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)