1801 – 1900
- 1805 – Joseph Locke, British railway and civil engineer (d. 1860)
- 1817 – Justo Arosemena, Panamanian statesman (d. 1896)
- 1819 – William T. G. Morton, American dentist and anesthesia pioneer (d. 1868)
- 1834 – Manuel Pardo, 20th President of Peru (d. 1878)
- 1845 – André Bessette, Canadian saint (d. 1937)
- 1847 – Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo, Queen of Spain (d. 1876)
- 1863 – Alvaro Figueroa, 1st Count of Romanones, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1950)
- 1867 – Evelina Haverfield, Scottish nurse and activist (d. 1920)
- 1871 – Leonid Andreyev, Russian writer (d. 1919)
- 1872 – Archduke Joseph August of Austria, Austrian field marshal (d. 1962)
- 1874 – Reynaldo Hahn, Venezuelan-born composer (d. 1947)
- 1875 – Albert Ketèlbey, English composer (d. 1959)
- 1884 – John S. McCain, Sr., American admiral (d. 1945)
- 1887 – Hans Oster, German general and Resistance activist (d. 1945)
- 1892 – S. R. Ranganathan, Indian mathematician (d. 1972)
- 1894 – Mikhail Zoshchenko, Russian writer (d. 1958)
- 1896 – Jean Piaget, Swiss child psychologist (d. 1980)
- 1899 – P. L. Travers, Australian writer, writer of Mary Poppins (d. 1996)
1901 – 1950
- 1901 – Charles Farrell, American actor (d. 1990)
- 1902 – Zino Francescatti, French violinist (d. 1991)
- 1903 – Tom Tyler, American actor (d. 1954)
- 1904 – Hasso von Boehmer, German military and Resistance activist (d. 1945)
- 1908 – Tommaso Landolfi, Italian writer (d. 1979)
- 1909 – Adam von Trott zu Solz, German jurist, diplomat and Resistance activist (d. 1944)
- 1910 – Robert van Gulik, Dutch sinologist, diplomat, writer and musician (d. 1967)
- 1911 – William Alfred Fowler, American physicist (d. 1996)
- 1912 – Anne Brown, American soprano (d. 2009)
- 1914 – Tove Jansson, Finnish writer of the Moomin books (d. 2001)
- 1914 – Ferenc Fricsay, Hungarian conductor (d. 1963)
- 1914 – Joe Mercer, English footballer (d. 1990)
- 1914 – Alastair Windsor, 2nd Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, British aristocrat (d. 1943)
- 1916 – Manea Manescu, Romanian politician (d. 2009)
- 1918 – Robert Aldrich, American director (d. 1983)
- 1919 – Joop den Uyl, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1987)
- 1920 – Enzo Biagi, Italian journalist and writer (d. 2007)
- 1921 – J. James Exon, American politician, 33rd Governor of Nebraska (d. 2005)
- 1922 – Philip Larkin, English poet (d. 1985)
- 1923 – Gerrit Kouwenaar, Dutch poet (d. 2014)
- 1924 – Marta Becket, American actress, dancer, choreographer and painter (d. 2017)
- 1927 – Marvin Minsky, American scientist (d. 2016)
- 1927 – Daniel Keyes, American writer (d. 2014)
- 1927 – Robert Shaw, English actor (d. 1978)
- 1928 – Bob Cousy, American professional basketball player (NBA)
- 1930 – Jacques Parizeau, Quebec politician and economist (d. 2015)
- 1931 – Mário Zagallo, Brazilian footballer
- 1931 – James Freeman Gilbert, American geophysicist (d. 2014)
- 1932 – Anand Panyarachun, former Prime Minister of Thailand
- 1932 – Tam Dalyell, Scottish politician (d. 2017)
- 1933 – Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Japanese television personality, children's writer
- 1934 – Graeme Gibson, Canadian novelist and union leader (d. 2019)
- 1936 – Patrick Tse, Hong Kong-Chinese actor, director, producer and screenwriter
- 1937 – Hans Nowak, German footballer (d. 2012)
- 1938 – Leonid Kuchma, former President of Ukraine
- 1938 – Rod Laver, Australian tennis player
- 1938 – Otto Rehhagel, German football manager
- 1939 – Romano Prodi, former Prime Minister of Italy
- 1939 – The Mighty Hannibal, American singer-songwriter and record producer (d. 2014)
- 1939 – Hércules Brito Ruas, Brazilian footballer
- 1939 – Bulle Ogier, French actress
- 1942 – Tommie Agee, American baseball player (d. 2001)
- 1943 – Ken Norton, American boxer (d. 2013)
- 1943 – Lorenzo Sanz, Spanish businessman
- 1943 – Lubomir Kavalek, Czech-American chess player
- 1944 – John Simpson, English journalist and correspondent
- 1944 – Sam Elliott, American actor
- 1944 – Patrick Depailler, French racing driver (d. 1980)
- 1945 – Posy Simmonds, cartoonist
- 1947 – Roy Hodgson, English football manager
- 1947 – Barbara Mason, American soul singer
- 1948 – William M. Daley, 24th White House Chief of Staff
- 1949 – Jonathan Kellerman, American mystery writer
1951 – 1975
- 1951 – James Naughtie, Scottish broadcaster
- 1951 – Michaele Schreyer, German politician
- 1952 – Prateep Ungsongtham Hata, Thai politician and activist
- 1953 – Michael Russell, Scottish politician
- 1953 – Kay Stenshjemmet, Norwegian speed skater
- 1953 – Jean Tirole, French economist
- 1955 – Maud Olofsson, Swedish politician
- 1955 – Charlie Morgan, English drummer
- 1957 – Melanie Griffith, American actress (Working Girl, The Bonfire of the Vanities)
- 1958 – Amanda Bearse, American actress
- 1959 – Stuart Hughes, Canadian actor
- 1959 – Kurtis Blow, American rapper
- 1959 – Michael Kors, American fashion designer
- 1959 – Idrissa Seck, former Prime Minister of Senegal
- 1961 – John Key, 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand
- 1961 – Brad Gilbert, American tennis player
- 1961 – Amy Stiller, American actress
- 1962 – Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, German politician, former Prime Minister of Saarland
- 1962 – Kevin Mack, American football player
- 1962 – John "Hot Rod" Williams, American basketball player
- 1963 – Maria Manuela Machado, Portuguese long-distance runner
- 1963 – Petra Pau, German politician
- 1963 – Whitney Houston, American singer and actress (d. 2012)
- 1963 – Jay Leggett, American actor (d. 2013)
- 1964 – Brett Hull, Canadian-American professional hockey player (NHL)
- 1966 – Vinny Del Negro, American basketball player and coach
- 1967 – Dana Vávrová, Czech actress (d. 2009)
- 1967 – Ralph Hasenhüttl, Austrian footballer and manager
- 1967 – Deion Sanders, American football player
- 1968 – Gillian Anderson, American actress
- 1968 – Eric Bana, Australian actor
- 1968 – McG, American director and producer
- 1969 – Troy Percival, Major League Baseball All-Star
- 1970 – Chris Cuomo, American journalist
- 1970 – Thomas Lennon, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter
- 1972 – Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez, Colombian singer and songwriter
- 1972 – Liz Vassey, American actress
- 1973 – Kevin McKidd, Scottish actor
- 1973 – Filippo Inzaghi, Italian footballer
- 1974 – Derek Fisher, American basketball player
From 1976
- 1976 – Jessica Capshaw, American actress (The Practice)
- 1976 – Rhona Mitra, American actress (The Practice)
- 1976 – Audrey Tautou, French actress
- 1976 – Nawaf al-Hazmi, Saudi Arabian terrorist (d. 2001)
- 1977 – Chamique Holdsclaw, professional basketball player (WNBA)
- 1977 – Adewale Ogunleye, American football player
- 1977 – Mikael Silvestre, French footballer
- 1978 – Daniela Denby-Ashe, British actress
- 1978 – Wesley Sonck, Belgian footballer
- 1979 – Lisa Nandy, English politician
- 1979 – Tony Stewart, American football player
- 1980 – Ryoo Seung-bum, South Korean actor
- 1981 – Jarvis Hayes, American basketball player
- 1981 – Li Jiawei, Singaporean table tennis player
- 1981 – Roland Linz, Austrian footballer
- 1982 – Tyson Gay, American runner
- 1982 – Joel Anthony, American basketball player
- 1982 – Yekaterina Samutsevich, Russian singer and activist (Pussy Riot)
- 1983 – Ashley Johnson, American actress
- 1985 – Luca Filippi, Italian racing driver
- 1985 – Anna Kendrick, American actress
- 1985 – Dennis Marshall, Costa Rican footballer (d. 2011)
- 1985 – Hayley Peirsol, American swimmer
- 1986 – Rafaela Zanella, Brazilian model
- 1987 – Marco Carmona, Mexican artist
- 1988 – Vasilios Koutsianikoulis, Greek footballer
- 1989 – Stefano Okaka, Italian footballer
- 1989 – Jason Heyward, American baseball player
- 1990 – Adelaide Kane, Australian actress
- 1991 – Alexa Bliss, American professional wrestler
- 1991 – Candela Vetrano, Argentine actress and singer
- 1993 – Rydel Lynch, American actress, singer, dancer and musician
- 1994 – Jonathan Espericueta, Mexican footballer
- 1994 – Forrest Landis, American actor
- 1996 – Deborah Burke, Canadian ice hockey player
Up to 1900
- 117 – Trajan, Roman emperor (b. 53)
- 378 – Valens, Roman emperor (killed in battle) (b. 328)
- 378 – Traianus, Roman general
- 803 – Byzantine Empress Irene (b. 752)
- 1048 – Pope Damasus II
- 1107 – Emperor Horikawa of Japan (b. 1079)
- 1250 – King Eric IV of Denmark (b. 1216)
- 1472 – Janos Vitez, Croatian humanist (b. 1408)
- 1534 – Thomas Cajetan, Italian theologian (b. 1470)
- 1580 – Metrophanes III, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 1520)
- 1601 – Michael the Brave, Prince of Wallachia (b. 1558)
- 1816 – Johann August Apel, German jurist and writer (b. 1771)
- 1837 – Xavier Sigalon, French painter (b. 1787)
- 1854 – Frederick Augustus II of Saxony (b. 1797)
- 1864 – John Brown Francis, Governor of Rhode Island (b. 1791)
- 1880 – William Bigler, 12th Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1814)
1901 – 2000
- 1909 – Jemima Blackburn, Scottish painter (b. 1823)
- 1910 – Hua Yuan Jia, Chinese martial artist (b. 1868)
- 1914 – Roque Sáenz Peña, President of Argentina (b. 1851)
- 1919 – Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist and philosopher (b. 1834)
- 1919 – Ruggero Leoncavallo, Italian composer (b. 1857)
- 1927 – Stephan G. Stephansson, Western Icelander poet and farmer (b. 1853)
- 1932 – John Charles Fields, Canadian mathematician (b. 1863)
- 1942 – Edith Stein, (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) at Auschwitz (b. 1891)
- 1945 – Harry Hillman, American athlete (b. 1881)
- 1948 – Hugo Boss, German fashion designer (b. 1885)
- 1949 – Harry Davenport, American actor (b. 1866)
- 1956 – Tobias Danzig, Russian-American mathematician (b. 1884)
- 1962 – Hermann Hesse, German writer (b. 1877)
- 1967 – Joe Orton, English writer (d. 1933)
- 1969 – Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist (b. 1903)
- 1969 – Murdered by Charles Manson's gang:
- 1974 – Bill Chase, American trumpeter and bandleader (b. 1934)
- 1975 – Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer (b. 1906)
- 1976 – José Lezama Lima, Cuban writer (b. 1910)
- 1979 – Walter O'Malley, American baseball executive (b. 1903)
- 1980 – Jacqueline Cochran, American pilot (b. 1906)
- 1988 – Giacinto Scelsi, Italian composer (b. 1905)
- 1988 – Ramon Valdés, Mexican actor (b. 1923)
- 1990 – Wladislaw Orlicz, Polish mathematician (b. 1903)
- 1990 – Joe Mercer, English footballer (b. 1914)
- 1992 – Fereydoun Farrokhzad, Iranian singer and actor (b. 1938)
- 1995 – Jerry Garcia, American guitarist (Grateful Dead) (b. 1942)
- 1996 – Frank Whittle, British engineer and inventor (b. 1907)
- 1998 – Frankie Ruiz, American singer (b. 1958)
- 1999 – Fouad Serageddin, Egyptian politician (b. 1910)
- 2000 – John Harsanyi, Hungarian-born economist (b. 1920)
From 2001
- 2003 – Ray Harford, English football manager (b. 1945)
- 2003 – Gregory Hines, American actor and dancer (b. 1946)
- 2004 – Robert Lecourt, French politician (b. 1908)
- 2005 – Colette Besson, French athlete (b. 1946)
- 2006 – Rafael Ruiz, Spanish hockey player (b. 1916)
- 2006 – James Van Allen, American physicist (b. 1914)
- 2008 – Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet (b. 1941)
- 2008 – Bernie Mac, American comedian and actor (b. 1957)
- 2010 – Ted Stevens, American politician (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Mel Stuart, American director and producer (b. 1928)
- 2012 – Al Freeman, Jr., American actor (b. 1934)
- 2013 – Regina Resnik, American mezzo-soprano (b. 1923)
- 2014 – Andriy Bal, Ukrainian footballer and coach (b. 1958)
- 2014 – Charles Keating, British actor (b. 1941)
- 2014 – Michael Brown, American shooting victim (b. 1996)
- 2014 – Ed Nelson, American actor (b. 1928)
- 2014 – Jerome Ehlers, Australian actor (b. 1958)
- 2015 – Frank Gifford, American football player (b. 1930)
- 2015 – John Henry Holland, American computer scientist (b. 1929)
- 2015 – Fikret Otyam, Turkish painter and journalist (b. 1926)
- 2015 – Susan Sheridan, British voice actress (b. 1947)
- 2015 – David Nobbs, British comedy writer (b. 1935)
- 2015 – George E. R. Kinnear II, American admiral (b. 1928)
- 2016 – Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, British aristocrat and landowner (b. 1951)
- 2016 – Kalikho Pul, Indian politician, Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh (b. 1969)
- 2016 – Wang Tuoh, Taiwanese writer (b. 1944)
- 2016 – Ernst Neizvestny, Russian-American sculptor, painter, graphic artist and philosopher (b. 1925)
- 2017 – Patricio Echegaray, Argentine politician (b. 1946)
- 2017 – Al McCandless, American politician (b. 1927)
- 2017 – Peter Weibel, German racing cyclist (b. 1950)
- 2017 – Thomas A. Bird, British World War II army officer and architect (b. 1918)
- 2018 – Manfred Melzer, German Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1944)
- 2018 – Mehrdad Pahlbod, Iranian politician (b. 1917)
- 2019 – Paul Findley, American politician (b. 1921)
- 2019 – Altair Gomes de Figueiredo, Brazilian footballer (b. 1938)
- 2019 – Fahrudin Jusufi, Yugoslavian footballer (b. 1939)
- National Day of Singapore
- Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony
- International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples
- National Women's Day (South Africa and Namibia)
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