What happened on September 8 ?

701 - Pope Sergius I

780 - Leo IV, Byzantine Emperor

1397 - Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester.

1425 - King Charles III of Navarre (b. 1361)

1539 - John Stokesley, English churchman

1603 - George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon, English politician (b. 1547)

1613 - Carlo Gesualdo, Italian composer (b. 1566)

1637 - Robert Fludd, English mystic (b. 1574)

1644 - John Coke, English politician (b. 1563)

1644 - Francis Quarles, English poet (b. 1592)

1645 - Francisco de Quevedo, Spanish writer (b. 1580)

1656 - Joseph Hall, English bishop and writer (b. 1574)

1682 - Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, Spanish writer (b. 1606)

1721 - Michael Brokoff, Czech sculptor (b. 1686)

1739 - Yuri Troubetzkoy, Governor of Belgorod (b. 1668)

1755 - Ephraim Williams, American philanthropist (b. 1715)

1761 - Bernard Forest de Bélidor, French engineer (b. 1698)

1780 - Enoch Poor, American Continental Army general (b. 1736)

1784 - Ann Lee, American religious leader (b. 1736)

1811 - Peter Simon Pallas, German zoologist (b. 1741)

1894 - Hermann von Helmholtz, German physician (b. 1821)

1933 - King Faysal I of Iraq (b. 1883)

1943 - Julius Fucik, Czech journalist (executed) (b. 1903)

1948 - Thomas Mofolo, Lesotho writer (b. 1876)

1949 - Richard Strauss, German composer (b. 1864)

1965 - Dorothy Dandridge, American actress (b. 1922)

1965 - Hermann Staudinger, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)

1969 - Bud Collyer, American television game show host (b. 1908)

1969 - Alexandra David-Néel, French explorer and writer (b. 1868)

1977 - Zero Mostel, American actor (b. 1915)

1979 - Jean Seberg, American actress (b. 1938)

1980 - Willard Libby, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)

1981 - Bill Shankly, Scottish football manager (b. 1913)

1981 - Roy Wilkins, American civil rights activist (b. 1901)

1981 - Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)

1985 - John Franklin Enders, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1887)

2002 - Laurie Williams, West Indian cricketer (b. 1968)

2003 - Jaclyn Linetsky, Canadian voice actress (b. 1986)

2003 - Vadim Schneider, Canadian/French actor (b. 1986)

2003 - Leni Riefenstahl, German film director (b. 1902)

2004 - Frank Thomas, American animator (b. 1913)

2005 - Noel Cantwell, Irish cricketer and footballer (b. 1932)

RC Saints - Feast of the Birth of Mary, also in the Anglican Church; Pope Sergius I

Eastern Orthodoxy - Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos

Andorra - National day: Mare de Deu de Meritxell

Bahá'í Faith - Feast of 'Izzat (Might) - First day of the tenth month of the Bahá'í calendar

Republic of Macedonia - Independence day (from Yugoslavia, 1991)

Fiestas de Santa Fe in New Mexico, USA

BBC: On This Day