Today in History — 2026-08-08

Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band is an American rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1991. The band's founding members are singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer and backing vocalist Carter Beauford, violinist and backing vocalist Boyd Tinsley, and saxophonist LeRoi Moore. As of 2026, Matthews, Lessard, and Beauford are the only remaining founding members.

More on this day

  • 1969: Zebra crossing A zebra crossing or a marked crosswalk is a pedestrian crossing marked with white stripes. Normally, pedestrians are afforded precedence over vehicular traffic, although the significance of the markings may vary by jurisdiction.
  • 1967: ASEAN The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is an intergovernmental forum of all 11 states in Southeast Asia. ASEAN primarily focuses on Southeast Asian economic development, peaceful coexistence and adherence to international norms. ASEAN operates on the principle of consensus and respecting national sovereignty, meaning that ASEAN as a whole cannot force another member state to change its domestic laws.
  • 2009: Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil The Airbus Helicopters H125 Écureuil, or Squirrel, is a single-engine light utility helicopter designed and originally manufactured by the French corporation Aérospatiale, later by Eurocopter, which became Airbus Helicopters. In North America, the H125 is marketed as the AStar. The AS355 Ecureuil 2 is a twin-engine variant, marketed in North America as the TwinStar.
  • 2007: STS-118 STS-118 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by the orbiter Endeavour. STS-118 lifted off on August 8, 2007, from launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida and landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC on August 21, 2007.
  • 1989: Space Shuttle program The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was carried over from the 1969 plan for the Space Transportation System (STS) of reusable spacecraft. Only the shuttle and supporting rockets were funded for development; a proposed nuclear lunar shuttle in the plan was canceled in 1972. It flew 135 missions and carried 355 astronauts from 16 countries, many on multiple trips.
  • 1709: Bartolomeu de Gusmão Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão was a Portuguese Catholic priest and naturalist born in colonial Brazil, who was a pioneer of lighter-than-air aerostat design, being among the first scholars at that time to understand the operational principles of the hot air balloon and to build a functional prototype of such a device. He is also one of the main characters in Nobel Prize-winning José Saramago's Baltasar and Blimunda.