Birthday facts

Born on May 8.

Everyone born on May 8 is a Taurus — ruled by Venus, immovable, and comfortable about it. The stone is emerald, the flower lily of the valley, and the day is shared with Thomas Pynchon and Franco Baresi.

Sun sign

Taurus ♉︎

the Bull · ruled by Venus · immovable, and comfortable about it

Birthstone

Emerald

May

Birth flower

Lily of the valley

& hawthorn

Your book

Born on May 8? Add the year.

Then it is a pop-up book: the sky the day you arrived, the No. 1 that week, the president, what a stamp cost, your life in weeks, and who was exactly your age when they did the thing they are known for — and at the end, a birthday poster of the day, engraved, to take home. One field. The date lives after the # in the link, which no server sees — nothing about you leaves your browser.

Making it for someone else? Send it as a pop-up birthday card.

The old books say

Taurus, April 20 to May 20.

The Bull is ruled by Venus, and the books make it the sign of pleasure taken slowly — good food, good cloth, a chair that is exactly right. An earth sign, credited with patience, loyalty and a stubbornness so complete it stops looking like a fault and starts looking like a policy. Its people are said to be the ones you can lean on, provided you do not try to hurry them.

Astrology, reported rather than endorsed — the astronomy is the part of the book that is real.

Good company

Also born on May 8.

The names most looked up among everyone who shares the day — leaning on the ones who last.

1937

Thomas Pynchon

American novelist

1960

Franco Baresi

Italian footballer and coach

1884

Harry S. Truman

33rd President of the United States

1964

Melissa Gilbert

American director and actress

1926

David Attenborough

English environmentalist and television host

1970

Naomi Klein

Canadian author and activist

1899

Friedrich Hayek

Austrian economist and philosopher

1975

Enrique Iglesias

Spanish-American singer-songwriter and actor

On this day

What May 8 has seen.

It is Anniversary of the birth of Miguel Hidalgo in Mexico (1753).

1373Julian of Norwich experienced religious visions, later recorded in Revelations of Divine Love, the earliest surviving English-language work attributed to a woman.

1821Greek War of Independence: At the Battle of Gravia Inn, a 120-man Greek force led by Odysseas Androutsos repulsed an Ottoman army of 8,000 soldiers.

1976Great American Revolution opened at Six Flags Magic Mountain, California.

2025Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected as Pope Leo XIV, making him the first pope born in the United States, the first to hold either U.S. or Peruvian citizenship, the first from the Order of Saint Augustine, and the second from the Americas after his immediate predecessor, Pope Francis.

The calendar

When May 8 falls.

A Friday in 2026, a Saturday in 2027, a Monday in 2028, a Tuesday in 2029, and a Wednesday in 2030.