July 8th

Since today is my birthday I decided to post a list of historic events that have taken place on this date, as well as famous people who were born and died on this date.

1099 - First Crusade: 15,000 starving Christian soldiers march in religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders look on.
1497 - Vasco da Gama sets sail on first direct European voyage to India.
1663 - Following restoration of the English monarchy, a new charter was issued to the American colony of Rhode Island. It guaranteed religious freedom regardless of 'differences in opinion in matters of religion.'
1709 - Great Northern War: Battle of Poltava: Peter I of Russia defeats Charles XII of Sweden at Poltava thus effectively ending Sweden's role as a major power in Europe.
1776 - The Declaration of Independence was read aloud in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1835 - Liberty Bell cracks (again)
1889 - The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published.
1892 - St. John's, Newfoundland was devastated in the Great Fire of 1892.
1898 - The shooting death of crime boss Soapy Smith releases Skagway, Alaska from his iron grip.
1932 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22.
1947 - Reports are broadcast that a UFO has crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico.
1948 - The Moscow Conference convened to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the independence of the Russian Orthodox Church from control of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople.
1999 - Allen Lee Davis is executed- the last use of the electric chair for capital punishment in Florida.

Born:
1528 - Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy (d. 1580)
1545 - Don Carlos of Spain (d. 1568)
1593 - Artemisia Gentileschi, Italian painter (d. 1653)
1621 - Jean de la Fontaine, French writer (d. 1695)
1792 - Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, queen of Bavaria (d. 1854)
1830 - Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Altenburg (d. 1911)
1836 - Joseph Chamberlain, British politician (d. 1914)
1838 - Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, German inventor (d. 1917)
1839 - John D. Rockefeller, American businessman (d. 1937)
1908 - Louis Jordan, American saxophonist (d. 1975)
1914 - Billy Eckstine, American jazz singer (d. 1993)
1924 - Johnnie Johnson, American blues musician (d. 2005)
1935 - Steve Lawrence, American entertainer and singer
1944 - Jeffrey Tambor, American actor
1949 - Wolfgang Puck, Austrian-born celebrity chef
1951 - Anjelica Huston, American actress
1958 - Kevin Bacon, American actor
1959 - Robert Knepper, American actor
1961 - Toby Keith, American singer
1961 - Andrew Fletcher, English musician (Depeche Mode)
1968 - Billy Crudup, American actor
1970 - Beck, American singer
1977 - Milo Ventimiglia, American actor
1982 - Joshua Alba, American actor
1982 - Sophia Bush, American actress
1985 - Jamie Cook, British musician (Arctic Monkeys)

Died:
810 - Pepin, King of Italy, son of Charlemagne (b. 773)
975 - King Edgar of England
1695 - Christiaan Huygens, Dutch scientist, son of Constantijn Huygens (b. 1629)
1721 - Elihu Yale, American benefactor and namesake of Yale University (b. 1649)
1822 - Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet (b. 1792)
1850 - Prince Adolphus, 1st Duke of Cambridge (b. 1774)
1859 - King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway (b. 1799)
1898 - Soapy Smith, American con artist (b. 1860)
1905 - Walter Kittredge, American musician (b. 1834)
1913 - Louis Hémon, French-born writer (b. 1880)
1917 - Tom Thomson, Canadian painter (b. 1877)
1933 - Anthony Hope, British author (b. 1863)
1943 - Jean Moulin, French Resistance leader (b. 1899))
1967 - Vivien Leigh, English actress (b. 1913)
1971 - Charlie Shavers, American jazz trumpet player (b. 1920)
1981 - Wild Bill Hallahan, American baseball player (b. 1902)
1990 - Howard Duff, American actor, uncle of Hillary Duff (b. 1913)
1994 - Christian-Jaque, French film director and screenwriter (b. 1904)
1999 - Pete Conrad, American astronaut, third man to walk on the moon (b. 1930)
2002 - Ward Kimball, American animator -created the Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat for Disney among others (b. 1914)
2006 - June Allyson, American actress (b. 1917)

It is the Saints Day of Elizabeth , queen consort of Portugal. Coincidentally she had a daughter named Constance, a mother named Constantia, and a great-great grandmother also named Constance who appeared in Dante's Paradiso.