Historical Events -  July 8

1497: Vasco da Gama embarked on his first voyage from Europe to India.

1856: Charles Byrne received a US patent for a machine gun.

1889: American newspaper ‘The Wall Street Journal’ began publication.

1918: Montagu-Chelmsford Report was published seeking reforms in the Indian legislature.

1958: An Indian film ‘Do Ankhein Barah Hath’ won Best Picture at the World Film Festival in Berlin.

Famous Birthdays  – July 8

1903: Umaid Singh, Maharaja of Jodhpur.

1914: Jyoti Basu, former Chief Minister of West Bengal.

1958: Neetu Singh, an Indian actress.

1966: Revathi, an Indian film actress, and director.

1972: Sourav Ganguly, former Indian cricketer, commentator, and the 39th current president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

1978: Vijay Shekhar Sharma, an Indian billionaire businessman. He is the founder of financial technology company Paytm. 

 

Death Anniversaries -  July 8

2003: Subhash Mukhopadhyay, an Indian Bengali poet.

2006: Raja Rao, an Indian English-language short stories and novels writer.

2007: Chandra Shekhar Singh, the eighth Prime Minister of India.

2020: Jagdeep, an Indian film actor and comedian.