Portal:Biography/Selected anniversaries/May 8

Births

• 1737 - Edward Gibbon, English historian (d. 1794) (pictured)
• 1828 - Jean Henri Dunant, Founder of the Red Cross; Nobel laureate (d. 1910)
• 1884 - Harry S. Truman, President of the United States (d. 1972)
• 1940 - Peter Benchley, American author (d. 2006)
• 1940 - Ricky Nelson, American singer (d. 1985)

Deaths

• 1794 - Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist (executed) (b. 1743)
• 1819 - Kamehameha I, King of Hawaii
• 1873 - John Stuart Mill, English philosopher (b. 1806)
• 1880 - Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (b. 1821)