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January 8: Today in History – Historical Events
Early Centuries – January 8 Historic Events – Before the 1700s
1. 8th Jan 1297: Monaco gets independence.
2. 8th Jan 1558: French troops under the command of Duc de Guise occupy Calais.
3. 8th Jan 1598: Jews are expelled from the Italian city of Genoa
4. 8th Jan 1656: Marks the beginning of the commercial newspaper at Haarlem in the Netherlands. This is the oldest surviving commercial newspaper.
5. 8th Jan 1675: The New York Fishing Company was established. This was the first corporation to be chartered in the US.
18th Century – What Happened on January 8 – The 1700s
6. 8th Jan 1708: British squadron attacks Spanish naval fleet (Amanda) headed by San Jose sinking it. It was fully loaded with gold.
7. 8th Jan 1746: An anti-Prussian Quadruple alliance entered into by Britain, Austria, Netherlands, and Saxony.
8. 8th Jan 1790: The first State of the Union address was delivered by the first US President George Washington.
19th Century – January 8 This Day That Year – The 1800s
9. 8th Jan 1800: The French suffered a defeat in the battle of Novi at the hands of the Austrians.
10. 8th Jan 1806: Cape Colony becomes a British colony.
11. 8th Jan 1815: The invading British Army in its attempt to seize New Orleans and territory which the United States had acquired Louisiana purchase was defeated by Major General Andre Jackson
12. 8th Jan 1838: A telegraph code devised by using dots and dashes as letters was demonstrated by its founder Alfred Veil. This was a predecessor to Samuel Morse’s code.
13. 8th Jan 1853: A bronze equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson, the first of its kind was unveiled in Washington.
14. 8th Jan 1856: Borax was discovered by Dr John A Veatch at Tuscan Springs, California.
15. 8th Jan 1863: The second battle of Springfield was fought during the American Civil War.
16. 8th Jan 1867: Despite a veto by President Johnson, African-American men were granted the right to vote in Washington.
17. 8th Jan 1870: Marks the beginning of the issue of coins by the US Mint at Carson City in Nevada.
18. 8th Jan 1877: This is the day of the last battle between Native American war leader Crazy Horse and the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain.
19. 8th Jan 1884: Augustus Schultz patents the Chrome tanning process for leather.
20. 8th Jan 1886: The longest railway tunnel in Britain, the Severn Railway Tunnel was opened.
21. 8th Jan 1889: Dr. Herman Hollerith patented his tabulating machine. His company which was known as Tabulating Machine Company later became International Business Machines Corporation.
22. 8th Jan 1894: The Worlds Columbian Exposition held in Chicago suffered serious damage due to fire.
20th Century – Important Events On This Day January 8th – The 1900s
23. 8th Jan 1900: The Bore’s attack on Ladysmith was successfully turned back by General White.
24. 8th Jan 1900: Alaska was placed under military rule by US President McKinley.
25. 8th Jan 1901: New South Wales scored 918 all out in 560 minutes against South Australia.
26. 8th Jan 1902: The United Irish League which was a leading force for the unification of all Ireland and its independence from the British held its convention in Dublin.
27. 8th Jan 1904: Pope Pius X banned wearing low-cut dresses in the presence of churchmen.
28. 8th Jan 1906: The excavation of clay along the Hudson River caused a landslide in Haverstraw, New York killing 20 people.
29. 8th Jan 1908: A train collision in the smoke-filled Park Avenue Tunnel in New York City killed 17 and 37 people were injured.
30. 8th Jan 1916: Marked the final withdrawal of Allied troops from Gallipoli, during World War I.
31. 8th Jan 1918: US President Woodrow Wilson proposed the fourteen-point peace plan at the end of World War I.
32. 8th Jan 1918: The 18th amendment bill (Prohibition of the consumption of alcohol) was ratified by Mississippi. It became the first state to ratify the bill.
33. 8th Jan 1920: Canada prohibits the export of newsprint paper. Further export would be allowed only after the amounts allotted to Canadian publishers are supplied.
34. 8th Jan 1925: In Texas the first all-female US state supreme court was appointed.
35. 8th Jan 1926: Abdul-Aziz ibn Sa’ud becomes the King of Hejaz. He later renamed it Saudi Arabia.
36. 8th Jan 1929: Marked the first telephone connection between the West Indies and the Netherlands.
37. 8th Jan 1935: A.C.Hardly patents his Spectrophotometer.
38. 8th Jan 1937: Nevada records the lowest temperature -50°F at San Jacinto.
39. 8th Jan 1938: Legendary batsman Don Bradman scores 107 for South Australia against Queensland.
40. 8th Jan 1940: Marks the First World War II rationing in Britain, rationing butter, bacon, and sugar.
41. 8th Jan 1942: Air Marshal Richard Peirse, Air Offer Commanding-in-Chief Bomber command replaced by the British.
42. 8th Jan 1945: The Soviet Armies handed over Berlin to the American and British Armies.
43. 8th Jan 1947: General Georg Marshall appointed Secretary of State in the US.
44. 8th Jan 1948: The death sentence against Ans Van Dijk for treason was signed by Queen Wilhelmina.
45. 8th Jan 1952: Jordan adopts its constitution.
46. 8th Jan 1953: French government formed by René Mayer.
47. 8th Jan 1954: Singer and cultural Icon Elvis Presley records his first two songs. He pays $4 to Memphis studio to record the two songs.
48. 8th Jan 1956: Conrad Aiken gets Bollingen prize for poetry.
49. 8th Jan 1958: At the age of 14, Bobby Fisher won the US chess championship for the 1st time.
50. 8th Jan 1958: Havana captured by Cuban revolutionary forces.
51. 8th Jan 1959: Charles De Gaulle was inaugurated as president of the Fifth Republic of France.
52. 8th Jan 1961: After seven years of guerrilla war Algeria gets independence from France.
53. 8th Jan 1961: Yvor Winters gets Bollingen prize for poetry.
54. 8th Jan 1962: Golfer Jack Nicklaus, 21 makes his first appearance as a professional golfer.
55. 8th Jan 1962: In a train accident a Dutch express train rams into a slow commuter train leaving over 90 dead.
56. 8th Jan 1963: It was for the first time in history that the “Mona Lisa” the masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci was exhibited in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. The painting was on loan from the French government.
57. 8th Jan 1964: US government takes action against poverty. This mission was referred to as the war on poverty
58. 8th Jan 1965: A bill to make the marigold flower an American National flower was introduced by Senator Everett Dirksen. The bill did not pass.
59. 8th Jan 1965: Star of India the 563.35 carrot gem which was stolen in Oct 1964 was returned to the American Museum of Natural History.
60. 8th Jan 1966: A new government was formed in France by Georges Pompidou after his re-appointment as French Prime Minister.
61. 8th Jan 1968: The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Terence O’Neill travels to Dublin to meet and discuss matters of joint interests with Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch.
62. 8th Jan 1973: The trial of 7 men accused of bugging the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington DC begins.
63. 8th Jan 1973: The citizen’s action group known as Action for Children’s Television made known its request to the US Federal government to ban advertisements during children’s television shows.
64. 8th Jan 1973: Marks the resumption of secret peace talks between the US and North Vietnam near Paris
65. 8th Jan 1973: Greg Chappell gets 5 wickets for 63 runs against Pakistan at the SCG, his best bowling performance.
66. 8th Jan 1973: Space probe Luna 21 was launched by the USSR for a Moon Landing.
67. 8th Jan 1974: Gold prices sore and hit a record high at $126.5 in London.
68. 8th Jan 1975: Ella Grasso became the first governor of the state of Connecticut by winning an election.
69. 8th Jan 1975: The release from prison of Watergate’s John W Dean III, Herbert W Kalmbach, and Jeb Stuart Magruder was ordered by Judge Sirca.
70. 8th Jan 1976: Marks the striking of the first gold coins at the Franklin Mint for Netherlands Antilles.
71. 8th Jan 1978: Harvey Milk an openly gay person gets elected to public office in California.
72. 8th Jan 1978: Israel votes to strengthen its settlements in occupied Sinai.
73. 8th Jan 1979: The Beagle Canal accord was signed between Argentina and Chile.
74. 8th Jan 1979: Oil tanker Bantry Bay blows up killing 512 people.
75. 8th Jan 1979: Vietnamese troops occupy Phnom Penh overtaking Khmer Rouge.
76. 8th Jan 1981: Australia bowels out India for 63 runs in the first one-day international cricket match.
77. 8th Jan 1982: The antitrust suit against IBM was withdrawn by the Justice Department of the US.
78. 8th Jan 1982: AT&T divests itself of 22 Bell system companies to settle the antitrust lawsuit against it by the Justice Department of the US.
79. 8th Jan 1987: It was for the first time that the Doe Jones industrial average closed over the 2000 mark at 2002.25.
80. 8th Jan 1988: Doe Jones industrial average is down to 140.58 points.
81. 8th Jan 1988: An advanced scientific calculator HP 28S was introduced by Hewlett-Packard.
82. 8th Jan 1988: Debi Thomas wins the US figure skating championship.
83. 8th Jan 1989: Elimination of the stockpile of chemical weapons promised by the Soviet Union.
84. 8th Jan 1989: A Boeing 737 of the British Midland Flight 092 crashed into the M1 motorway near East Midland airport after both its engines failed. It was a brand-new aircraft. The crash killed 46 people.
85. 8th Jan 1991: World record set in 400 M medley. Tamas Darnye swims in a record time of 4:12.6.
86. 8th Jan 1992: During a state dinner in Tokyo, US President George Bush collapsed. According to White House officials, he was suffering from stomach flu.
87. 8th Jan 1993: Sale of singer and cultural Icon Elvis Presley’s commemorative stamp.
88. 8th Jan 1994: A manned spacecraft TM-18 was launched into orbit by Russia.
89. 8th Jan 1994: Scot Davis wins the male figure skating championship.
90. 8th Jan 1998: Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the World Trade Center bomber was sentenced to life.
21st Century – January 8 This Day In History – The 2000s
91. 8th Jan 2002: George W Bush the US president signed into law the “No Child Left Behind” Act.
92. 8th Jan 2004: The largest passenger ship ever built was christened Queen Mary 2, after her grandmother by Queen Elizabeth II.
93. 8th Jan 2005: Rate of US first class mail increased. It was increased to 39ȼ.
94. 8th Jan 2006: An earthquake of magnitude 6.9 with its epicenter off the island of Kythira hits Greece. The earthquake was felt by the entire Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
95. 8th Jan 2008: New Jersey becomes the first northern state to officially apologize for slavery.
96. 8th Jan 2009: Varablanca-Angel fault causes a 6.2 magnitude earthquake in the Vocan Poás region of Costa Rica.
97. 8th Jan 2009: Archeologists in Egypt discovered the mummy of Queen Sesheshet in a 4300-year-old pyramid.
98. 8th Jan 2009: Slumdog Millionaire wins Best Film award in the 14th Critic Choice Movie Awards.
99. 8th Jan 2011: An attempt to assassinate Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and subsequent shooting at a Safeway grocery store kills 6 and wounds 13. The wounded include Giffords.
100. 8th Jan 2013: Thousands evacuate their homes due to wildfires across Australia’s east coast.
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