January 8

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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.
• 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

Deaths:

• 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.
• 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:

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See Also: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

January 7 - January 9 - December 8 - February 8 - Historical anniversaries