Wednesday 8th of July 1153

167th Pope Eugenius III aka Bernardo da Pisa dies of unknown causes at the age of 73 in Tivoli, Lazio, Italy.

Thursday 8th of July 1621

Fabulist Jean de La Fontaine is born in Château-Thierry, Champagne, France.

Saturday 8th of July 1623

234th Pope Gregorius XV dies of unknown causes at the age of 69 in Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Tuesday 8th of July 1806

Mass murderer James Scales Purrington commits suicide slashing his throat at the age of 47 in Old Belgrade Road, Augusta, Ballard, Maine, United States.

On the same day Purrington killed his wife Elizabeth, and seven of his eight children; 19-year-old Polly, 15-year-old Martha, 12-year-old Benjamin, 10-year-old Anna, 8-year-old Nathaniel, 6-year-old Nathan and 2-year-old Louisa. The Sunday before his death he wrote to his brother that on the reception of the letter he should be dead and requesting him to take charge of his family.

Monday 8th of July 1822

Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley is lost at sea on his boat 'Don Juan' and drowns between Livorno and Lerici at the age of 30 in Gulf of La Spezia, Sardinia, Italy.

Some believed Shelley's death was not accidental, that he was depressed and wanted to die. Others suggested he simply did not know how to navigate. Shelley's body was washed ashore and later was cremated on the beach near Viareggio.

Friday 8th of July 1831

Pharmacist John Stith Pemberton known for inventing Coca Cola is born in Knoxville, Georgia, United States.

Sunday 8th of July 1838

Aircraft designer and manufacturer Ferdinand von Zeppelin is born in Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Monday 8th of July 1839

Business magnate and philanthropist John Davison Rockefeller is born in Richford, New York, United States.

Monday 8th of July 1867

Artist Käthe Schmidt Kollwitz is born in Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia.

Wednesday 8th of July 1885

Expressionist film director Paul Leni aka The Forgotten Master is born as Paul Josef Levi in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Friday 8th of July 1904

Victim of Fritz Haarmann aka Der Hannover Werwolf Willi Senger is born in Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany.

Wednesday 8th of July 1908

Businessman, philanthropist, public servant and politician Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller is born in Bar Harbor, Maine, United States.

Friday 8th of July 1921

11-year-old Florence Irene 'Florrie' Little is strangled, beaten and her throat cut by double murderer Harold Jones aka Desire to Kill in 10 Darran Road, Abertillery, Wales, United Kingdom.

Tuesday 8th of July 1924

23-year-old Accomplice of serial killer Fritz Haarmann aka Der Hannover Werwolf Hans Grans is arrested in Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany.

Wednesday 8th of July 1925

Victim of Eric Edgar Cooke aka The Australian Nightmare Patricia Vinico Berkman aka Pnina is born as Patricia Vinnicombe in The Royal Women's Hospital, 20 Flemington Rd, Carlton, Victoria, Australia.

Friday 8th of July 1932

57-year-old Entertainer, priest and womanizer Harold Francis Davidson aka The Prostitutes’ Padre is found guilty on five counts of immorality by the Consistory Court in Church House, London, Westminster, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Critical evidence was a photograph of Davidson with 15-year-old Estelle Douglas taken on 28 March 1932. Davidson explained that the picture had been intended as a publicity shot to help the girl find work as an actress. He protested that he had been set up and did not know she was naked under her shawl.

Sunday 8th of July 1934

Comedian and actor Marty Martin Alan Feldman is born in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

A BBC documentary explained that a botched operation for Feldman's Graves' disease resulted in his eyes being more protruded and misaligned.

Saturday 8th of July 1939

Sexologist Henry Havelock Ellis is born at the age of 80 in Hintlesham, Suffolk, United Kingdom.

Ellis suffered from impotence until the age of 60 when he got aroused from seeing a woman urinate.

Thursday 8th of July 1943

Hero of the French Résistance Jean Moulin aka Joseph Jean Mercier dies from injuries sustained during torture by Klaus Barbie aka The Butcher of Lyon at the age of 44 in Metz, Lorraine, France.

Moulin was on a train heading for Germany.

Saturday 8th of July 1967

Actress Vivien Leigh dies of tuberculosis at the age of 54 in Eaton Square 54, London, Belgravia, Greater London, United Kingdom.

In 1944 Leigh she was diagnosed as having tuberculosis in her left lung and spent several weeks in hospital before appearing to have recovered. The year before she  toured through North Africa as part of a revue for the armed forces stationed in the region.

Wednesday 8th of July 1970

Singer-songwriter and musician Beck Hansen is born as Bek David Campbell in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Saturday 8th of July 1972

Members of  die Rote Armee Fraktion aka Baader-Meinhof Gruppe Irmgard Möller and Klaus Jünschke are arrested in Offenbach am Main, Hessen, Germany.

Möller was set up by fellow Red Army Faction member Hans-Peter Konieczny.

Saturday 8th of July 1978

51-year-old Film director Kenneth Anger is mugged in the doorway of his building in Apartment 9, 354 East 91st Street, New York, New York, United States.

Anger was knocked out for about 1 1/2 hour and stitched up in Metropolitan Hospital.

Wednesday 8th of July 1981

Irish republican hunger striker Joe Joseph McDonnel dies after 61 days of hungerstriking at the age of 30 in Maze Prison, Lisburn, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

McDonnel was the fifth to die in the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike.

Tuesday 8th of July 1986

84-year-old William Carmen is sexually assaulted and strangled by serial killer Kenneth Erskine aka The Stockwell Strangler in Sybil Thorndike House, Clephane Road, London, Islington, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 8th of July 1987

Murderer John Russel Thompson is executed by lethal injection at the age of 32 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Thompson's last meal request was for fresh squeezed orange juice.

Monday 8th of July 1991

Gangster and cop killer Johnny Mottry aka Le Tueur à la Lada commits suicide by hanging in his cell at the age of 21 in Metz, Lorraine, France.

Friday 8th of July 1994

First Supreme Leader of North Korea Il-sung Kim dies of a heart attack at the age of 82 in Pyongyang, P'yŏngan, North Korea.

Many people committed suicide or were crushed to death in mass mourning ceremonies during Kim's funeral.

Saturday 8th of July 1995

28-year-old Hélène Frinking is raped and stabbed to death by serial killer Guy Georges aka Le Tueur de la Bastille in 213 Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Martin, Paris, Xe, Île-de-France, France.

Thursday 8th of July 1999

Triple murderer Allen Lee Davis aka Tiny is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 55 in Florida State Prison, 23916 NW 83rd Ave., Raiford, Florida, United States.

Davis' last meal request was for one lobster tail, fried potatoes, a half pound of fried shrimp, six ounces of fried clams, half a loaf of garlic bread, and 32 ounces of A&W Root Beer. Davis' execution drew nationwide media attention after he bled profusely from the nose and suffered burns to his head, leg, and groin area. He was the last Florida inmate executed by the electric chair.

Sunday 8th of July 2001

A radiator in a room in an abandoned house in Sasmeesterswoning, Oosterweelsteenweg 3, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Tuesday 8th of July 2003

117 die in Sudan Airways Flight 139 Boeing 737-2J8C crash and disintegration in Port Sudan, Red Sea, Sudan.

Initially the crash had a two-year-old child as a sole survivor, who later died from the wounds he received.

Wednesday 8th of July 2015

Derelict home in Ficarra, Sicilia, Italy.