Wednesday 9th of August 1048

151st Pope Damasus II dies of malaria in Palestrina, Lazio, Italy.

Damasus II reigned only for 23 days.

Wednesday 9th of August 1516

Painter Hieronymus Bosch known for his macabre and nightmarish depictions of hell dies of pleurisy at the age of 66 in Den Bosch, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands.

This was the day of his burial mass. Exact date of death is unknown.

Tuesday 9th of August 1870

Murderer William Dickson is executed by hanging in United States Penitentiary, Metropolitan Avenue, Leavenworth, Kansas, United States.

Friday 9th of August 1878

Architect and furniture designer Eileen Gray known for her E-1027 house is born as Kathleen Eileen Moray Smith in Enniscorthy, Leinster, Ireland.

Sunday 9th of August 1896

Developmental psychologist and philosopher Jean Piaget is born in Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Wednesday 9th of August 1899

Chief executioner André Albert Obrecht is born in Paris, Île-de-France, France.

Obrecht was the official executioner of France from 1951 until 1976.

Friday 9th of August 1918

Film director Robert Burgess Aldrich is born in Cranston, Rhode Island, United States.

Friday 9th of August 1940

Double murderer Robert Marcus Burgunder is executed by the gas chamber at the age of 23 in Arizona State Prison Complex, 1305 E Butte Avenue, Florence, Arizona, United States.

Sunday 9th of August 1942

Martyr and saint of the Catholic Church Edith Stein aka St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross dies in the gas chambers at the age of 51 in KZ Auschwitz-Birkenau, Birkenau, Małopolska, Poland.

Thursday 9th of August 1945

The US B-29 Bockscar piloted by Major Charles W. Sweeney drops a bomb named 'Fat Man' containing a core of about 5 kg of plutonium in Nagasaki, Urakami, Kyushu, Japan.

Less than a second after the detonation the north of the city was destroyed and 35.000 people were killed. Among the deaths were 6.200 out of the 7.500 employees of the Mitsubishi Munitions plant and 24.000 others (including 2.000 Koreans) who worked in other war plants and factories in the city, as well as 150 Japanese soldiers.

Friday 9th of August 1957

Nazi doctor Carl Clauberg known for his sterilization experiments in Auschwitz dies of a heart attack at the age of 59 in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Clauberg was awaiting trial for conducting medical experiments on human subjects at Auschwitz concentration camp.

Thursday 9th of August 1962

Writer Hermann Karl Hesse aka Emil Sinclair known for his novel Steppenwolf dies of a stroke at the age of 85 in Montagnola, Ticino, Switzerland.

Friday 9th of August 1963

Singer, actress and model Whitney Elizabeth Houston is born in Newark, New Jersey, United States.

Monday 9th of August 1965

An explosion and flash fire inside a missile silo kills 53 construction workers who were inside the 170-foot deep shaft in Titan II Launch Complex 373-4, Searcy, Arkansas, United States.

A U.S. Air Force crew closed the hatches to prevent the Titan II missile inside from exploding, smothering the fire but sealing the workers inside.

Friday 9th of August 1968

34-year-old Family leader Charles Milles Manson known for conspiracy to murder Sharon Tate overdubs some tracks of his music in San Francisco, California, United States.

All tracks appear on the Lp "Lie: The Love and Terror Cult" that was distributed during Manson's trial for the Tate/LaBianca murders in 1970.

Saturday 9th of August 1969

Pregnant 26-year-old Sharon Marie Tate is stabbed to death by criminal hippy gang the Manson Family in 10050 Cielo Drive, Los Angeles, Benedict Canyon, California, United States.

In the same event 35-year-old Jay Sebring, 25-year-old Abigail Folger, 32-year-old Wojiciech ‘Voytek’ Frykowski and 18-year-old Steven Parrent were also killed. Charles Manson directed Family member Tex Watson to take Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian and Patricia Krenwinkel to "that house where Melcher used to live" and "totally destroy everyone in it, as gruesome as you can."

Sunday 9th of August 1970

45-year-old Satan worshipper and serial rapist Edward John Louis Paisnel aka The Beast of Jersey assaults an unidentified 13-year-old boy in Saint Helier, Jersey, United Kingdom.

Saturday 9th of August 1975

Composer Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich dies of lung cancer at the age of 69 in Moscow, Central Federal District, Russia.

Monday 9th of August 1976

9/11 terrorist Nawaf Muhammed Salim al-Hazmi is born in Mecca, Makkah l-Mukarramah, Saudi Arabia.

Monday 9th of August 1982

Over 250 die in Hasrat Mulia ferry shipwreck in Strait of Macassar, Sulawesi, Sunda Islands, Indonesia.

There were about 400 passengers onboard the vessel that was authorised to carry 60 people only.

Sunday 9th of August 1987

19-year-old Mass murderer Julian Knight shoots 24 people, killing 7 in a shooting spree in Hoddle Street, Melbourne, Clifton Hill, Victoria, Australia.

At around 8.50pm Knight began to feel the effects of the beer he'd been drinking earlier and he had a 'vision' of soldiers being ambushed. He felt as if it was a 'call to arms'. The deadly victims were 53-year-old Dusan Flajnik, 24-year-old Vesna Markovska, 27-year-old Robert Mitchell, 26-year-old Johnny Muscat, 261-year-old Gina Papaioannou, 23-year-old Tracey Skinner, and 21-year-old Kenneth Stanton.

Wednesday 9th of August 1989

Police enter the house of 30-year-old Serial killer Harrison 'Marty' Graham after neighbors filed complaints of a pervasive stench that emanated from the apartment in 1631 North Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

Inside patrolmen found two strangled women's bodies, three more skeletons beneath a mound of garbage on the floor, another tied up in the closet. In all seven bodies were recovered from the apartment. Graham turned himself in as a wanted fugitive on 17 August.

Monday 9th of August 1993

Mustapha Mohamed 'Haj' Tabit is executed by a shot in the back of the head at the age of 44 in Central Prison, Kenitra, Rabat-Sale-Quneitra, Morocco.

Tabit was sentenced to death in March for abducting and sexually assaulting more than 1.500 women over a period of thirteen years. He collected 518 personal identity cards of his victims, 118 video cassettes — many of them depicting violent sexual abuses — and a computer list of his crimes.

Wednesday 9th of August 1995

Musician Jerry Jerome John Garcia aka Captain Trips known from The Grateful Dead dies of a heart attack at the age of 53 in Serenity Knolls, 145 Tamal Rd, Forest Knolls, California, United States.

Friday 9th of August 1996

15-year-old Laetitia Delhez is abducted and held imprisoned by kidnapper, serial killer and child molester Marc Dutroux in Centre Sportif Communal, Rue du Culot 44, Bertrix, Luxembourg, Belgium.

An eyewitness observed Dutroux's van and was able to identify part of the license plate. On 13 August Dutroux, his wife Michelle Martin and accomplice Michel Lelièvre were arrested. Two days later Dutroux led the police to the basement dungeon in his house where Delhez and 12-year-old Sabine Dardenne were imprisoned,

Wednesday 9th of August 2000

Double murderer Brian Keith Roberson is executed by lethal injection at the age of 37 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Roberson's last words were "To all of the racist white folks in America that hate black folks and to all of the black folks in America that hate themselves, the infamous words of my famous, legendary brother Nat Turner - y'all kiss my black ass. Let's do it."

Wednesday 9th of August 2000

Rapist and murderer David Oliver Cruz is executed by lethal injection at the age of 33 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Monday 9th of August 2004

The stony beach as seen from atop the cliffs in Audresselles, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.

Monday 9th of August 2004

A bunker holiday house with a splendid view on the beach in Dunkerque, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.

Thursday 9th of August 2007

Spree killer Daniel Julian Gonzalez aka The Freddy Krueger Killer commits suicide by cutting himself with the edges of a broken CD case in his prison cell at the age of 27 in Broadmoor Hospital, Crowthorne, Berkshire, United Kingdom.

Whilst awaiting trial at Broadmoor Hospital Gonzalez tried to bite himself to death and was viewed as being so dangerous that officers would accompany him in riot gear.