Kim Clijsters (born 8 June 1983) is a Belgian tennis player who competed professionally from 1997 to 2012. A former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, she won four Grand Slam singles titles, including three US Open championships. Together with Justine Henin, she established Belgium as a force in women's tennis, leading their country to its first Fed Cup crown in 2001. Clijsters won forty-one Women's Tennis Association (WTA) singles titles, including three WTA Tour Championships. After retiring at the age of 23, Clijsters returned to tennis and won a record-tying three Grand Slam singles titles as a mother on the way to becoming the only mother to be ranked No. 1 in singles by the WTA. She was known for her athleticism, in particular her ability to perform splits on court in the middle of points. Clijsters won the Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award eight times. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2017. (Full article..)

• .. that Raffaele Contigiani's brutalist Hotel du Lac(pictured) has been seen as symbolic of the modernisation of Tunisia in the 1970s?
• .. that the pizza di Pasqua used to be blessed at the local church before being eaten at breakfast on Easter morning?
• .. that Werner Schneyder performed political kabarett programs with Dieter Hildebrandt and provided television commentary on boxing at the 1984 Summer Olympics?
• .. that in the 2000 film No Place to Go, the central character jumps out of a window to her death, as the director's mother had done some years before?
• .. that although Isabella Forshall did not go to school, she gained two university degrees and four postgraduate diplomas in medicine and surgery?
• .. that the Babri Masjid, a mosque built in 1528, was demolished in 1992 after a political rally turned violent?
• .. that spelling is fun, according to Taylor Swift?
• .. that Dutch authorities interned a Japanese spy, but thought he was a businessman and released him in a 1942 prisoner exchange?

• In the Danish general election, centre-left parties led by Mette Frederiksen(pictured) win a majority.
• In association football, the UEFA Champions League concludes with Liverpool defeating Tottenham Hotspur in the final.
• Brigitte Bierlein is named interim chancellor of Austria, after a parliamentary motion of no confidence dismisses the government of Sebastian Kurz.
• James Marape is elected Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, following the resignation of Peter O'Neill.

June 8: Queen's Official Birthday in Tuvalu and the United Kingdom (2019)

• 218 – Led by the inexperienced Gannys, the legions of Elagabalusdefeated the forces of Roman emperor Macrinus.
• 1776 – American Revolutionary War: British forces defeated the Continental Army at the Battle of Trois-Rivières, the last battle of the American invasion of Quebec.
• 1929 – Margaret Bondfield became the first female member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom when she was named Minister of Labour by Ramsay MacDonald.
• 1967 – The Israeli Air Forceattacked the U.S. Navy intelligence ship USS Liberty(pictured) in international waters, killing 34 and wounding 173.
• 2009 – Two American journalists, having been arrested for illegal entry into North Korea, were sentenced to twelve years hard labor before being pardoned two months later.

George I Rákóczi (b. 1593) ·John Q. A. Brackett (b. 1842) ·Irina Lăzăreanu (b. 1982)