What happened on this day in history: Percy Bysshe Shelley dies off the coast of Italy, Arizona serial killer Charles Schmid is born, and more events that happened on July 8th throughout history.
1822: Percy Bysshe Shelley Dies
Percy Bysshe Shelley drowns off the coast of Italy during a severe storm. A writer and the husband of Frankenstein author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Percy wrote poetry, prose, and essays. Though he was not well known during his life, pieces like Prometheus Unbound brought him posthumous fame.
1886: Cora Pearl Dies
adoc-photos/Corbis via Getty ImagesCora Pearl sitting with her friend Amie Beresford.
Cora Pearl dies of intestinal cancer at the age of 49 in Paris, France.
A sex worker who catered to high-paying customers, Pearl counted the heir to the Dutch throne and the King of France’s cousin among her clientele. But as France became more conservative in the 1870s, Pearl’s reputation crumbled and she faced financial ruin.
1886: The Steamship Milwaukee Sinks Into Lake Michigan
After its captain — and the captain of the C. Hickox — failed to follow proper procedures, the steamship Milwaukee and the Hickox collide, destroying the Milwaukee and sinking it to the bottom of Lake Michigan.
1905: The Crew Of The Potemkin Surrenders
The crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin surrenders in Costanza, Romania, in exchange for asylum. On June 27, the men had mutinied and commandeered the vessel (radicals on the ship had long planned the uprising, but the revolt was ultimately triggered by maggoty beef). Though most went on to live in obscurity, the mutineers were seen as heroes after the 1917 Russian Revolution.
1942: Charles Schmid Is Born
Bettmann/GettyCharles Schmid killed at least three teenagers before he was caught.
Serial killer Charles Schmid is born in Tucson, Arizona. Schmid was called the “Pied Piper Of Tuscon” because of his charming personality. But his charm hid deep depravity, and Schmid killed at least three teenage girls in the 1960s before he was finally arrested in 1965.
2014: Lars Mittank Goes Missing
Lars Mittank goes missing from the airport in Bulgaria. While spending time on a vacation with his friends in Bulgaria, the 28-year-old Berlin native got into a fight with some local men and sustained serious head injuries.
On the day Mittank was supposed to board a plane back to Germany, CCTV footage caught him running away from the airport and into a heavily wooded area never to be seen again. His case became an international mystery that remains shrouded to this day.
