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Information about 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 Fischer 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 H. W. 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


   * 1786 - Nicholas Biddle, President of the Second Bank of the United


     States (+ 1844)


   * 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 - Josˇ 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 entrepreneur (+ 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


   * 1942 - George Passmore, artist, half of Gilbert and George


   * 1946 - Robby Krieger, musician ("The Doors")


   * 1949 - Wolfgang Puck, celebrity chef


   * 1947 - David Bowie, singer


   * 1959 - Paul Hester, drummer


   * 1973 - Sean Paul, Jamaican reggae singer


Deaths


   * 482 - Saint Severinus, monk


   * 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 the People's Republic 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

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