July 8, 1981 (Wednesday)
- Lt. Adriano Bomba of Mozambique flew a Soviet-built MiG-17 jet fighter into South Africa and then signaled to intercepting forces that he wished to surrender. Bomba, a black African defector, was given asylum by the white minority government that ruled the nation during the apartheid era, in return for military intelligence.
- Born: Anastasia Myskina, Russian tennis player, 2004 French Open winner; in Moscow
- Died: Irish Republican Joe McDonnell, at the Long Kesh Internment Camp after a 61-day hunger strike.
Read more about this topic: July 1981
Famous quotes containing the word july:
“July 4. Statistics show that we lose more fools on this day than in all the other days of the year put together. This proves, by the number left in stock, that one Fourth of July per year is now inadequate, the country has grown so.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)