The Leaning Tower of Pisa (Photo: Alinari Brothers, circa 1850)

Today in History

• Julius Caesar defeats Pompey at Pharsalus during the Civil War (48 BCE)
• Construction of the Leaning Tower of Pisa begins. It will take 200 years to complete (1173)
• Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden (1854)
• Betty Boop makes her cartoon debut in Dizzy Dishes (1930)
• Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics (1936)
• The first posters featuring Smokey Bear are released (1944)
• An atomic bomb is dropped on the city of Nagasaki, Japan (1945)
• Singapore is expelled from Malaysia, becoming the only country to gain independence unwillingly (1965)
• Charles Manson’s followers murder Sharon Tate and four others (1969)
• Richard Nixon’s resignation takes effect; Gerald Ford becomes president (1974)
• A shooting of an unarmed African American male, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri, results in nationwide attention (2014)

Birthdays

• Izaak Walton, author of The Compleat Angler (1593)
• John Dryden, poet (1631)
• Amedeo Avogadro, physicist and chemist, namesake of the Avogadro constant (1776)
• Jean Piaget, psychologist (1896)
• P. L. Travers, creator of Mary Poppins (1899)
• Ernest Angley, televangelist (1921)
• Daniel Keyes, author of Flowers for Algernon (1972)
• Robert Shaw, actor (1927)
• Ken Norton, boxer (1943)
• John Varley, science fiction writer (1947)
• Melanie Griffith, actress (1957)
• Michael Kors, fashion designer (1959)
• Whitney Houston, singer-songwriter (1963)
• Deion Sanders, football and baseball player (1967)
• Gillian Anderson, actress (1968)
• Eric Bana, actor (1968)
• McG, filmmaker (1968)
• Anna Kendrick, actress (1985)

Deaths

• Hieronymus Bosch, painter (1516)
• Hugo Boss, fashion designer (1948)
• Hermann Hesse, author (1962)
• Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, son of US President John F. Kennedy (1963)
• Raymond Washington, gang leader, founded the Crips (1979)
• Jacqueline Cochran, pilot (1980)
• Jerry Garcia, member of The Grateful Dead (1995)
• Frank Whittle, invented the jet engine (1996)
• Gregory Hines, dancer and actor (2003)
• Judith Rossner, author (2005)
• James Van Allen, physicist, namesake of the Van Allen radiation belt (2006)
• Bernie Mac, comedian and actor (2008)
• Frank Gifford, football player and sportscaster (2015)

Holidays and Observances

• Battle of Gangut Day (Russia)
• International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (UN)
• National Book Lovers Day (US)
• National Day (Singapore)
• National Women’s Day (South Africa)
• Remembrance for Radbod, King of the Frisians (The Troth)
• Veep Day (US)

August 9 is the 221st day of the year (222nd in leap years). There are 144 days remaining until the end of the year.