January 8

January 8 is the eight day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 357 days remaining until the end of the year (358 in leap years).

Events

Up to 1900

307 – Jin Huidi, Chinese Emperor of the Jin Dynasty, is poisoned, and succeeded by his son, Jin Huaidi.
871 – Battle of Ashdown – Ethelred of Wessex defeats Danish invasion army.
1198 – Innocent III becomes Pope.
1297 – François Grimaldi, disguised as a monk, leads his men to capture the Rock of Monaco; from then on, his family rules the Principality of Monaco.
1499 – King Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany.
1697 – Thomas Aikenhead of Edinburgh becomes the last person in Scotland, and in the present–day United Kingdom, to be executed for blasphemy.
1734 – Premiere of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
1746 – Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.
1781 – An earthquake hits Tabriz, Persia, killing over 50,000 people.
1790 – In New York City, George Washington makes the US' first State of the Union Address.
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.
1835 – US national debt is at zero, for the only time in US history.
1838 – Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).
1856 – Borax is discovered (John Veatch).
1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield.
1867 – African American men granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia.
1877 – In Montana, Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry.
1889 – Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his electric tabulating machine.
1893 – Captain Thomas Robertson discovers Dundee Island in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica.
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.

1901–1950

1906 – A landslide in Haverstraw, New York kills 20 due to the excavation of clay along the Hudson River.
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.
1912 – The African National Congress is founded.
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.
1942 – World War II: To stop Japanese advances in the Pacific Ocean, the Allies create the commando ABDACOM.

1951–2000

1953 – René Mayer becomes Prime Minister of France.
1958 – 14 year old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess Championship.
1959 – Michel Debré becomes Prime Minister of France, while Charles de Gaulle becomes the first President of France's Fifth Republic.
1961 – In a referendum, a majority of French voters supports Charles de Gaulle's policies on Algeria, which would lead towards the country's independence from France.
1963 – 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 B. Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in the United States.
1971 – Bowing to international pressure, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto releases Bengali leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
1973 – Watergate scandal: The trial begins for seven men accused of placing bugs in United States Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.
1973 – The Soviet Luna 21 space mission is launched.
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.
1977 – Three bombs explode in Moscow, within 37 minutes, killing 7 people. These attacks are suspected to have been carried out by an Armenian Separatist group.
1982 – AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty–two subdivisions.
1989 – Kegworth Air Disaster: British Midland Flight 92 crashes onto the M1 motorway, killing 47 people out of the 127 on board.
1992 – President of the United States George H. W. Bush becomes ill on a visit in Japan and vomits on the Japanese Prime Minister.
1994 – Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He will stay on the space station till March 22, 1995 for a record 437 days in space.
1996 – An Antonov 32 cargo jet crashes into the central market in Kinshasa, Zaire killing more than 350 people
1998 – Ramzi Yousef is sentenced to life in prison for planning the World Trade Center bombing and for planning Project Bojinka.
1999 – Cosmologists announce that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing.

From 2001

2003 – In Kosciuszko National Park, Australia, following several lightning strikes during the dry season, bush fires break out.
2003 – US Airways flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina killing all 21 people aboard.
2004 – Queen Elizabeth names the Queen Mary II cruise liner, the largest passenger ship ever built.
2010 – The Togo national football team is targeted in an attack in Cabinda, Angola, and therefore withdraws from the African Cup of Nations.
2011 – 2011 Tucson shooting: Six people are killed in a shooting in Tucson, Arizona, and several are injured, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Jared Lee Loughner is arrested for the shooting.
2015 – Maithripala Sirisena is elected President of Sri Lanka, defeating Mahinda Rajapaksa, and takes office the next day.

Births

Up to 1850

1360 – Ulrich von Jungingen, 26th Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights (d. 1410)
1529 – John Frederick II, Duke of Saxony (d. 1595)
1556 – Uesugi Kagekatsu, Japanese samurai and warlord (d. 1623)
1583 – Simon Episcopius, Dutch theologian (d. 1643)
1587 – Johannes Fabricius, German astronomer (d. 1616)
1587 – Jan Pieterszoon Coen, Dutch colonial Governor (d. 1629)
1601 – Baltasar Gracian, Spanish writer (d. 1658)
1735 – John Carroll, first Bishop in the United States (d. 1815)
1788 – Archduke Rudolph of Austria (d. 1831)
1788 – Pavel Kiselyov, Russian general and politician (d. 1874)
1805 – John Bigler, 3rd Governor of California (d. 1871)
1817 – Theophilus Shepstone, South African politician (d. 1893)
1821 – James Longstreet, American Confederate General (d. 1904)
1822 – Alfredo Piatti, Italian cellist and composer (d. 1901)
1823 – Alfred Russel Wallace, British naturalist and biologist (d. 1913)
1824 – Wilkie Collins, British writer (d. 1889)
1824 – Francisco Gonzalez Bocanegra, Mexican poet (d. 1861)
1834 – Larin Paraske, Finnish runic singer (d. 1904)
1849 – Stepan Makarov, Russian admiral, explorer and writer (d. 1904)

1851–1900

1859 – Fanny Bullock Workman, American geographer, cartographer, explorer, traveler and mountaineer (d. 1925)
1862 – Frank Nelson Doubleday, American publisher (d. 1934)
1864 – Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (d. 1892)
1865 – Winnaretta Singer, American patron of French music, arts, sciences and letters (d. 1943)
1866 – William G. Conley, 18th Governor of West Virginia (d. 1940)
1867 – Emily Greene Balch, American writer and pacifist (d. 1961)
1868 – Frank Dyson, English astronomer (d. 1939)
1870 – Miguel Primo de Rivera, Spanish politician (d. 1930)
1871 – James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon, Irish politician (d. 1940)
1873 – Elena of Montenegro, Queen of Italy (d. 1956)
1873 – Iuliu Maniu, Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1953)
1876 – Arturs Alberings, Prime Minister of Latvia (d. 1934)
1879 – Charles Bryant, British actor and movie director (d. 1948)
1883 – Pavel Filonov, Russian painter (d. 1941)
1883 – Patrick J. Hurley, American soldier, statesman and diplomat (d. 1963)
1885 – John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1945)
1886 – Thomas January, American soccer player (d. 1957)
1888 – Richard Courant, German–American mathematician (d. 1972)
1891 – Bronislava Nijinska, Russian choreographer (d. 1972)
1891 – Walther Bothe, German physicist (d. 1957)
1894 – Maximilian Kolbe, Polish Franciscan friar (d. 1944)
1896 – Jaromir Weinberger, Czech–American composer (d. 1967)
1897 – Dennis Wheatley, English writer (d. 1977)
1899 – Solomon Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Ceylon, present–day Sri Lanka (d. 1959)
1900 – François de Menthon, French politician and jurist (d. 1984)

1901–1950

1902 – Carl Rogers, American psychologist (d. 1987)
1902 – Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov, Soviet politician (d. 1988)
1904 – Tampa Red, American blues musician (d. 1981)
1905 – Giacinto Scelsi, Italian composer (d. 1988)
1905 – Carl Gustav Hempel, German philosopher (d. 1997)
1906 – Serge Poliakoff, Russian–French painter (d. 1969)
1908 – William Hartnell, English actor (d. 1975)
1909 – Willy Millowitsch, German actor (d. 1999)
1910 – Galina Ulanova, Russian |ballerina (d. 1998)
1912 – José Ferrer, Puerto Rican actor and director (d. 1992)
1912 – Lawrence Walsh, American–Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 2014)
1917 – Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor, American writer (d. 1994)
1921 – Leonardo Sciascia, Italian writer (d. 1989)
1922 – Dale D. Myers, American Deputy Administrator of NASA (d. 2015)
1922 – Jan Nieuwenhuys, Dutch painter (d. 1986)
1923 – Larry Storch, American actor
1923 – Bryce DeWitt, American theoretical physicist (d. 2004)
1924 – Ron Moody, English actor (d. 2015)
1925 – Helmuth Hubener, German activist (d. 1942)
1926 – Evelyn Lear, American soprano (d. 2012)
1926 – Soupy Sales, American comedian (d. 2009)
1928 – Luther Perkins, American guitarist (d. 1968)
1929 – Wolfgang Peters, German footballer (d. 2003)
1929 – Saeed Jaffrey, Indian actor (d. 2015)
1931 – Bill Graham, German rock music entrepreneur (d. 1991)
1933 – Ko Un, Korean poet
1933 – Mariam Fakhr Eddine, Egyptian actress (d. 2014)
1934 – Jacques Anquetil, French cyclist (d. 1987)
1934 – Roy Kinnear, English actor (d. 1988)
1934 – Ronald Greenwald, American rabbi and activist (d. 2016)
1935 – Elvis Presley, American singer and guitarist (d. 1977)
1936 – Jyotindra Nath Dixit, Indian diplomat and politician (d. 2005)
1936 – Robert May, Baron May of Oxford, Australian–English zoologist, ecologist and academic
1937 – Shirley Bassey, Welsh singer
1938 – Yevgeny Nesterenko, Russian opera singer
1938 – Bob Eubanks, American game show host
1939 – Nanda, Indian actress (d. 2014)
1941 – Graham Chapman, English comedian (d. 1989)
1942 – Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist and writer (d. 2018)
1942 – Junichiro Koizumi, former Prime Minister of Japan
1942 – Vyacheslav Zudov, Soviet–Russian cosmonaut
1942 – Valya Balkanska, Bulgarian folk singer
1942 – Robin Ellis, English actor
1942 – Yvette Mimieux, American actress
1944 – Terry Brooks, American author
1946 – Robby Krieger, American musician
1947 – Ashura Hara, Japanese professional wrestler (d. 2015)
1947 – David Bowie, English rock music singer, musician and actor (d. 2016)
1947 – Terry Sylvester, English singer and guitarist
1947 – Samuel Schmid, Swiss politician
1948 – Jerzy Kaczmarek, Polish fencer
1949 – John Podesta, American politician, 20th White House Chief of Staff
1949 – Kozo Kinomoto, Japanese footballer (d. 2017)

1951–1975

1951 – Kenny Anthony, former Prime Minister of Saint Lucia
1951 – John McTiernan, American director and producer
1951 – Franz Pachl, German chess player
1958 – Roman Wojcicki, Polish footballer
1958 – Rey Mysterio, Sr., Mexican wrestler
1958 – Betsy DeVos, 11th United States Secretary of Education
1959 – Paul Hester, Australian drummer
1959 – Duk Koo Kim, South Korean boxer (d. 1982)
1961 – Calvin Smith, American athlete
1964 – Ron Sexsmith, Canadian singer-songwriter
1964 – José-Luis Carranza, Peruvian footballer
1967 – Willie Anderson, American basketball player
1967 – Tom Watson, English politician
1967 – R. Kelly, American R&B singer
1968 – James Brokenshire, English politician
1969 – Ami Dolenz, American actress
1969 – J. Hunter Johnson, American game designer, author and translator
1971 – Pascal Zuberbühler, Swiss footballer
1972 – Giuseppe Favalli, Italian footballer
1972 – Paul Clement, English football manager
1973 – Sean Paul, Jamaican reggae singer
1973 – Henning Solberg, Norwegian rally driver
1975 – Chris Simmons, English actor

From 1976

1976 – Marcelo Gallardo, Argentine footballer
1977 – Amber Benson, American actress
1978 – Marco Fu, Hong Kong snooker player
1979 – Adrian Mutu, Romanian footballer
1979 – Windell Middlebrooks, American actor (d. 2015)
1979 – Stipe Pletikosa, Croatian footballer
1979 – Sarah Polley, Canadian movie actress, director and screenwriter
1979 – Tomasz Schafernaker, Polish–English meteorologist
1979 – Seol Ki-hyeon, South Korean footballer
1980 – Lee Jung-soo, South Korean footballer
1981 – Genevieve Cortese, American actress
1982 – Huang Sui, Chinese badminton player
1982 – John Utaka, Nigerian footballer
1983 – Felipe Colombo, Mexican–Argentine singer-songwriter, guitarist and actor
1983 – Kim Jong-un, North Korean leader
1986 – David Silva, Spanish footballer
1986 – Jaclyn Linetsky, Canadian actress (d. 2003)
1989 – Aaron Cruden, New Zealand rugby player
1990 – Xu Xin, Chinese ping–pong player
1991 – Jorge Enriquez, Mexican footballer
1992 – Koke, Spanish footballer
1992 – Rachell "Valkyrae" Hofstetter, American gaming content creator
1993 – Tang Yi, Chinese swimmer
1995 – Kyle Edmund, English tennis player
1997 – Jack Andraka, American inventor
2000 – Noah Cyrus, American actress
2011 – Prince Vincent of Denmark
2011 – Princess Josephine of Denmark

Deaths

Up to 1900

307 – Jin Huidi, Emperor of China (b. 259)
482 – Severinus of Noricum, Italian saint (b. 410)
1107 – Edgar of Scotland (b. 1074)
1198 – Pope Celestine III (b. 1106)
1324 – Marco Polo, Italian trader and explorer (b. 1254)
1337 – Giotto, Italian painter and architect (b. 1266)
1598 – John George, Elector of Brandenburg (b. 1525)
1642 – Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer (b. 1564)
1697 – Thomas Aikenhead, Scottish student, executed under Blasphemy law (b. 1676)
1713 – Arcangelo Corelli, Italian composer (b. 1653)
1775 – John Baskerville, English printer (b. 1706)
1794 – Justus Möser, German statesman (b. 1729)
1815 – Edward Pakenham, British general (b. 1778)
1818 – Robert Bowie, Governor of Maryland (b. 1750)
1825 – Eli Whitney, American inventor (b. 1765)
1878 – Nikolay Nekrasov, Russian poet (b. 1821)
1880 – Emperor Norton, self–proclaimed Emperor of the United States (b. 1819)
1896 – William Rainey Marshall, Governor of Minnesota (b. 1825)
1896 – Paul Verlaine, French poet (b. 1844)

1901–2000

1918 – Ellis H. Roberts, American politician (b. 1827)
1919 – Peter Altenberg, Austrian writer (b. 1859)
1925 – Fernand Sanz, French cyclist (b. 1881)
1934 – Andrei Bely, Russian poet (b. 1880)
1941 – Robert Baden-Powell, English founder of Scouting (b. 1857)
1943 – Richard Hillary, American pilot and author (b. 1919)
1948 – Richard Tauber, Austrian tenor (b. 1891)
1948 – Kurt Schwitters, German painter (b. 1887)
1950 – Joseph Schumpeter, Austrian economist (b. 1883)
1952 – Antonia Maury, American astronomer (b. 1866)
1953 – Hugh Binney, British naval commander and Governor of Tasmania (b. 1883)
1958 – Paul Pilgrim, American runner (b. 1883)
1964 – Julius Raab, Chancellor of Austria (b. 1891)
1969 – Albert Hill, British athlete (b. 1889)
1976 – Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People's Republic of China (b. 1898)
1983 – Tom McCall, Governor of Oregon (b. 1913)
1990 – Jaime Gil de Biedma, Spanish poet (b. 1929)
1991 – Steve Clark, British guitarist (b. 1960)
1996 – Metin Göktepe, Turkish photographer and journalist (b. 1968)
1996 – François Mitterrand, President of France (b. 1916)
1997 – Melvin Calvin, American chemist (b. 1911)
1998 – Michael Tippett, English composer (b. 1905)

From 2001

2002 – Alexander Prokhorov, Russian physicist (b. 1916)
2002 – Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's fast food chain (b. 1932)
2003 – Ron Goodwin, British composer and conductor (b. 1925)
2005 – Michel Thomas, Polish–American linguist (b. 1914)
2006 – Tony Banks, British politician (b. 1943)
2007 – Yvonne De Carlo, Canadian actress (b. 1922)
2007 – Iwao Takamoto, American animator (b. 1925)
2010 – Art Clokey, American animator (b. 1921)
2011 – Jiri Dienstbier, Czech journalist and politician (b. 1937)
2011 – John Roll, American judge (b. 1947)
2012 – Alexis Weissenberg, Bulgarian pianist (b. 1929)
2013 – Kenojuak Ashevak, Canadian Inuit artist (b. 1927)
2015 – Kep Enderby, Australian politician and judge (b. 1926)
2015 – Ray McFall, British nightclub owner (b. 1926)
2015 – Andraé Crouch, American gospel singer (b. 1942)
2015 – Hubert Markl, German biologist (b. 1938)
2015 – Leif Rantala, Finnish linguist (b. 1947)
2016 – German Moreno, Filipino television host (b. 1933)
2016 – André Courrèges, French fashion designer (b. 1923)
2016 – Red Simpson, American singer-songwriter (b. 1934)
2016 – Otis Clay, American singer (b. 1942)
2016 – Oscar Fritschi, Swiss politician (b. 1939)
2016 – Royal Parker, American television personality (b. 1929)
2016 – Piet Steenkamp, Dutch footballer (b. 1925)
2017 – James Mancham, 1st President of the Seychelles (b. 1939)
2017 – Ruth Perry, Liberian politician (b. 1939)
2017 – Hashemi Rafsanjani, 4th President of Iran (b. 1934)
2017 – Peter Sarstedt, English singer-songwriter (b. 1941)
2017 – Buddy Bregman, American arranger, producer and composer (b. 1930)
2017 – Klaib Al-Fawwaz, Jordanian diplomat and politician (b. 1950)
2017 – Miriam Goldberg, American newspaper publisher (b. 1916)
2017 – Roy Innis, American civil rights activist and politician (b. 1934)
2017 – Abdulkadir Kure, Nigerian politician (b. 1956)
2017 – Eli Zelkha, Iranian–American entrepreneur (b. 1950)
2017 – Nigel Spearing, British politician (b. 1930)
2018 – George Maxwell Richards, President of Trinidad and Tobago (b. 1931)
2018 – Kato Ottio, Papua New Guinean rugby league player (b. 1994)
2018 – Denise LaSalle, American singer-songwriter (b. 1939)

Observances

Commonwealth Day (Northern Mariana Islands)
Celebration of Elvis Presley's Birthday at Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee
Kim Jong-un's Birthday (North Korea)