January 8

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 - Francois 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 - Rene Mayer becomes Prime Minister of France.
1958 - 14 year old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess Championship.
1959 - Michel Debre 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 in 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 - Francois 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 - Jose 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 - Jose-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 Zuberbuhler, 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
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 Moser, 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 Goktepe, Turkish photographer and journalist (b. 1968)
1996 - Francois 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 - Andrae 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 - Andre Courreges, 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)
January 08