August 08

1931 - Theoretical physicist Sir Roger Penrose is born. He is credited with calculating many of the basic features of black holes.

1948 - Astronaut and engineer Svetlana Savitskaya is born. She is known for becoming the first woman to walk in space, as well as the first woman to make two trips into space.

• (Not to be confused with Valentina Tereshkova, who was the first woman in space.)
  

1989 - NASA's space shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret five-day military mission. The mission details were classified at the time, but the payload was the first "SDS-2" relay communications satellite.

2409 - Alexis Tregelen is assigned as commanding officer of the USS Titan, CL-2007.