January 8
January 8 is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 357 days remaining (358 in leap years).
Events:
- 871 - Battle of Ashdown - Ethelred of Wessex defeats Danish invasion army
- 1198 - Innocentius III becomes Pope
- 1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling
- 1806 - Cape Colony becomes a British colony
- 1815 - War of 1812: In the Battle of New Orleans Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British
- 1838 - Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code) .
- 1856 - Borax is discovered (John Veatch).
- 1867 - African-American men granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia
- 1877 - Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry (Montana)
- 1889 - Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his electric tabulating machine
- 1894 - A fire at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago causes a good deal of damage.
- 1900 - United States President William McKinley places Alaska under military rule.
- 1908 - A train collision occurs in the Park Avenue Tunnel in New York City killing 17, injuring 38 and leading to increased demand for electric trains.
- 1916 - World War I: Allied forces withdraw from Gallipoli
- 1918 - President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I
- 1926 - Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud becomes the King of Hejaz and renames it Saudi Arabia
- 1935 - A.C. Hardy patents the spectrophotometer.
- 1958 - 14 year old Bobby Fisher wins the United States Chess Championship.
- 1962 - Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time (National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC).
- 1964 - President Lyndon Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in the United States.
- 1973 - Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of placing bugs in Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.
- 1975 - Ella Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, becoming the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States who did not succeed her husband
- 1982 - AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions
- 1992 - President of the United States George Bush becomes ill on a visit in Japan and vomits on the Japanese Prime Minister.
- 1997 - Mister Rogers receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- 1998 - Ramzi Yousef is sentenced to life in prison for planning the World Trade Center bombing.
- 1998 - Cosomolgists announce that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing.
Births:
- 1821 - James Longstreet, Confederate General (+ 1904)
- 1824 - Wilkie Collins, novelist (+ 1889)
- 1867 - Emily Greene Balch, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 1946 (+ 1961)
- 1870 - Miguel Primo de Rivera, dictator of Spain (+ 1930)
- 1891 - Walter Bothe, physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1954 (+ 1957)
- 1909 - Willy Millowitsch, actor (+ 1999)
- 1912 - José Ferrer, actor (+ 1992)
- 1910 - Galina Sergeyevna Ulanova, dancer (+ 1988)
- 1925 - James Saunders, dramatist
- 1926 - Soupy Sales, comedian
- 1928 - Sander Vanocur, journalist
- 1931 - Bill Graham, rock music entrepreneut (+ 1991)
- 1933 - Charles Osgood, journalist, commentator
- 1934 - Bart Starr, American football star
- 1935 - Elvis Presley, singer and guitarist (+ 1977)
- 1937 - Shirley Bassey, singer
- 1937 - Bob Eubanks, game show host
- 1941 - Graham Chapman, comedian (+ 1989)
- 1942 - Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist and author
- 1942 - Yvette Mimieux, actress
- 1946 - Robby Krieger, musician ("The Doors")
- 1949 - Wolfgang Puck, celebrity chef
- 1947 - David Bowie, singer
- 1959 - Paul Hester, drummer
Deaths:
- 1107 - King Edgar of Scotland
- 1642 - Galileo Galilei, father of modern astronomy
- 1880 - Joshua A. Norton, "Emperor Norton I of the United States of America"
- 1896 - Paul Verlaine, lyric poet
- 1941 - Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts
- 1976 - Zhou Enlai, Premier of China
- 1980 - John Mauchly, co-inventor of the ENIAC computer
- 1990 - Terry-Thomas, actor, comedian
- 1996 - Francois Mitterrand, politician and President of France.
- 1998 - Michael Tippett, composer
- 2002 - Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's International
- 2002 - Alexander Prochorow (65) - Russian physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics 1964
Holidays and observances:
See Also: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
January 7 - January 9 - December 8 - February 8 - Historical anniversaries