307 – Jin Huaidi becomes emperor of China in succession to his father, Jin Huidi, despite a challenge from his uncle, Sima Ying
871 – Alfred the Great leads a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by Danelaw Vikings.
1297 – François Grimaldi, disguised as a monk, leads his men to capture the fortress protecting the Rock of Monaco, establishing his family as the rulers of Monaco
1454 – The papal bull Romanus Pontifex awards the Kingdom of Portugal exclusive trade and colonization rights to all of Africa south of Cape Bojador
1499 – Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany in accordance with a law set by his predecessor, Charles VIII.
1547 – The first Lithuanian-language book, the Catechism of Martynas Mažvydas, is published in Königsberg.
1735 – The premiere of George Frideric Handel’s Ariodante takes place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
1746 – Second Jacobite rising: Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.
1790 – George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address in New York City.
1806 – Cape Colony in southern Africa becomes a British colony as a result of the Battle of Blaauwberg.
1811 – An unsuccessful slave revolt is led by Charles Deslondes in the north American settlements of St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.
1815 – War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.
1828 – The Democratic Party of the United States is organized.
1835 – The United States national debt is zero for the only time.
1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield.
1867 – African American men are granted the right to vote in Washington, D.C.
1877 – Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle against the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory.
1889 – Herman Hollerith is issued US patent #395,791 for the ‘Art of Applying Statistics’ — his punched card calculator.
1904 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system.
1912 – The African National Congress is founded, under the name South African Native National Congress (SANNC).
1918 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announces his “Fourteen Points” for the aftermath of World War I.
1920 – The steel strike of 1919 ends in failure for the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers labor union.
1926 – Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuỵ ascends the throne to become the last monarch of Vietnam.
1926 – Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz.
1936 – Kashf-e hijab decree is made and immediately enforced by Reza Shah, Iran’s head of state, banning the wearing of Islamic veils in public.
1940 – World War II: Britain introduces food rationing.
1945 – World War II: Philippine Commonwealth troops under the Philippine Commonwealth Army units enter the province of Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon and attack Japanese Imperial forces.
1956 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. missionaries are killed by the Huaorani of Ecuador shortly after making contact with them.
1959 – Charles de Gaulle is proclaimed as the first President of the French Fifth Republic.
1961 – In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle’s policies in Algeria.
1963 – Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a “War on Poverty” in the United States.
1972 – Bowing to international pressure, President of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto releases Bengali leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from prison, who had been arrested after declaring the independence of Bangladesh.
1973 – Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched.
1973 – Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.
1975 – Ella T. Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States other than by succeeding her husband.
1977 – Three bombs explode in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
1981 – A local farmer reports a UFO sighting in Trans-en-Provence, France, claimed to be “perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time”.
1982 – Breakup of the Bell System: AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions.
1989 – Kegworth air disaster: British Midland Flight 92, a Boeing 737-400, crashes into the M1 motorway, killing 47 of the 126 people on board.
1994 – Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He would stay on the space station until March 22, 1995, for a record 437 days in space.
1996 – An Antonov An-32 cargo aircraft crashes into a crowded market in Kinshasa, Zaire, killing up to 223 on the ground; two of six crew members are also killed.
2002 – President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act.
2003 – Turkish Airlines Flight 634 crashes near Diyarbakır Airport, Turkey, killing the entire crew and 70 of the 75 passengers.
2003 – Air Midwest Flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte-Douglas Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina, killing all 21 people on board.
2004 – The RMS Queen Mary 2, then the largest ocean liner ever built, is christened by her namesake’s granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
2005 – The nuclear sub USS San Francisco collides at full speed with an undersea mountain south of Guam. One man is killed, but the sub surfaces and is repaired.
2009 – A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in northern Costa Rica kills 15 people and injures 32.
2010 – Gunmen from an offshoot the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda attack a bus carrying the Togo national football team on its way to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, killing three.
2011 – The attempted assassination of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords and subsequent shooting in Casas Adobes, Arizona, in which five people were shot dead.
2016 – Joaquín Guzmán, widely regarded as the world’s most powerful drug trafficker, is recaptured following his escape from a maximum security prison in Mexico.
2020 – Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 crashes immediately after takeoff at Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport; all 176 on board are killed. The plane was shot down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile.
Births on January 8
1037 – Su Dongpo, Chinese calligrapher and poet (d. 1101)
1345 – Kadi Burhan al-Din, poet, kadi, and ruler of Sivas (d. 1398)
1462 – Walraven II van Brederode, Dutch nobleman (d. 1531)
1529 – John Frederick II, duke of Saxony (d. 1595)
1556 – Uesugi Kagekatsu, Japanese daimyō (d. 1623)
1583 – Simon Episcopius, Dutch theologian and academic (d. 1643)
1587 – Johannes Fabricius, German astronomer and academic (d. 1616)
1587 – Jan Pieterszoon Coen, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1629
1589 – Ivan Gundulić, Croatian poet and playwright (d. 1638)
1601 – Baltasar Gracián, Spanish priest and author (d. 1658)
1628 – François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg, French general (d. 1695)
1632 – Samuel von Pufendorf, German economist and jurist (d. 1694)
1635 – Luis Manuel Fernández de Portocarrero, Spanish cardinal (d. 1709)
1638 – Elisabetta Sirani, Italian painter (d. 1665)
1735 – John Carroll, American archbishop, founder of Georgetown University (d. 1815)
1763 – Edmond-Charles Genêt, French-American translator and diplomat (d. 1834)
1786 – Nicholas Biddle, American banker and financier (d. 1844)
1788 – Rudolf of Austria, Austrian archduke and archbishop (d. 1831)
1792 – Lowell Mason, American composer and educator (d. 1872)
1805 – John Bigler, American lawyer, politician, and diplomat, 3rd Governor of California (d. 1871)
1805 – Orson Hyde, American religious leader, 3rd President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (d. 1878)
1812 – Sigismond Thalberg, Swiss pianist and composer (d. 1871)
1817 – Theophilus Shepstone, English-South African politician (d. 1893)
1821 – James Longstreet, American general and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Turkey (d. 1904)
1823 – Alfred Russel Wallace, Welsh geographer, biologist, and explorer (d. 1913)
1824 – Wilkie Collins, English novelist, playwright, and short story writer (d. 1889)
1824 – Francisco González Bocanegra, Mexican poet and composer (d. 1861)
1830 – Hans von Bülow, German pianist and composer (d. 1894)
1836 – Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Dutch-English painter and academic (d. 1912)
1843 – Frederick Abberline, English police officer (d. 1929)
1843 – Karl Eduard Heusner, German admiral (d. 1891)
1852 – James Milton Carroll, American pastor and author (d. 1931)
1854 – Fanny Bullock Workman, American mountaineer, geographer, and cartographer (d. 1925)
1860 – Emma Booth, English author (d. 1903)
1862 – Frank Nelson Doubleday, American publisher, founded the Doubleday Publishing Company (d. 1934)
1864 – Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (d. 1892)
1865 – Winnaretta Singer, American philanthropist (d. 1943)
1866 – William G. Conley, American educator and politician, 18th Governor of West Virginia (d. 1940)
1867 – Emily Greene Balch, American economist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
1870 – Miguel Primo de Rivera, Spanish general and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1930)
1871 – James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon, Irish captain and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (d. 1940)
1873 – Iuliu Maniu, Romanian lawyer and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1953)
1876 – Arturs Alberings, Latvian lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Latvia (d. 1934)
1879 – Charles Bryant, English-American actor and director (d. 1948)
1881 – Henrik Shipstead, American dentist and politician (d. 1960)
1881 – Linnie Marsh Wolfe, American librarian and author (d. 1945)
1883 – Pavel Filonov, Russian painter and poet (d. 1941)
1883 – Patrick J. Hurley, American general, politician, and diplomat, 51st United States Secretary of War (d. 1963)
1885 – John Curtin, Australian journalist and politician, 14th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1945)
1885 – Mór Kóczán, Hungarian javelin thrower and pastor (d. 1972)
1885 – A. J. Muste, Dutch-American pastor and activist (d. 1967)
1888 – Richard Courant, German-American mathematician and academic (d. 1972)
1891 – Walther Bothe, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957)
1891 – Storm Jameson, English journalist and author (d. 1986)
1891 – Bronislava Nijinska, Russian dancer and choreographer (d. 1972) name=”Jöckle1995″>Clemens Jöckle (1995). Encyclopedia of Saints. Alpine Fine Arts Collection. p. 319. ISBN 978-0-88168-226-7.</ref>
1896 – Jaromír Weinberger, Czech-American composer and academic (d. 1967)
1897 – Dennis Wheatley, English soldier and author (d. 1977)
1899 – S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (d. 1959)
1900 – Dorothy Adams, American character actress (d. 1988)
1900 – Merlyn Myer, Australian philanthropist (d. 1982)
1902 – Georgy Malenkov, Russian engineer and politician (d. 1988)
1902 – Carl Rogers, American psychologist and academic (d. 1987)
1904 – Karl Brandt, German physician and SS officer (d. 1948)
1904 – Tampa Red, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 1981)
1905 – Carl Gustav Hempel, German philosopher from the Vienna and the Berlin Circle (d. 1997)
1905 – Giacinto Scelsi, Italian composer and poet (d. 1988)
1906 – Serge Poliakoff, Russian-French painter (d. 1969)
1907 – Keizō Hayashi, Japanese general and civil servant (d. 1991)
1908 – Fearless Nadia, Australian-Indian actress and stuntwoman (d. 1996)
1908 – William Hartnell, English actor (d. 1975)
1909 – Ashapoorna Devi, Indian author and poet (d. 1995)
1909 – Willy Millowitsch, German actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1999)
1909 – Bruce Mitchell, South African cricketer (d. 1995)
1909 – Evelyn Wood, American author and educator (d. 1995)
1910 – Galina Ulanova, Russian actress and ballerina (d. 1998)
1911 – Gypsy Rose Lee, American actress, dancer, and author (d. 1970)
1912 – José Ferrer, Puerto Rican-American actor and director (d. 1992)
1912 – Lawrence Walsh, Canadian-American lawyer, judge, and politician, 4th United States Deputy Attorney General (d. 2014)
1915 – Walker Cooper, American baseball player and manager (d. 1991)
1917 – Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor, American novelist, short story writer, and playwright (d. 1994)
1922 – Dale D. Myers, American engineer (d. 2015)
1923 – Larry Storch, American actor and comedian
1923 – Giorgio Tozzi, American opera singer and actor (d. 2011)
1923 – Johnny Wardle, English cricketer (d. 1985)
1923 – Joseph Weizenbaum, German-American computer scientist and author (d. 2008)
1924 – Benjamin Lees, Chinese-American soldier and composer (d. 2010)
1924 – Ron Moody, English actor and singer (d. 2015)
1925 – Mohan Rakesh, Indian author and playwright (d. 1972)
1926 – Evelyn Lear, American operatic soprano (d. 2012)
1926 – Lazzaro Donati, Italian artist (d. 1977)
1926 – Kerwin Mathews, American actor (d. 2007)
1926 – Kelucharan Mohapatra, Indian dancer and choreographer (d. 2004)
1926 – Hanae Mori, Japanese fashion designer
1926 – Soupy Sales, American comedian and actor (d. 2009)
1927 – Charles Tomlinson, English poet and academic (d. 2015)
1928 – Slade Gorton, American colonel, lawyer, and politician, 14th Attorney General of Washington
1928 – Gaston Miron, Canadian poet and author (d. 1996)
1928 – Luther Perkins, American country guitarist (d. 1968)
1929 – Saeed Jaffrey, Indian-British actor (d. 2015)
1931 – Bill Graham, German-American businessman (d. 1991)
1931 – Clarence Benjamin Jones, American lawyer and scholar
1933 – Nolan Miller, American fashion and jewelry designer (d. 2012)
1933 – Charles Osgood, American soldier and journalist
1933 – Jean-Marie Straub, French director and screenwriter
1933 – Willie Tasby, American baseball player
1934 – Jacques Anquetil, French cyclist (d. 1987)
1934 – Gene Freese, American baseball player and manager (d. 2013)
1934 – Roy Kinnear, British actor (d. 1988)
1934 – Alexandra Ripley, American author (d. 2004)
1935 – Lewis H. Lapham, American publisher, founded Lapham’s Quarterly
1935 – Elvis Presley, American singer, guitarist, and actor (d. 1977)
1936 – Zdeněk Mácal, Czech-American conductor
1936 – Robert May, Baron May of Oxford, Australian-English zoologist, ecologist, and academic (d. 2020)
1937 – Shirley Bassey, Welsh singer
1938 – Bob Eubanks, American game show host and producer
1938 – Yevgeny Nesterenko, Russian opera singer and educator