Who was born on May 8?
May 8 is packed with notable birthdays. Explore 114 famous birthdays, sorted by recent English Wikipedia pageviews. Top ranked names include David Attenborough, Franco Baresi, Harry S. Truman, Melissa Gilbert, Enrique Iglesias. Filter by actor, musician, athlete, and more — or open any other calendar day.
May 8
114 people
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David Attenborough
Sir David Frederick Attenborough ( AT-ən-bər-ə; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, natural historian, and writer. His presenting career began as host of Zoo Quest in 1954, and has spanned seven decades; it includes the nine documentary series forming The Life Collection, Natural World, Wildlife on One, the Planet Earth franchise, The Blue Planet and Frozen Planet. He is the only person to have won BAFTA Awards in black-and-white, colour, high-definition, 3D and 4K resolution. Over his life, he has collected dozens of honorary degrees and awards, including three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Narrator and one Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Daytime Personality – Non-Daily. Attenborough was a senior manager at the BBC, working as controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s. While his earlier work focused primarily on the natural world, his later work has been more vocal in support for environmental causes. He has advocated for restoring planetary biodiversity, limiting population growth, switching to renewable energy, mitigating climate change, reducing meat consumption and setting aside more areas for natural preservation. On his broadcasting and passion for nature, NPR stated that Attenborough "roamed the globe and shared his discoveries and enthusiasms with his patented semi-whisper way of narrating". He is widely considered a national treasure in the UK, though he does not embrace the term.
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Franco Baresi
Franco Baresi (Italian pronunciation: [ˈfraŋko baˈreːzi, -eːsi]; born Franchino Baresi; 8 May 1960 – 31 July 2026) was an Italian football player and manager. He mainly played as a central defender, and spent his entire 20-year career with Serie A club AC Milan, captaining the club for 15 seasons. Widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders of all time, he was ranked 9th in World Soccer magazine's list of the 100 greatest players of the 20th century. With Milan, he won three European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles, six Serie A trophies, four Supercoppa Italiana titles, two European Super Cups, and two Intercontinental Cups. With the Italy national team, he was a member of the squad that won the 1982 FIFA World Cup, the first in 44 years. He also played in the 1990 World Cup held on home soil, where he was named in the FIFA World Cup All-Star Team, while leading them to a third place in the tournament. At the 1994 World Cup, he was named Italy's captain and was part of the squad that reached the final, although he would miss a penalty in the resulting shoot-out as Brazil lifted the trophy. Baresi also represented Italy at two UEFA European Championships, in 1980 and 1988, and at the 1984 Olympics, reaching the semi-finals on each occasion. The younger brother of former footballer Giuseppe Baresi, after joining the Milan senior team as a youngster, Franco Baresi was initially nicknamed "Piscinin", Milanese for "little one". Due to his skill and success, he was later known as "Kaiser Franz", a reference to fellow sweeper Franz Beckenbauer. In 1999, he was voted Milan's Player of the Century. After his final season at Milan in 1997, the club retired Baresi's shirt number 6. He was named by Pelé one of the 125 Greatest Living Footballers at the FIFA centenary awards ceremony in 2004. Baresi was inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame in 2013.
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Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in April. Truman set up the Marshall Plan to rebuild the badly damaged economy of Western Europe. He established the Truman Doctrine and supported the founding of NATO to contain the expansion of Soviet communism. A member of the Democratic Party, he proposed numerous New Deal coalition liberal domestic reforms, but few were enacted by the conservative coalition that dominated the United States Congress. Born in rural Missouri, Truman was raised in Independence, Missouri, and during World War I, he fought in France as a captain in the Field Artillery. Returning home, he opened a haberdashery in Kansas City, Missouri, and was elected as a judge of Jackson County in 1922. Truman was elected to the U.S. Senate for Missouri in 1934. Between 1940 and 1944, he gained national prominence as the chairman of the Truman Committee, which aimed to reduce waste and inefficiency in wartime contracts. Truman was elected vice president in the 1944 presidential election and became president upon Roosevelt's death in April 1945. Only then was he told about the ongoing Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb. Truman authorized the first and only use of nuclear weapons in war against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman's administration engaged in an internationalist foreign policy by working closely with Britain. Truman staunchly denounced isolationism. He energized the New Deal coalition during the 1948 presidential election, despite some Democrats splitting off into the Dixiecrats, and defeated both the Republican Party nominee Thomas E. Dewey and Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond. Truman presided over the onset of the Cold War in 1947. He oversaw the Berlin Airlift and the Marshall Plan in 1948. With America's involvement in the Korean War (1950–1953), South Korea repelled the invasion by North Korea. Domestically, the postwar economic challenges such as strikes and inflation created a mixed reaction over the effectiveness of his administration. In 1948, he proposed that Congress should pass comprehensive civil rights legislation. Congress refused, so Truman issued Executive Order 9980 and Executive Order 9981, which prohibited discrimination in agencies of the federal government and desegregated the United States Armed Forces. Investigations revealed corruption in parts of the Truman administration, and this became a major campaign issue in the 1952 presidential election, although they did not implicate Truman himself. He was eligible for reelection in 1952 but he chose not to run due to poor polling. Subsequently, Truman went into a retirement marked by the founding of his presidential library and the publication of his memoirs. It was long believed that Truman's retirement years were financially difficult, resulting in Congress establishing a pension for former presidents. However, evidence eventually emerged that he amassed considerable wealth, some of it during his presidency. When Truman left office, his administration was heavily criticized. Despite this controversy, historians consistently rank Truman in the first quartile of U.S. presidents. In addition, critical reassessments of his presidency have improved his reputation among historians and the general population.
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Melissa Gilbert
Melissa Ellen Gilbert (born May 8, 1964) is an American actress. Gilbert began her career as a child actress in the late 1960s, appearing in numerous commercials and guest-starring roles on television. From 1974 to 1983, she starred as Laura Ingalls Wilder, the second-oldest daughter of Charles Ingalls (played by Michael Landon) on the NBC series Little House on the Prairie. During the run of Little House, Gilbert appeared in several television films, including The Diary of Anne Frank (1980) and The Miracle Worker (1979). As an adult, she continued her career mainly in television films. From 2009 to 2010, Gilbert appeared as Caroline "Ma" Ingalls in the touring production of Little House on the Prairie, the Musical. In 2012, she was a contestant on season fourteen of the reality dance competition show Dancing with the Stars on ABC. Gilbert served as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) from 2001 to 2005. She briefly ran for the U.S. Congress in 2016, but withdrew her candidacy before the election. She is the author of several memoirs, a children's book, and a cookbook.
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Enrique Iglesias
Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler (Spanish pronunciation: [enˈrike miˈɣel iˈɣlesjas ˈpɾejsleɾ]; born 8 May 1975) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. He started his recording career in the mid-1990s on the Mexican label Fonovisa where he released three Spanish albums: Enrique Iglesias, Vivir and Cosas del Amor, becoming the bestselling Spanish-language act of the decade. By the turn of the millennium, he made a successful crossover into the mainstream English-language market. He signed a multi-album deal with Universal Music Group for US$68 million with Interscope Records, releasing a string of hit English albums such as Enrique, Escape, 7, and Insomniac. During this time, he also released Spanish albums such as Quizás and 95/08 Éxitos under Universal Music Latin. In 2010, Iglesias parted with Interscope Records and signed with another Universal Music Group label, Republic Records, where he released two successful bilingual albums, Euphoria and Sex and Love. In 2015, he parted ways with Universal Music Group after over a decade. He signed with Sony Music and subsequently released two more bilingual albums, Final (Vol. 1) and Final (Vol. 2), with Sony Music Latin in Spanish and RCA Records in English. Iglesias is one of the best-selling Latin music artists with estimated sales of over 100 million albums worldwide. He has had five Billboard Hot 100 top five singles, including two number-ones. Iglesias holds the record for the most number-one songs on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart with 27 songs and the Latin Pop Airplay chart with 24 songs. Iglesias holds the number-one position on the Greatest of All-Latin Artists charts and in October 2022 he was honored with the Top Latin Artist of All Time at the Latin Billboard Awards. Iglesias also has 14 number-ones on Billboard's Dance charts, more than any other male artist. He has earned the honorific title King of Latin Pop. In December 2016, Billboard magazine named him the 14th most successful and top male dance club artist of all time.
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Gary Glitter
Paul Francis Gadd (born 8 May 1944), better known by his stage name Gary Glitter, is a British former singer who achieved fame and success during the 1970s and 1980s. His career ended after his 1999 conviction of downloading child sexual abuse material. He was also convicted of child sexual abuse in 2006 and a series of sexual offences (including attempted rape) in 2015. After performing under the name Paul Raven during the 1960s, Gadd changed his stage name to Gary Glitter in the early 1970s and had a sustained solo career with his hits "Rock and Roll (Parts 1 and 2)", "Do You Wanna Touch Me", "I Love You Love Me Love", "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)", and "Hello, Hello, I'm Back Again". He became known for his energetic live performances and glam rock persona of glitter suits, make-up, and platform boots. He has sold over 20 million records and had 26 hit singles, which spent a total of 180 weeks in the UK Singles Chart, with 12 reaching the top 10 and three of those charting at number one. Touch Me (1973) is Glitter's best-selling album, peaking at No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart. As of 2001, he was listed in the top 100 most successful UK chart acts. His popularity waned during the late 1970s, and was followed by a successful comeback as a solo artist in the 1980s; his 1984 song "Another Rock and Roll Christmas" was one of the most played Christmas songs of all time. In 1998, his recording of "Rock and Roll" was listed as one of the top 1,001 songs in music history. He also released seven studio albums and at least 15 albums of compilations and live performances. He was arrested in 1997 and convicted and imprisoned in 1999 for downloading thousands of child pornography images and videos. He was acquitted of a charge of sexual activity with an underage girl in the 1970s. He later faced criminal charges and deportation from several countries in connection with both actual and suspected child sexual abuse. He was deported from Cambodia on suspected child sexual abuse charges in 2002 and settled in Vietnam, where a court found him guilty of obscene acts with minors in 2006. After serving his sentence, he was deported to the UK and was placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for life. After the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal, Gadd was arrested again in 2012, as part of Operation Yewtree. He was released on bail, and was charged in 2014 with historical child sex offences; since then episodes of the music show Top of the Pops on which he performed are no longer repeated. In 2015, he was found guilty of one count of attempted rape, one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 13, and four counts of indecent assault; he was sentenced to 16 years in prison, and described by music journalist Alexis Petridis as a "public hate figure". He was released on licence in February 2023 after serving half of his sentence, but recalled to prison the next month after breaching the conditions of his licence. His parole application was denied in June 2025, and he was charged with further historical sex offences in 2026.
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João Havelange
Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid "João" de Havelange (Brazilian Portuguese: [ʒuˈɐ̃w aviˈlɐ̃ʒi], French: [ʒɑ̃ maʁi fostɛ̃ ɡɔdfʁwa də avlɑ̃ʒ]; 8 May 1916 – 16 August 2016) was a Brazilian lawyer, businessman, and athlete who was the seventh president of FIFA from 1974 to 1998. His tenure as president is the second longest in FIFA's history, behind that of Jules Rimet. He received the title of honorary president when leaving office, but resigned in April 2013. He was preceded by Stanley Rous and succeeded by Sepp Blatter. Havelange served as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 1963 to 2011. He was the longest-serving active member upon his resignation. In July 2012, a Swiss prosecutor's report revealed that, during his tenure on FIFA's Executive Committee, he and his son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira took more than 41 million Swiss francs (£37M) in bribes in connection with the award of World Cup marketing rights.
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6ix9ine
Daniel Hernandez (born May 8, 1996), known professionally as 6ix9ine (pronounced "six nine"), Tekashi69, or Tekashi 6ix9ine, is an American rapper. His music has been marked by an aggressive style of rapping, while his controversial public persona is characterized by his distinctive rainbow-colored hair, tattoos, legal problems, social media "trolling", and publicized celebrity feuds. Hernandez first became known for his guest performance on Trippie Redd's 2017 single "Poles 1469", followed by the release of his debut single, "Gummo" that same year, which was a sleeper hit, peaking at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. The latter preceded his debut mixtape Day69 (2018), which was further supported by the singles "Kooda", "Keke" (with Fetty Wap and A Boogie wit da Hoodie), and "Gotti", all of which entered the Hot 100. "Fefe" (featuring Nicki Minaj and Murda Beatz), the second single from his debut album Dummy Boy (2018), peaked at number three on the chart. Despite negative critical reception, Dummy Boy peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 and received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In 2015, Hernandez pleaded guilty to a felony count of use of a child in a sexual performance and was sentenced to a four-year probation period and a 1,000-hour community service order. In 2018, Hernandez, his manager Kifano "Shotti" Jordan, and 10 other members of the Nine Trey Gangsters faction of the United Blood Nation street gang were arrested and charged with racketeering and various felony crimes. Hernandez received a 2-year prison sentence in December 2019 after turning state's evidence against the gang and its members. In April 2020, he was put on house arrest for the remainder of his sentence and was released that August. Hernandez briefly maintained commercial success following his release, with his 2020 singles "Gooba" and "Trollz" (with Nicki Minaj) peaking at number three and one on the Hot 100, respectively. His second album, TattleTales (2020), debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 and his third album Leyenda Viva (2023)—his first reggaeton album—failed to make any worldwide chart impact. Due to his role as an informant in the Nine Trey Gangsters trial, several hip-hop figures and outlets condemned or ostracized Hernandez, who argued Hernandez associated with, provided financial compensation to, and committed crimes with gang members solely to gain street credibility and further his rap career, leading to lasting damage to his public image.
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Trisha Paytas
Trisha Paytas (; born May 8, 1988) is an American media personality, actress, singer, and YouTuber. She is known for her multifaceted career on YouTube, marked by numerous online controversies and feuds. Her content spans numerous genres, including lifestyle vlogs and mukbangs. As a podcaster, Paytas co-hosted the popular but short-lived podcast Frenemies (2020–2021) with Ethan Klein and later launched her own show, Just Trish (2023–present). Additionally, she has independently released several albums and singles and appeared in various screen roles, music videos, and stage productions.
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Stephen Amell
Stephen Adam Amell (born May 8, 1981) is a Canadian and American actor. He came to prominence for playing the lead role of Oliver Queen on the CW superhero series Arrow (2012–2020), based on DC Comics. Amell also appeared in subsequent Arrowverse franchise media, along with reprising his role in various video games. Following the conclusion of Arrow, Amell landed the lead roles in both the Starz drama series Heels (2021–2023), and Suits LA, the sequel to Suits. Outside of television, Amell portrayed Casey Jones in the superhero film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016). He co-produced and starred in Code 8 and its sequel Code 8: Part II with his cousin Robbie Amell. He has also made a number of appearances in the professional wrestling circuit.
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Olivia Culpo
Olivia Frances Culpo (born May 8, 1992) is an American model, actress, and media personality. Culpo has won Miss Rhode Island USA, Miss USA 2012, and Miss Universe 2012.
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Alex Van Halen
Alexander Arthur Van Halen ( van HAY-len, Dutch: [aːlɛkˈsɑndər vɑn ˈɦaːlə(n)]; born May 8, 1953) is an American musician who was the drummer of the rock band Van Halen. Van Halen released 12 studio albums, and the brothers were the only two constant members of the band. Noted for his technical prowess, speed, and power, Alex Van Halen is widely regarded as one of the greatest drummers of all time.
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Jack Charlton
John Charlton (8 May 1935 – 10 July 2020) was an English professional footballer and manager who played as a centre-back for Leeds United. He was part of the England national team that won the 1966 World Cup and managed the Republic of Ireland national team from 1986 to 1996, taking them to two World Cups and one European Championship. He was given Irish citizenship in 1996. He was the elder brother of Manchester United forward Bobby Charlton and one of his teammates in England's World Cup final victory. Charlton spent his entire club career with Leeds United from 1950 to 1973, helping the club to the Second Division title (1963–64), First Division title (1968–69), FA Cup (1972), League Cup (1968), Charity Shield (1969), Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (1968 and 1971), as well as one other promotion from the Second Division (1955–56) and five second-place finishes in the First Division, two FA Cup final defeats and one Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final defeat. His 629 league and 762 total competitive appearances are club records. In 2006, Leeds United supporters voted Charlton into the club's greatest XI. Called up to the England team days before his 30th birthday, Charlton went on to score six goals in 35 international games and to appear in two World Cups and one European Championship. He played in the World Cup final victory over West Germany in 1966 and helped England finish third in Euro 1968 and win four British Home Championship tournaments. He was named FWA Footballer of the Year in 1967. After retiring as a player, Charlton worked as a manager. He led Middlesbrough to the Second Division title in 1973–74, winning the Manager of the Year award in his first season as a manager. He kept Boro as a stable top-flight club before he resigned in April 1977. He took charge of Sheffield Wednesday in October 1977 and led the club to promotion out of the Third Division in 1979–80. He left the Owls in May 1983 and served Middlesbrough as caretaker-manager at the end of the 1983–84 season. He worked as Newcastle United manager for the 1984–85 season. He took charge of the Republic of Ireland national team in February 1986 and led them to their first World Cup in 1990, where they reached the quarter-finals. He also led the nation to successful qualification to Euro 1988 and the 1994 World Cup. He resigned in January 1996 and retired. He was married to Pat Kemp, and they had three children.
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Joe Bonamassa
Joseph Leonard Bonamassa ( BAH-nə-MAH-sə; born May 8, 1977) is an American blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. He started his career at age twelve, when he opened for B.B. King. Since 2000, Bonamassa has released seventeen solo studio albums via his independent record label J&R Adventures. As of his latest studio album, Breakthrough (2025), he holds the record for most No. 1 blues albums with 29 (a total of 30 including the collaborative B.B. King's Blues Summit 100 in 2026). Bonamassa has played alongside many notable blues and rock artists, and has received five nominations for Grammy Awards. Among guitarists, he is known for his extensive collection of vintage guitars and amplifiers. In 2011, Bonamassa started the nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation. In 2020, he created Keeping the Blues Alive Records, an independent record label that promotes and supports the talent of blues musicians. Notable artists include Dion, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Joanna Connor, and Larry McCray. Bonamassa produces and collaborates on many of the projects.
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Philip Bailey
Philip James Bailey (born May 8, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter and percussionist, best known as an early member and one of the two lead singers (along with group founder Maurice White) of the band Earth, Wind & Fire. Noted for his four-octave vocal range and distinctive falsetto register, Bailey was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame as a member of Earth, Wind & Fire. Bailey was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame for his work with the band. Bailey has released several solo albums, the most notable being Chinese Wall, released in 1984, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male. This LP included the hit single, "Easy Lover", a duet with Phil Collins, who also produced the album. The track won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Overall Performance in a Video in 1985, was nominated for an American Music Award in the category of Favorite Pop/Rock Video, and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals. Bailey has in all won seven Grammys out of 21 nominations. In May 2008, Bailey was bestowed with an honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music. During the 2008 commencement ceremony at Berklee, he gave the commencement speech. He was later inducted, in November 2017, to the Colorado Music Hall of Fame.
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Oliver Bearman
Oliver James Bearman (; born 8 May 2005) is a British racing driver who competes in Formula One for Haas. Born and raised in Chelmsford, Bearman began competitive kart racing aged seven, winning several national and continental titles. Graduating to junior formulae in 2020, Bearman won his first title at the 2021 Italian F4 Championship, also winning the ADAC F4 Championship that year, both with Van Amersfoort. He then competed in FIA Formula 3 in 2022, finishing third in his rookie season with Prema. Bearman progressed to FIA Formula 2 in 2023, finishing sixth that year and winning several races across two seasons. A member of the Ferrari Driver Academy since 2022, Bearman was a reserve driver for both Ferrari and Haas in 2024, substituting for Carlos Sainz Jr. in Saudi Arabia—making his Formula One debut at the age of eighteen—and for Kevin Magnussen in Azerbaijan and São Paulo, becoming the youngest-ever driver to compete for Ferrari at the former. Bearman joined Haas as a full-time driver in 2025 alongside Esteban Ocon. Bearman is contracted to remain at Haas until at least the end of the 2027 season.
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Jordyn Huitema
Jordyn Pamela Huitema ( HY-tim-ə; born May 8, 2001) is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays as a forward for Chicago Stars FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and the Canada national team. Huitema made her senior national team debut at age 15 and scored her first international goal at 16, drawing headlines as a potential future star. She was a member of the Canada squad that won the nation's first gold in women's soccer at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
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Anthony Field
Anthony Donald Joseph Field (born 8 May 1963) is an Australian musician, actor, songwriter and producer. He is best known as the leader of the children's group the Wiggles and a member of the 1980s and 1990s pop band the Cockroaches. While still a teenager, he helped found the Cockroaches with his brothers, Paul and John. The Cockroaches recorded two albums and enjoyed moderate success, interrupted by Field's service in the Army, until they disbanded in the late 1980s. Field attended Macquarie University to receive training in early childhood education, and founded the Wiggles with fellow students Murray Cook, Greg Page and former bandmate Jeff Fatt in 1991. He worked as a preschool teacher for two years before the success of the Wiggles led him to focus on children's music full-time. The Wiggles became one of the most successful and active groups in Australia. Field, who wears a blue shirt while performing with the Wiggles, was responsible for the production aspects of their stage and television shows, albums, and DVDs. His issues with chronic pain and depression, which almost forced him out of the group at the height of their success, are well-documented. After the departure of Cook, Fatt, and Page in 2012, he is the only remaining original Wiggle.
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John C. Bogle
John Clifton "Jack" Bogle (May 8, 1929 – January 16, 2019) was an American investor, business magnate and philanthropist who was the founder of The Vanguard Group and is credited with popularizing the index fund. An avid investor and money manager himself, he preached investment over speculation, long-term patience over short-term action, and reducing broker fees as much as possible. An ideal investment vehicle for Bogle was a low-cost index fund representing the entire US market, held over a lifetime with dividends reinvested. His 1999 book Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor became a bestseller and is considered a classic within the investment community.
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Bill de Blasio
Bill de Blasio (born Warren Wilhelm Jr., May 8, 1961) is an American former politician who served as the 110th mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he held the office of New York City Public Advocate from 2010 to 2013. De Blasio was born in Manhattan and raised primarily in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He graduated from New York University and Columbia University before brief stints working as a campaign manager for Charles Rangel and Hillary Clinton. De Blasio started his career as an elected official on the New York City Council, representing the 39th district in Brooklyn from 2002 to 2009. After one term as public advocate, he was elected mayor of New York City in 2013. De Blasio was reelected mayor in 2017. De Blasio called attention to what he described as stark economic inequality in New York City, which he described as a "tale of two cities" during his first campaign. He supported socially liberal and progressive policies. In his first term as mayor, he implemented a free universal pre-kindergarten program in the city. De Blasio's other policy initiatives included the ThriveNYC mental health program, new de-escalation training for police officers, reduced prosecutions for cannabis possession, and ending the post-9/11 surveillance program of Muslim residents. De Blasio was term-limited and ineligible to seek a third term in the 2021 New York City mayoral election. He was succeeded by Eric Adams on January 1, 2022. De Blasio ran in the Democratic primaries for the 2020 presidential election. After registering low poll numbers and failing to qualify for the third round of primary debates, he suspended his campaign on September 20, 2019. In 2022, he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in the newly redrawn 10th congressional district, but withdrew his candidacy prior to the Democratic primary.
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Lúcio
Lucimar Ferreira da Silva (born 8 May 1978), commonly known as Lúcio (Brazilian Portuguese: [ˈlusju]), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. A tall and physically strong defender who excelled in the air, he is regarded as one of the best defenders of his generation. His long, surging, galloping runs on the ball earned him the nickname O Cavalo ("The Horse"). Lúcio began his professional career in 1998 with Internacional. After three years in the club, he moved to Bayer Leverkusen, where he reached the 2002 UEFA Champions League final against Real Madrid, in which he scored the equaliser but lost 2–1. In 2004, he arrived at Bayern Munich, where he won three cups and three Bundesliga titles. Since coach Louis van Gaal did not have a place for him at Bayern, he decided to search for a new team, moving to Inter Milan in the summer of 2009. He won the treble with Inter in 2010, helped them win the 2010 Champions League against his former club Bayern Munich. With Brazil, Lúcio has accumulated a number of significant accomplishments, winning the 2002 World Cup, 2005 Confederations Cup and 2009 Confederations Cup. After the retirement of Kaká, he was the last active player of the 2002 winning team.
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Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945) is an American pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey and later moved on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s, he has also been a group leader and solo performer in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music. His improvisations draw from the traditions of jazz and other genres, including Western classical music, gospel, blues, and ethnic folk music. His album The Köln Concert, released in 1975, is the best-selling piano recording in history. In 2008, he was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame in the magazine's 73rd Annual Readers' Poll. In 2003, Jarrett received the Polar Music Prize and was the first recipient to be recognized with the prizes for both contemporary and classical music. In 2004, he received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize. In February 2018, Jarrett suffered a stroke and has been unable to perform since. A second stroke in May 2018 left him partially paralyzed and unable to play with his left hand.
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Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such as Rome, Open City (1945), Paisan (1946), and Germany, Year Zero (1948). He is also known for his films starring his then wife Ingrid Bergman, Stromboli (1950), Europe '51 (1952), Journey to Italy (1954), Fear (1954) and Joan of Arc at the Stake (1954).
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Darren Hayes
Darren Stanley Hayes (born 8 May 1972) is an Australian singer, songwriter, music producer and composer. He was the singer of the pop duo Savage Garden from their 1993 establishment until their disbandment in 2001. Their 1997 album Savage Garden peaked at No. 1 in Australia, No. 2 in the United Kingdom, and No. 3 in the United States. It spawned the singles "I Want You", "To the Moon and Back", and Australian and US No. 1 hit "Truly Madly Deeply". The duo followed the success of their debut album with Affirmation (1999), which provided additional hits such as Australian and US No. 1 hit "I Knew I Loved You" and Australian No. 3 hit "The Animal Song". Hayes released his first solo album, Spin, in 2002. The album sold two million copies worldwide, debuting at No. 2 in the UK and No. 3 in Australia. It delivered the hit single "Insatiable". Hayes's other solo albums are The Tension and the Spark (2004), the double album This Delicate Thing We've Made (2007), Secret Codes and Battleships (2011), and Homosexual (2022). Hayes' memoir, Unlovable, was published in November 2024.
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Jean Giraud
Jean Henri Gaston Giraud (French: [ʒiʁo]; 8 May 1938 – 10 March 2012) was a French artist, cartoonist, and writer who worked in the Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées (BD) tradition. Giraud garnered worldwide acclaim predominantly under the pseudonym Mœbius (; French: [møbjys]) for his fantasy/science-fiction work, and to a slightly lesser extent as Gir (French: [ʒiʁ]), which he used for his Western-themed work. Esteemed by Federico Fellini, Stan Lee, and Hayao Miyazaki, among others, he has been described as the most influential bande dessinée artist after Hergé. His most famous body of work as Gir concerns the Blueberry series, created with writer Jean-Michel Charlier, featuring one of the first antiheroes in Western comics. As Mœbius, he achieved worldwide renown with science-fiction and fantasy comics drawn in a highly imaginative, surreal, almost abstract style. These works include Arzach and the Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius. He also collaborated with avant garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky for an unproduced adaptation of Dune and the comic-book series The Incal. Mœbius also contributed storyboards and concept designs to several science-fiction and fantasy films, such as Alien, Tron, The Fifth Element, and The Abyss. Blueberry was adapted for the screen in 2004 by French director Jan Kounen.
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Pat Cummins
Patrick James Cummins (born 8 May 1993) is an Australian international cricketer who plays for the Australian men's cricket team in all three formats, captaining the team in both Test and One Day International cricket. A right-armed pace bowler, he also captains the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League. Making his international debut in limited-overs cricket in 2011, Cummins came to prominence following his Test debut that same year against South Africa. There, he became the youngest Australian test cricketer since 1953 and took six wickets during the second innings of his debut test match. His struggles with injuries then forced him out of all international cricket until 2015, where he was a member of the tournament-winning Australian Cricket World Cup squad. Only returning to Test cricket in 2017 against India, he became known as one of the greatest fast bowlers in the world. In 2019, he achieved 914 points in the ICC Men's Test Bowling Rankings, joint-highest for any Australian an fifth-highest for any bowler. He was also awarded with the Allan Border Medal in the same year. In 2023, he was awarded with the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy. Cummins was named the Australian cricket captain in November 2021, and is also regarded as one of the best bowler captains in history. He captained Australia to win the 2021–2023 World Test Championship and the 2023 Cricket World Cup and took Australia to the 2023–25 ICC World Test Championship final.
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Tommaso Ciampa
Tommaso Whitney (born May 8, 1985), better known by the ring name Tommaso Ciampa (), is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a former AEW TNT Champion. Trained by Harley Race and Killer Kowalski, Whitney began his career in 2005, working on several independent promotions. He landed in Ring of Honor (ROH) in 2011, and soon became part of the Embassy. He won the ROH World Television Championship once whilst as a member. At this time, Ciampa also worked for several other independent promotions, including Beyond Wrestling, Chaotic Wrestling, Top Rope Promotions (TRP), and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG). After his ROH contract expired, he later appeared on WWE in 2015 as part of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. He formed a tag team, #DIY (Do It Yourself), with Johnny Gargano (whom he had wrestled against and with on the independent circuit numerous times). The following year, he signed a contract with WWE and participated in the Cruiserweight Classic, but Gargano defeated him in the first round. Ciampa and Gargano won the NXT Tag Team Championships by defeating The Revival in November 2016. After splitting from Gargano in 2017, he went on to become a two-time NXT Champion. In 2022, he was called up to main roster for the Raw brand and eventually reunited with Gargano in 2023, and went on to win the WWE Tag Team Championships twice in 2024. After his WWE contract expired in January 2026, he signed with AEW that same month.
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Francis Ouimet
Francis DeSales Ouimet (; May 8, 1893 – September 2, 1967) was an American amateur golfer who is frequently referred to as the "father of amateur golf" in the United States. He won the U.S. Open in 1913 and was the first non-Briton elected Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. He was posthumously inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
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William Walker
William Walker (May 8, 1824 – September 12, 1860) was an American journalist and mercenary. In the era of the expansion of the United States, driven by the doctrine of manifest destiny, Walker organized unauthorized military expeditions into Mexico and Central America with the intention of establishing colonies. Such an enterprise was known at the time as "filibustering". After settling in California, motivated by an earlier filibustering project of Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon, Walker attempted in 1853–54 to take Baja California and Sonora. He declared those territories to be an independent Republic of Sonora, but he was soon driven back to California by the Mexican forces. Walker then went to Nicaragua in 1855 as leader of a mercenary army employed by the Nicaraguan Democratic Party in its civil war against the Legitimists. He took control of the Nicaraguan government and in July 1856 set himself up as the country's president. Walker's regime was recognized as the legitimate government of Nicaragua by US President Franklin Pierce, and it initially enjoyed the support of some important sectors within Nicaraguan society. As ruler of Nicaragua, Walker relegalized slavery, with the goal of creating a new society of dominant White people and subordinate Black and Indigenous laborers. However, he never succeeded in implementing slavery. He also threatened the independence of neighboring Central American republics. Walker antagonized the powerful Wall Street tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt by expropriating Vanderbilt's Accessory Transit Company, which operated one of the main routes for the transport of passengers going from New York City to San Francisco. The British Empire saw Walker as a threat to its interests in the possible construction of a Nicaragua Canal. A military coalition led by Costa Rica defeated Walker and forced him to resign the presidency of Nicaragua on May 1, 1857. Walker tried to relaunch his filibustering project and sought renewed support from pro-slavery forces in the Southern United States on the eve of the American Civil War. In 1860, he published a book titled The War in Nicaragua, which promoted his efforts to conquer Central America in order to expand slavery geographically. That year, he returned to Central America, where the British Royal Navy arrested him and handed him to the government of Honduras, which executed him.
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William Henry Vanderbilt
William Henry Vanderbilt (May 8, 1821 – December 8, 1885) was an American businessman and railroad magnate. Known as "Billy", he was the eldest son of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, an heir to his fortune and a prominent member of the Vanderbilt family. Vanderbilt became the richest American after he took over his father's fortune in 1877 until his own death in 1885, passing on a substantial part of the fortune to his wife and children, particularly to his sons Cornelius II and William. He inherited nearly $100 million from his father. The fortune had doubled when he died fewer than nine years later.
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John Vianney
John Vianney (born Jean-Marie Vianney [ʒɑ̃ maʁi vjanɛ] and later Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney; 8 May 1786 – 4 August 1859) was a French Catholic priest and member of the Third Order of Mary who is often referred to as the Curé d'Ars ("the parish priest of Ars"). Canonized a saint in 1925, he is known for his priestly and pastoral work in his parish in Ars, France, resulting in the radical spiritual transformation of the community and its surroundings. Catholics note his saintly life, mortification, persevering ministry in the sacrament of confession, and ardent devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. His feast day is 4 August. He is the patron saint of parish priests.
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Peter Benchley
Peter Bradford Benchley (May 8, 1940 – February 11, 2006) was an American author. He is best known for his bestselling novel Jaws and co-wrote its movie adaptation with Carl Gottlieb. Several more of his works were also adapted for both cinema and television, including The Deep, The Island, Beast, and White Shark. Later in life, Benchley expressed regret for his writing about sharks, which he felt indulged already present fear and false belief about sharks, and he became an advocate for marine conservation.
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Buakaw Banchamek
Sombat Banchamek (Thai: สมบัติ บัญชาเมฆ, born May 8, 1982), also known by his ring name Buakaw Banchamek (Thai: บัวขาว บัญชาเมฆ, Buakaw meaning "white lotus") and mononymously as Buakaw is a Thai professional Muay Thai fighter and kickboxer. Known for his fierce fighting style, he is regarded as one of the greatest Muay Thai fighters of all time. His time at Por Pramuk gym, which started in 1997, saw him collect several belts and championships. He won the featherweight title at Omnoi Stadium, and would later take the lightweight belt at Omnoi. In late 2002, he won the highly-regarded Toyota Marathon at 140lbs which was held at Lumpini Stadium. He entered the Japanese fighting promotion K-1 Max in 2004. Banchamek won the tournament in 2004 defeating John Wayne Parr and Masato Kobayashi. In 2006, he gained the K-1 Max belt for a second time. The marketing of K-1 and its promotion on the international stage saw Banchamek become a household name in his home country and abroad. After his time with K-1, Banchamek became the Shoot Boxing S-Cup Champion in 2010. He also participated in Max Muay Thai fights and in 2012 and 2011 was the Thai Fight Tournament Champion. Apart from his competitive career, Banchamek has also been an ambassador for Muay Thai, actively promoting the sport and helping it gain recognition on the global stage. In 2023, he led the largest Wai Kru performance, setting a Guinness World Record. He has also embarked on an acting career, starring in the Thai action films Yamada: The Samurai of Ayothaya (2010) and Thong Dee Fun Khao (2017).
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Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 1737 – 16 January 1794) was a British essayist, historian and politician. His most important and influential work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789, to critical and commercial success. It is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of primary sources, and its polemical criticism of organised religion.
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Akebono Tarō
Akebono Tarō (Japanese: 曙 太郎, Hepburn: Akebono Tarō; born Chadwick Ha’aheo Rowan; 8 May 1969 – 6 April 2024) was an American-born Japanese professional sumo wrestler and professional wrestler from Waimānalo, Hawaii. Joining sumo in Japan in 1988, he was trained by the pioneering Hawaiian wrestler Takamiyama and rose swiftly up the rankings, reaching the top division in 1990. After two consecutive yusho or tournament championships in November 1992 and January 1993 he made history by becoming the first non-Japanese-born wrestler ever to reach yokozuna, the highest rank in sumo. One of the tallest and heaviest wrestlers ever, Akebono's rivalry with the young Japanese hopefuls Takanohana and Wakanohana was a big factor in the increased popularity of sumo at tournament venues and on TV in the early 1990s. During his eight years at the yokozuna rank, Akebono won a further eight tournament championships, for a career total of eleven, and was a runner-up on thirteen other occasions, despite suffering several serious injuries. Although his rival yokozuna Takanohana won more tournaments in this period, their individual head-to-heads remained very close. Akebono became a Japanese citizen in 1996, and after retiring in 2001 he worked as a coach at Azumazeki stable before leaving the Sumo Association in 2003. After an unsuccessful period as a K-1 fighter, he became a professional wrestler. In All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) he was a two-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, two-time World Tag Team Champion, and two-time All Asia Tag Team Champion. He also won the 2015 Champion Carnival. He retired from professional wrestling in 2017 because of health problems.
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Ronnie Lott
Ronald Mandel Lott (born May 8, 1959) is an American former professional football player in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons from 1981 to 1994. Lott played college football for the USC Trojans, and was honored as a consensus All-American. A first-round pick in the 1981 NFL draft, he played for the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Raiders, New York Jets, and Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL. Lott was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000 and the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2023, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest of all time at the safety position in NFL history.
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Lex Barker
Alexander Crichlow Barker Jr. (May 8, 1919 – May 11, 1973) was an American actor. He played Tarzan for RKO Pictures between 1949 and 1953 and later worked in Europen, where he portrayed leading characters from Karl May's novels including Old Shatterhand in a film series by the West German studio Rialto Film. At the height of his fame, he was one of the most popular actors in German-speaking cinema and received Bambi Award and Bravo Otto nominations for the honor.
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Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla
Don Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla Gallaga Mandarte y Villaseñor (8 May 1753 – 30 July 1811), commonly known as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or simply Miguel Hidalgo (Spanish: [miˈɣel iˈðalɣo]), was a Mexican Catholic priest and prominent leader of the Mexican War of Independence, who is recognized as the Father of the Nation. A professor at the Colegio de San Nicolás Obispo in Valladolid, Hidalgo was influenced by Enlightenment ideas, which contributed to his ouster in 1792. He served in a church in Colima and then in Dolores. After his arrival, he was shocked by the rich soil he had found. He tried to help the poor by showing them how to grow olives and grapes, but in New Spain (modern Mexico) growing these crops was discouraged or prohibited by colonial authorities to prevent competition with imports from Spain. On 16 September 1810, he gave the Cry of Dolores, a speech calling upon the people to protect the interest of King Ferdinand VII, held captive as part of the Peninsular War, by revolting against the peninsulares who had overthrown Viceroy José de Iturrigaray. Hidalgo marched across Mexico and gathered an army of nearly 90,000 irregulars who attacked peninsular and criollo elites. Hidalgo's insurgent army accumulated initial victories on its way to Mexico City, but his troops ultimately lacked training and were poorly armed. These troops ran into an army of well-trained and armed Spanish troops in the Battle of Calderón Bridge and were defeated. After the battle, Hidalgo and his remaining troops fled north, but Hidalgo was betrayed, captured and executed.
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Saul Bass
Saul Bass (; May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996) was an American graphic designer and filmmaker, best known for his design of motion-picture title sequences, film posters, and corporate logos. During his 40-year career, Bass worked for some of Hollywood's most prominent filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick, and Martin Scorsese. Among his best known title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm, the credits racing up and down what eventually becomes a high-angle shot of a skyscraper in Hitchcock's North by Northwest, and the disjointed text that races together and apart in Psycho. Bass' firm designed some of the most iconic corporate logos in North America, including the Geffen Records logo in 1980, the Hanna-Barbera "swirling star" logo in 1979, the sixth and final version of the Bell System logo in 1969, as well as AT&T Corporation's first globe logo in 1983 after the breakup of the Bell System. He died from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in Los Angeles on April 25, 1996, at the age of 75.
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Korey Stringer
Korey Damont Stringer (May 8, 1974 – August 1, 2001) was an American professional football offensive tackle who played in the National Football League (NFL) for six seasons. He played college football for the Ohio State Buckeyes and was recognized as an All-American. He was selected in the first round of the 1995 NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings. On August 1, 2001, Stringer died from complications brought on by heat stroke during the Vikings' training camp in Mankato, Minnesota.
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Evgeny Lebedev
Evgeny Alexandrovich Lebedev, Baron Lebedev (Russian: Евгений Александрович Лебедев, romanized: Yevgeniy Aleksandrovich Lebedev, pronounced [jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ˈlʲebʲɪdʲɪf]; born 8 May 1980) is a Russian-British businessman, who owns Lebedev Holdings Ltd, which in turn owns the Evening Standard and the now-defunct ESTV (London Live). He is also an investor in The Independent. In July 2020, Lebedev was nominated for a life peerage by British prime minister Boris Johnson for philanthropy and services to the media, a move that drew widespread criticism due to Lebedev's father having been a KGB agent. He was appointed to be a crossbench life peer in the House of Lords as Lord Lebedev in November 2020. His full title is Baron Lebedev, of Hampton in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and of Siberia in the Russian Federation.
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Lane Johnson
David Lane Johnson (born May 8, 1990) is an American professional football offensive tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Eagles fourth overall in the 2013 NFL draft. He played college football for the Kilgore Rangers before transferring to the Oklahoma Sooners. Johnson has made three Super Bowl appearances with the Eagles, winning two (LII, LIX). He is a two time first-team All-Pro, three time second All-Pro, and six time Pro Bowl selection.
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Candice Night
Candice Night (born May 8, 1971) is an American singer and musician. She has been the vocalist/lyricist and multi-instrumentalist for the traditional folk rock project Blackmore's Night since its origins in 1997 with her husband, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. She is also the backing vocalist for Rainbow from 1994 to 1997 and 2015–present, again with Blackmore. Her first solo album, Reflections, was released in 2011.
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Bob Clampett
Robert Emerson Clampett Sr. (May 8, 1913 – May 2, 1984) was an American animator, director, producer and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated series from Warner Bros. Cartoons as well as the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil. He was born and raised not far from Hollywood and, early in life, showed an interest in animation and puppetry. After dropping out of high school in 1931, he joined the team at Harman-Ising Productions and began working on the studio's newest short subjects, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Clampett was promoted to a directorial position in 1937. During his 15 years at the studio, he directed 84 cartoons later deemed classic, and designed some of the studio's most famous characters, including Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, and Tweety. Among his most acclaimed films are Porky in Wackyland (1938) and The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946). He left Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1946 and turned his attention to television, creating the puppet show Time for Beany in 1949. A later animated version of the series, Beany and Cecil, was initially broadcast on ABC in 1962 and rerun until 1967. It is considered the first fully creator-driven television series and carried the byline "a Bob Clampett Cartoon". In his later years, Clampett toured college campuses and animation festivals as a lecturer on the history of animation. His Warner cartoons have seen renewed praise in decades since for their surrealistic qualities, energetic and outrageous animation, and irreverent, wordplay-laden humor. Animation historian Jerry Beck lauded Clampett for "putting the word 'looney' in Looney Tunes."
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Martha Wainwright
Martha Wainwright (born May 8, 1976) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician. She has released seven critically acclaimed studio albums. Wainwright is the daughter of musicians Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III and the younger sister of singer–composer Rufus Wainwright. Martha Wainwright's live performances have received critical praise, with The Telegraph writing that her concerts "leave in no doubt that she is a singular star." Apart from music, she has appeared in several film projects, including Martin Scorsese's The Aviator and the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge alongside Frances McDormand. Wainwright owns and operates Ursa, a café, concert-hall, bar, and recording space in Montreal.
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Bill Cowher
William Laird Cowher (; born May 8, 1957) is an American former professional football linebacker and coach who served as the head coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons. He began his coaching career as an assistant under Marty Schottenheimer for the Cleveland Browns and Kansas City Chiefs, serving as the latter's defensive coordinator from 1989 to 1991. In 1992, Cowher was named head coach of the Steelers, a position he held until his retirement following the 2006 season. After retiring, Cowher joined The NFL Today as a studio analyst. Under Cowher, the Steelers won eight division titles, two AFC Championship Games, and Super Bowl XL. Cowher's Super Bowl victory marked the first championship title for the franchise in over two decades and the first not to be won by Chuck Noll, his predecessor. The Steelers appeared in the postseason 10 times with Cowher, including six consecutive appearances from his 1992 hiring to 1997, which made him the second NFL head coach to reach the playoffs during each of his first six seasons after Paul Brown. Cowher was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020.
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Roddy Doyle
Roderick Doyle (born 8 May 1958) is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, eight books for children, seven plays and screenplays, and dozens of short stories. Several of his books have been made into films, beginning with The Commitments in 1991. Doyle's work is set primarily in Ireland, especially working-class Dublin, and is notable for its heavy use of dialogue written in slang and Irish English dialect. Doyle was awarded the Booker Prize in 1993 for his novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.
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Henry Dunant
Henry Dunant (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ʁi dynɑ̃]; born Jean-Henri Dunant; 8 May 1828 – 30 October 1910), also known as Henri Dunant, was a Swiss humanitarian, businessman, social activist, and co-founder of the Red Cross. His humanitarian efforts won him the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. Dunant was born in Geneva to a devout Calvinist family and had business interests in French Algeria and Tunisia. In 1859, while on his way to petition Napoleon III, he witnessed the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in northern Italy. Horrified by the suffering of the wounded and the lack of care they received, Dunant took the initiative to organize the local population in providing aid for the soldiers. After returning to Geneva, he recorded his experiences in the book A Memory of Solferino, in which he advocated the formation of an organization that would provide relief for the wounded without discrimination in times of war. In February 1863, Dunant was a member of a five-person committee that sought to put his plan into action, which in effect founded the organization that would become the International Committee of the Red Cross. A year later, he took part in a diplomatic conference organized by the Swiss government that led to the signing of the First Geneva Convention. Dunant became embroiled in a business scandal in 1867 which resulted in his bankruptcy and expulsion from the International Committee. He spent the next decades in poverty and obscurity, living in various places across Europe before settling in the Swiss village of Heiden. In 1895, Dunant was rediscovered by a journalist, which brought him renewed attention and support, and in 1901 he was awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize alongside French pacifist Frédéric Passy. He died in Heiden in 1910.
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Mary Lou Williams
Mary Lou Williams (born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs; May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, and LP versions). Williams wrote and arranged for Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and she was friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell, and Dizzy Gillespie. She has been noted for her 1954 conversion to Catholicism, which led to a musical hiatus and a later transformation in the nature of her music. She continued to perform and work as a philanthropist, educator, and youth mentor until her death from bladder cancer in 1981.
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Ted Sorensen
Theodore Chaikin Sorensen (May 8, 1928 – October 31, 2010) was an American lawyer, writer, and presidential adviser. He was the primary speechwriter for President John F. Kennedy, as well as one of his closest advisers. President Kennedy once called him his "intellectual blood bank". With Sorensen's assistance, Kennedy would later pen Profiles in Courage, for which he won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. He also assisted in Kennedy's inaugural address; wrote the majority of his 1962 address to Rice University (known for the phrase "We choose to go to the Moon"); and drafted Lyndon Johnson's "Let Us Continue" speech following Kennedy's assassination.
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William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire
William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire (8 May 1720 – 2 October 1764), styled Lord Cavendish before 1729, and Marquess of Hartington between 1729 and 1755, was a British Whig statesman and nobleman who was briefly nominal Prime Minister of Great Britain. He was the first son of William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire and his wife, Catherine (née Hoskins). He is also a great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of King Charles III through the king's maternal great-grandmother, Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne. In October 1762, George III suspected that Devonshire and Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, were plotting against him. He had mistaken a visit by Devonshire as a tender of resignation, but George refused to see him in person. Four days later, George personally struck out Devonshire's name from the list of Privy Councillors. Cavendish's health declined during the 1760s. He visited the town of Spa in the Austrian Netherlands for treatment in its mineral baths, but he died there in October 1764. Dying at the age of 44 years and 147 days, Devonshire remains the shortest-lived British prime minister. Devonshire was buried at Derby Cathedral.
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Pedro Lascuráin
Pedro José Domingo de la Calzada Manuel María Lascuráin Paredes (8 May 1856 – 21 July 1952) was a Mexican politician and lawyer who served as the 38th president of Mexico for 45 minutes on 19 February 1913, the shortest presidency in history. The grandson of Mariano Paredes, the 15th president of Mexico, Lascuráin previously served as Mexico's foreign secretary for two terms and was the director of a small law school in Mexico City for 16 years. Born to a wealthy family in Mexico City, Lascuráin studied law at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria and became a successful lawyer. He held numerous positions in the city's government. During the Mexican Revolution, he became the secretary of foreign affairs in the government of President Francisco I. Madero. In 1913, a coup known as the Ten Tragic Days ousted Madero and Vice President José María Pino Suárez, and Lascuráin became president. His government lasted for less than an hour, during which he appointed the coup's leader, Victoriano Huerta, to the role of foreign secretary. He promptly resigned, being succeeded by Huerta. After his brief presidency, Lascuráin retired from politics and continued his legal career. He served as the director of the Escuela Libre de Derecho. He died at the age of 96 in Mexico City, today being most well-known for the brevity of his administration.
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Norman Lamont
Norman Stewart Hughson Lamont, Baron Lamont of Lerwick (born 8 May 1942) is a British politician and former Conservative MP for Kingston-upon-Thames. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1990 until 1993. He was created a life peer in 1998. Lamont was a supporter of the Eurosceptic organisation Leave Means Leave.
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Pat Barker
Dame Patricia Mary W. Barker, (née Drake; born 8 May 1943) is an English writer and novelist. She has won many awards for her fiction, which centres on themes of memory, trauma, survival and recovery. She is known for her Regeneration Trilogy, published in the 1990s, and, more recently, a series of books set during the Trojan War, starting with The Silence of the Girls in 2018.
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Jeff Wincott
Jeffrey Wincott (born May 8, 1956) is a Canadian actor and martial artist best known for his lead role in the television series Night Heat. Wincott was also the star of several martial arts films in the 1990s. In 1996 he was named one of the "Martial Arts Movie Stars of the Next Century" by Black Belt magazine.
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Michael Bevan
Michael Gwyl Bevan (born 8 May 1970) is an Australian former international cricketer. He played as a left-handed batsman and a slow left-arm wrist spin bowler. Bevan is widely considered as one of the greatest One Day International (ODI) batsmen of all-time, and topped the International Cricket Council's batting rankings in the format on numerous occasions. He was the first Canberra-born player to represent Australia at international level. He played 232 ODIs for Australia, and was a part of the Australian squads which won the 1999 and 2003 Cricket World Cups. He represented Australia at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, where cricket was included in the Games for the first time. Bevan was an Australian Cricket Academy scholarship holder in 1989. He scored a total of 15,103 runs in List A cricket at an average of 57.86 runs per innings. This is the highest batting average for any player who has batted in 50 or more innings. In 2007 he was named in Australia's greatest ODI team, while in 2025, he was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame. The Michael Bevan Medal, for the player of the match in the Australian Domestic One-Day Cricket Final, is named after him.
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David L. Keith
David Lemuel Keith (born May 8, 1954) is an American actor and director. His breakout role was as aspiring Navy pilot Sid Worley in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), earning Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor and New Star of the Year. The role paved the way for leading performances in The Lords of Discipline (1983), Firestarter (1984) and the cult thriller White of the Eye (1987). Keith has since appeared in numerous supporting roles, among them Major League II (1994), The Indian in the Cupboard (1995), Poodle Springs (1998), U-571 (2000), Men of Honor (2000), Behind Enemy Lines (2001) and Daredevil (2003). He also portrayed Elvis Presley in Chris Columbus’s musical comedy Heartbreak Hotel (1988), singing several numbers on the soundtrack—including “Love Me” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love”—opposite Tuesday Weld.
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Aloysius Stepinac
Aloysius Viktor Stepinac (Croatian: Alojzije Viktor Stepinac, 8 May 1898 – 10 February 1960) was a Croatian prelate of the Catholic Church. Made a cardinal in 1953, Stepinac served as Archbishop of Zagreb from 1937 until his death. He served during the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, as well as during World War II when the Axis-supported Croatian fascist Ustaše regime ruled the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). Following the war, he was tried by the communist Yugoslav government and convicted of treason and collaboration with the Ustaše regime. The trial was depicted in the West as a typical communist "show trial", and was described by The New York Times as biased against Stepinac. However, John Van Antwerp Fine Jr. was of the opinion that the trial was "carried out with proper legal procedure". In a verdict that polarized public opinion both in Yugoslavia and beyond, the Yugoslav authorities found him guilty on the charge of high treason (for collaboration with the Ustaše), as well as complicity in the forced conversions of Orthodox Serbs to Catholicism. Stepinac advised individual priests to admit Orthodox believers to the Catholic Church if their lives were in danger, such that this conversion had no validity, allowing them to return to their faith once the danger passed. Jozo Tomasevich notes that Stepinac and the Church were "willing to cooperate with the regime's forced conversions, provided the canonical rules were followed", when in fact the Ustaše ignored these rules, committing atrocities, including the mass killing of converts. Stepinac was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but served only five at Lepoglava before being released, with his movements confined to his home district of Krašić. In 1953 he was elevated to the rank of cardinal by Pope Pius XII. He was unable to participate in the 1958 conclave due to government restrictions on his travel. On 10 February 1960, still confined to Krašić, Stepinac died of polycythemia, for which he had been receiving treatment for a number of years. On 3 October 1998, Pope John Paul II declared him a martyr and beatified him before 500,000 Croatians in Marija Bistrica near Zagreb. His record during World War II, conviction for treason, and subsequent beatification remain controversial. Some point to Stepinac's efforts to save individual Jews, while others note that his public support of the Nazi-puppet NDH gave it legitimacy, helping the Ustaše maintain power and commit genocides against Jews, Serbs and Roma. Criticism has also been levelled for Stepinac's failure to speak out publicly against the genocide of the Serbs, against forced conversions and the killing of 157 Orthodox priests and 5 bishops, among other Ustaše crimes against Serbs. On 22 July 2016, the Zagreb County Court annulled his post-war conviction due to "gross violations of current and former fundamental principles of substantive and procedural criminal law". Pope Francis invited Serbian prelates to participate in canonization investigations, but in 2017 a joint commission was only able to agree that "[i]n the case of Cardinal Stepinac, the interpretations that were predominantly given by Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs remain divergent".
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Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans
Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St. Albans, KG (8 May 1670 – 10 May 1726) was an illegitimate son of King Charles II of England by his mistress Nell Gwyn.
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Fernandel
Fernand Joseph Désiré Contandin (French pronunciation: [fɛʁnɑ̃ ʒozɛf deziʁe kɔ̃tɑ̃dɛ̃]; 8 May 1903 – 26 February 1971), better known as Fernandel ([fɛʁnɑ̃dɛl]), was a French comic actor. Born in Marseille, France, to Désirée Bedouin and Denis Contandin, originating in Perosa Argentina, a town located in the province of Turin, Italy, he became a comedy star, first gaining popularity in French vaudeville, operettas, and music-hall revues. His stage name originated from his marriage to Henriette Manse, the sister of his best friend and frequent cinematic collaborator Jean Manse. So attentive was he to his wife that his mother-in-law amusingly referred to him as Fernand d'elle ("Fernand of her").
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Lars Eller
Lars Fosgaard Eller (born 8 May 1989) is a Danish professional ice hockey player who is a centre for the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Nicknamed "the Tiger", he was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the first round, 13th overall, in the 2007 NHL entry draft. Eller made his NHL debut in 2009 with the Blues and was traded to the Montreal Canadiens in 2010, where he played six seasons, before being traded to the Washington Capitals in 2016. He became the first person from Denmark to win the Stanley Cup when the Capitals won in 2018, scoring the Stanley Cup-winning goal. After a brief stint with the Colorado Avalanche, Eller joined the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2023, becoming the first Danish player to play in 1,000 NHL games, before being traded back to the Capitals in 2024. Internationally, Eller has played for the Danish national team at both the junior and senior level, including at five World Championships.
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Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was a Louisiana Creole and Jewish-American composer, pianist, and virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States.
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Galen Rupp
Galen Rupp (born May 8, 1986) is an American long-distance runner. He competed in the Summer Olympics in 2008 in Beijing, 2012 in London, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and 2021 in Tokyo. He won the silver medal in the men's 10,000 meters in London and the bronze medal in the men's marathon in Rio de Janeiro. Rupp competed for the University of Oregon and trained under Alberto Salazar as a member of the Nike Oregon Project. He won the 2017 Chicago Marathon, becoming the first American to do so since Khalid Khannouchi in 2002. Rupp won the marathon at the 2020 United States Olympic Trials (marathon) in Atlanta with a time of 2:09:20, and qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, where he finished eighth. Rupp holds or held multiple U.S. records at the high school, collegiate and senior levels. He is considered to be one of the greatest American distance runners of all time.
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Arthur Q. Bryan
Arthur Quirk Bryan (May 8, 1899 – November 30, 1959) was an American actor and radio personality. He is best remembered for his longtime recurring role as well-spoken, wisecracking Dr. Gamble on the radio comedy Fibber McGee and Molly and for voicing the Warner Bros. cartoon character Elmer Fudd.
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Felix Jones
Felix Jones Jr. (born May 8, 1987) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers. He played college football for the Arkansas Razorbacks, earning consensus All-American honors in 2007. He was selected by the Cowboys in the first round of the 2008 NFL draft.
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Oscar Hammerstein I
Oscar Hammerstein I (8 May 1846 – 1 August 1919) was a German-born businessman, theater impresario, and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America. He was the grandfather of American playwright/lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II and the father of theater manager William Hammerstein and American producer Arthur Hammerstein.
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Jesús Arellano
José de Jesús Arellano Alcocer (born 8 May 1973) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a winger, and a wanted fugitive. Arellano spent the majority of his career with Monterrey, where he became the second most capped player in the club's history.
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Ali Hassan Mwinyi
Ali Hassan Mwinyi (8 May 1925 – 29 February 2024) was a Tanzanian politician who served as the second president of the United Republic of Tanzania from 1985 to 1995. Previous posts included Minister for Home Affairs and Vice President. He also was chairman of the ruling party, the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) from 1990 to 1996. During Mwinyi's terms, Tanzania took the first steps to reverse the socialist policies of Julius Nyerere. He relaxed import restrictions and encouraged private enterprise. It was during his second term that multi-party politics were introduced under pressure for reform from foreign and domestic sources. Often referred to as Mzee Rukhsa ("everything goes"), he pushed for liberalization of morals, beliefs, values (without breaking the law), and the economy.
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Peter McNab
Peter Maxwell McNab (May 8, 1952 – November 6, 2022) was a Canadian-born American professional ice hockey player. He played 14 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1973 to 1987, with the Buffalo Sabres, Boston Bruins, Vancouver Canucks, and New Jersey Devils. He later served as the color commentator for the Colorado Avalanche from their inaugural 1995–96 season until his death.
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Mike Cuellar
Miguel Ángel Cuellar Santana (KWAY-ar; May 8, 1937 – April 2, 2010) was a Cuban professional baseball player. He played for 15 seasons in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher in 1959 and from 1964 through 1977, most prominently as a member of the Baltimore Orioles who won the American League (AL) pennant in each of Cuellar's first three seasons with the team. During that time, Cuellar and the Orioles won the 1970 World Series. Cuellar also played for the Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros and California Angels. Cuellar and Denny McLain each won the AL Cy Young Award in 1969, due to a tie in the voting. For the Orioles, Cuellar won 20-or-more games in a season four times from 1969 through 1974. Along with Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, and Pat Dobson, he was one of four Oriole starters to win at least 20 games in 1971. Cuellar, nicknamed "Crazy Horse" because of his superstitious nature, ranks among Baltimore's top five career leaders in wins (143), strikeouts (1,011), shutouts (30) and innings pitched (2,028). In 1982, Cuellar was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame.
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Peter Canisius
Peter Canisius (Dutch: Pieter Kanis; 8 May 1521 – 21 December 1597) was a Dutch Jesuit priest known for his strong support for the Catholic faith during the Protestant Reformation in Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland and the British Isles. The restoration of the Catholic Church in Germany is largely attributed to the work there of the Jesuits, which Canisius led. He is venerated in the Catholic Church as a saint and as a Doctor of the Church.
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Dan Brouthers
Dennis Joseph "Dan" Brouthers (; May 8, 1858 – August 2, 1932) was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball whose career spanned the period from 1879 to 1896, with a brief return in 1904. Nicknamed "Big Dan" for his size, he was 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) and weighed 207 pounds (94 kg), which was large by 19th-century standards. Recognized as the first great slugger in baseball history, and among the greatest sluggers of his era, he briefly held the career home run record from 1887 to 1889, with his final total of 106 tying for the fourth most of the 19th century. His career slugging percentage of .520 remained the Major League record until Babe Ruth overtook him in the 1920s. At the time of his initial retirement, he also ranked second in career triples (205), and third in runs batted in (1,296) and hits. A dominant hitter during the prime of his career, he led (or was in the top of) the league in most offensive categories, including batting average, runs scored, runs batted in (RBI), on-base percentage and hits. He won five batting titles – the most of any player in the 19th century – and his career .342 batting average ranks 12th all-time. Brouthers is one of only 31 players in baseball history who have appeared in Major League games in four decades. He was also an active players' union member, and was elected vice president of the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players. In 1945, Brouthers was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He holds the record with Deacon White for most franchises played for (10) by a Hall-of-Famer.
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Turkey Stearnes
Norman Thomas "Turkey" Stearnes (May 8, 1901 – September 4, 1979) was an American professional baseball center fielder. He played 18 years in the Negro leagues, including nine years with the Detroit Stars (1923–1931), six years with the Chicago American Giants (1932–1935, 1937–1938), and three years with the Kansas City Monarchs (1938–1940). Stearnes ranks fifth in major league baseball history with a .616 career slugging percentage and seventh in MLB history with a .348 career batting average. He led the Negro National League (NNL) in home runs six times. He won the NNL batting championship in 1929 with a .390 batting average and repeated as batting champion in 1931 with a .376 average. Stearnes was posthumously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000.
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Red Nichols
Ernest Loring "Red" Nichols (May 8, 1905 – June 28, 1965) was an American jazz cornetist, composer, and bandleader. He was one of the most prolific and influential jazz musicians in the late 1920s and early 1930s, appearing on over 4,000 recordings. In 1959, a biopic was made of his life and career, The Five Pennies, starring Danny Kaye.
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Pat Hanrahan
Patrick M. Hanrahan (born May 8, 1955) is an American computer graphics researcher, the Canon USA Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in the Computer Graphics Laboratory at Stanford University. His research focuses on rendering algorithms, graphics processing units, as well as scientific illustration and visualization. He has received numerous awards, including the 2019 Turing Award.
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Claude Louis Hector de Villars
Claude Louis Hector de Villars, Prince of Martigues, Marquis then (1st) Duke of Villars, Viscount of Melun (French pronunciation: [klod lwi ɛktɔʁ də vilaʁ], 8 May 1653 – 17 June 1734) was a French military commander and an illustrious general of Louis XIV. He was one of only six Marshals to have been promoted Marshal General of France. Villars is considered one of the great military commanders produced by his time.
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Thomas B. Costain
Thomas Bertram Costain (May 8, 1885 – October 8, 1965) was a Canadian-American journalist who became a best-selling author of historical novels at the age of 57.
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Ross Barnes
Charles Roscoe Barnes (May 8, 1850 – February 5, 1915) was one of the stars of baseball's National Association (1871–1875) and the early National League (1876–1881), playing second base and shortstop. He played for the dominant Boston Red Stockings teams of the early 1870s, along with Albert Spalding, Cal McVey, George Wright, Harry Wright, Jim O'Rourke, and Deacon White. Despite playing for these star-studded teams (for which he won five consecutive league pennants), many claim that Ross was the most valuable to his teams. However, injuries limited his power in his peak and his professional…
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Bill Lockyer
William Westwood Lockyer (born May 8, 1941) is an American politician and lawyer from the state of California. A Democrat, he served in both houses of the state legislature, having been a member of the California State Assembly from 1973 to 1982 and the California State Senate from 1982 to 1998. He spent the last four years of his State Senate tenure as president pro tempore. He then served as California Attorney General from 1999 to 2007, and as California State Treasurer from 2007 to 2015.
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Viviana Durante
Viviana Durante (born 8 May 1967) is an Italian ballet dancer, considered one of the great dramatic ballerinas of recent times. She was a principal dancer of The Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Teatro alla Scala and K-Ballet. She is the artistic director of English National Ballet School and of the Viviana Durante Company.
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Carl Stamitz
Carl Philipp Stamitz (Czech: Karel Stamic; born in Mannheim and baptized 8 May 1745 – 9 November 1801), was a German composer of partial Czech ancestry of the Classical era. He was the most prominent representative of the second generation of the Mannheim School. He was the eldest son of Johann Stamitz, a violinist and composer of the early classical period. He received lessons from his father and Christian Cannabich, his father's successor as leader of the Mannheim orchestra. As a youth, Stamitz was employed as a violinist in the court orchestra at Mannheim. In 1770, he began travelling as a…
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Niels Juel
Admiral Niels Juel (8 May 1629 – 8 April 1697) was a Danish naval officer who served as supreme commander of the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy during the late 17th century and oversaw its development into a blue-water navy. His victory against Sweden at the Battle of Køge Bay (1677) is regarded as the greatest victory in Danish naval history. He also won, one month earlier, the Battle of Møn.
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James H. Kindelberger
James Howard "Dutch" Kindelberger (May 8, 1895 – July 27, 1962) was an American aviation pioneer. He led North American Aviation from 1934 until 1960. An extroverted character, Kindelberger was famed for his emphasis on hard work, orderliness and punctuality.
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Giovanni Battista Gaulli
Giovanni Battista Gaulli (8 May 1639 – 2 April 1709), also known as Baciccio or Baciccia (Genoese nicknames for Giovanni Battista), was an Italian Baroque painter working in the High Baroque and early Rococo periods. He is best known for his grand illusionistic vault frescos in the Church of the Gesù in Rome. His work was influenced by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
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John Snagge
John Derrick Mordaunt Snagge (8 May 1904 – 25 March 1996) was a British newsreader and commentator on BBC Radio. He began his radio career at Stoke-on-Trent's new relay station 6ST as assistant director and became one of the BBC's primary radio announcers in 1928. Snagge was the voice of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race from 1931 to 1980 and was the announcer of important events of the Second World War and major British state occasions.
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Johan Jensen
Johan Ludwig William Valdemar Jensen (8 May 1859 – 5 March 1925), mostly known as Johan Jensen, was a Danish mathematician and engineer. He was the president of the Danish Mathematical Society from 1892 to 1903.
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George Woodcock
George Woodcock (May 8, 1912 – January 28, 1995) was a Canadian writer of political biography and history, an anarchist thinker, a philosopher, an essayist and literary critic. He was also a poet and published several volumes of travel writing. In 1959 he was the founding editor of the journal Canadian Literature which was the first academic journal specifically dedicated to Canadian writing. He is most commonly known outside Canada for his book Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements (1962).
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John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester
John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester (8 May 1427 – 18 October 1470), was an English nobleman and scholar who served as Lord High Treasurer, Lord High Constable of England and Lord Deputy of Ireland. He was known as "the Butcher of England" to his Tudor detractors.
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Nathaniel Dance-Holland
Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, 1st Baronet (8 May 1735 – 15 October 1811) was a British painter and politician.
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H. Robert Horvitz
Howard Robert Horvitz ForMemRS (born May 8, 1947) is an American biologist whose research on the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, together with Sydney Brenner and John E. Sulston, whose "seminal discoveries concerning the genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death" were "important for medical research and have shed new light on the pathogenesis of many diseases".
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Adolphe-Basile Routhier
Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier (French pronunciation: [adɔlf bazil ʁutje]; May 8, 1839 – June 27, 1920) was a Canadian judge, author, and lyricist. He wrote the lyrics of the original French version of the Canadian national anthem "O Canada". He was born in Saint-Placide, Quebec, to Charles Routhier and Angélique Lafleur.
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Eileen Bowman
Eileen Josephine Bowman Sylwestrzak (born (1966-05-08)May 8, 1966) is an American actress who performed as Snow White at the 61st Academy Awards and Beach Blanket Babylon. Bowman starred in productions of End of the Rainbow (2015), Hairspray (2018), Looped (2024) and she won a Craig Noel Award for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical, Female for Guys and Dolls (2012).
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Nicolaes Witsen
Nicolaes Witsen (Dutch: Nicolaas Witsen; 8 May 1641 – 10 August 1717) was a Dutch statesman who was mayor of Amsterdam thirteen times, between 1682 and 1706. In 1693, he became administrator of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). In 1689, he was extraordinary-ambassador to the English court and became Fellow of the Royal Society. In his free time, he was a cartographer, maritime writer, and an authority on shipbuilding. His books on the subject are important sources on Dutch shipbuilding in the 17th century. Furthermore, he was an expert on Russian affairs. He was the first to describe…
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Samuel Leonard Tilley
Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley (May 8, 1818 – June 25, 1896) was a Canadian politician and one of the Fathers of Confederation. Tilley was descended from United Empire Loyalists on both sides of his family. As a pharmacist, he went into business as a druggist.
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Andrea Alciato
Andrea Alciato (8 May 1492 – 12 January 1550), commonly known as Alciati (Andreas Alciatus), was an Italian jurist and writer. He is regarded as the founder of the French school of legal humanists.
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Bertalan Székely
Bertalan Székely (8 May 1835, Kolozsvár, Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary (now Cluj-Napoca, Romania) – 21 August 1910, Budapest, Transleithania, Austria-Hungary) was a Hungarian history and portrait painter who worked in the Romantic and Academic styles.
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Charles Wriothesley
Charles Wriothesley ( REYE-əths-lee; 8 May 1508 – 25 January 1562) was a long-serving officer of arms at the College of Arms in London. He was the last member of a dynasty of heralds that started with his grandfather—Garter Principal King of Arms John Writhe.
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André Michel Lwoff
André Michel Lwoff (8 May 1902 – 30 September 1994) was a French microbiologist and Nobel laureate.
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Heather Harper
Heather Mary Harper (8 May 1930 – 22 April 2019) was a Northern Irish operatic soprano. She was active internationally in both opera and concert. She performed roles such as Helena in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal Opera House, Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival, and the Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera. She became known internationally when she stepped in for the world premiere of Britten's War Requiem in 1962, and remained associated with the composer's work, but also sang other premieres.
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Emil Christian Hansen
Emil Christian Hansen (8 May 1842 – 27 August 1909) was a Danish mycologist and fermentation physiologist.
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Claes Rålamb
Claes Rålamb (8 May 1622 – 14 March 1698) was a Swedish statesman. In 1660 he was appointed Governor of Uppland County and in 1664 he served in the Privy Council. Between 1673 and 1678, he served as the Governor of Stockholm.
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George Bruce Malleson
Colonel George Bruce Malleson (8 May 1825 – 1 March 1898) was a Bengal Army officer and historian.
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Margarete Böhme
Margarete Böhme (8 May 1867 – 23 May 1939) was, arguably, one of the most widely read German writers of the early 20th century. Böhme authored 40 novels – as well as short stories, autobiographical sketches, and articles. The Diary of a Lost Girl, first published in 1905 as Tagebuch einer Verlorenen, is her best known and bestselling book. By the end of the 1920s, it had sold more than a million copies, ranking it among the bestselling books of its time. One contemporary scholar has called it “Perhaps the most notorious and certainly the commercially most successful autobiographical narrative…
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Henry Baker
Henry Baker (8 May 1698 – 25 November 1774) was a British naturalist.
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Ludvig Karsten
Ludvig Karsten (8 May 1876 – 19 October 1926) was a Norwegian painter. He was a neo-impressionist influenced by Edvard Munch, Henri Matisse and contemporary French painting. He first participated at the Autumn exhibition in Kristiania in 1901, and had his first separate exhibition in 1904. He is represented at museums in many Scandinavian cities, including several paintings at the National Gallery of Norway. Karsten was known for his bohemian lifestyle and quick temper.
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Leonard Hoffmann, Baron Hoffmann
Leonard Hubert "Lennie" Hoffmann, Baron Hoffmann (born 8 May 1934) is a senior South African–British judge. Currently, he serves as a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong; he formerly served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1995 to 2009. Well known for his decisions and willingness to break with convention, Hoffmann has had an especially large impact on the interpretation of contracts, shareholder actions in UK company law, in restricting tort liability for public authorities, human rights and intellectual property law, in particular patents.
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Thomas Drury
Thomas Drury (8 May 1551 – 26 August 1603) was an English government informer, messenger and swindler, who is noted for having been one of the main people responsible for accusations of heresy, blasphemy, and seditious atheism on the part of the Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe given to the Privy Council in May 1593. Within a couple of weeks, Marlowe, just 29, was dead.
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Heino Heinrich Graf von Flemming
Heino Heinrich Reichsgraf von Flemming (8 May 1632 – 1 March 1706) was a Saxon, later Brandenburger army leader and field marshal and Governor of Berlin. Flemming was born in Martenthin into an old noble Brandenburg family that probably emigrated from the Netherlands. He was the third-born son of Jakob von Flemming and Barbara von Pfuel. After a comprehensive education at German universities, Flemming fought the Ottoman Turks as a colonel of auxiliary troops in the service of Brandenburg. Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, sent him to the King of Poland in 1672. After serving William…
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Wesley Coe
Wesley William Coe Jr. (May 8, 1879 – December 24, 1926), sometimes listed as William Wesley Coe Jr., was an American track and field athlete who competed principally in the shot put and also in the hammer throw, discus throw, and tug of war. A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Coe competed for the University of Oxford and became the shot put champion of England in 1901 and 1902. He was also the first American athlete to be awarded a "blue." He returned to the United States in 1902 and won the silver medal in the shot put at the 1904 Summer Olympics held in St. Louis, Missouri. Between 1905…
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Heinrich Berté
Heinrich Berté ([berˈte]), born Heinrich Bettelheim (8 May 1857 – 23 August 1924) was an Austrian-Hungarian composer of operas and operettas.
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Adriaan Pelt
Adriaan Pelt (8 May 1892 – 11 April 1981) was a Dutch journalist, international civil servant and diplomat, most famous for drafting the post war constitution of Libya. As a reporter for the newspaper De Telegraaf he lived during the First World War in London and Paris. There he studied diplomacy at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques. He married a Frenchwoman. From 1920 to 1940 he worked as an adviser to the League of Nations and from 1934 as head of information. He visited many of the inter-war trouble spots in the world, such as Manchuria and India. During the Second World War he was…
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Angelo Italia
Angelo Italia (8 May 1628 – 5 May 1700) was an Italian Jesuit and Baroque architect, who was born in Licata and died in Palermo. He designed a number of churches in Sicily, and later worked to reconstruct three cities following the 1693 Sicily earthquake.
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Edward Tompkins
Edward Tompkins (1815–1872) was an American lawyer. He is best known for endowing a chair at the University of California where he had been elected to the board of regents.
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Wilhelm Friedrich de Gaay Fortman
Wilhelm Friedrich "Gaius" de Gaay Fortman (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɣɛi.ʏz də ɣaːi ˈfɔrtmɑn]; 8 May 1911 – 29 March 1997) was a Dutch jurist and politician of the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP). De Gaay Fortman attended a gymnasium in Dordrecht from June 1923 until September 1925 and the Amsterdams Lyceum from September 1925 until July 1929 and applied at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in July 1929 majoring in Law and obtaining a Bachelor of Laws degree in June 1930 before graduating with a Master of Laws degree in July 1933 and worked as a researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam from…
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