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 – 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)

January 08