January 8Birthdays & History

On this day: January 8 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 307Sima Chi becomes emperor of the Jin dynasty in succession to his brother, Sima Zhong, despite a challenge from his other brother, Sima Ying.Asia
2. 871Æthelred I and Alfred the Great lead a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by Danelaw Vikings.Europe
3. 1297François 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.Europe
4. 1454The papal bull Romanus Pontifex awards the Kingdom of Portugal exclusive trade and colonization rights to all of Africa south of Cape Bojador.EuropeAfrica
5. 1499Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany in accordance with a law set by his predecessor, Charles VIII.Europe
6. 1547The first Lithuanian-language book, the Catechism of Martynas Mažvydas, is published in Königsberg.Europe
7. 1735The premiere of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante takes place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.Europe
8. 1746Second Jacobite rising: Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.Europe
9. 1790George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address in New York City.North America
10. 1806The Dutch Cape Colony in southern Africa becomes the British Cape Colony as a result of the Battle of Blaauwberg.EuropeAfrica
11. 1811Charles Deslondes leads an unsuccessful slave revolt in the North American settlements of St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.North America
12. 1815War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.North AmericaEurope
13. 1828The Democratic Party of the United States is organized.North America
14. 1835US President Andrew Jackson announces a celebratory dinner after having reduced the United States national debt to zero for the only time.North America
15. 1863American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield.North America
16. 1867The United States Congress passes the bill to allow African American men the right to vote in Washington, D.C.North AmericaAfrica
17. 1877Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle against the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory.North America
18. 1889Herman Hollerith is issued US patent #395,791 for the 'Art of Applying Statistics' — his punched card calculator.North America
19. 1900President William McKinley places Alaska under military rule.North America
20. 1912The African National Congress is founded, under the name South African Native National Congress (SANNC).AfricaNorth America
21. 1912The city of San Diego passes an ordinance restricting free speech, provoking months of civil unrest between socialist Wobblies and business leaders that become the bloodiest free speech fight in history.North America
22. 1918U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" as conditions for ending World War I.North America
23. 1920The steel strike of 1919 ends in failure for the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers labor union.North America
24. 1926Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz.Middle East
25. 1926Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuỵ is crowned emperor of Vietnam, the country's last monarch.Asia
26. 1928The Committee for Union Action is established in Guatemala.Latin America
27. 1933Anarchist insurrection of January 1933 breaks out in Barcelona, Spain.Europe
28. 1936Kashf-e hijab decree is made and immediately enforced by Reza Shah, Iran's head of state, banning the wearing of Islamic veils in public.Middle East
29. 1940World War II: Britain introduces food rationing.Europe
30. 1945World War II: Philippine Commonwealth troops under the Philippine Commonwealth Army units enter the province of Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon and attack invading Japanese Imperial forces.AsiaAsia
31. 1946Andrei Zhdanov, Chairman of the Finnish Allied Commission, submits to the Finnish War Criminal Court an interrogation report by General Erich Buschenhagen, a German prisoner of war, on the contacts between Finnish and German military personnel before the Continuation War and a copy of Hitler's Barbarossa plan.Europe
32. 1956Operation Auca: Five U.S. missionaries are killed by the Waorani of Ecuador shortly after making first contact.North AmericaLatin America
33. 1959Charles de Gaulle is proclaimed as the first President of the French Fifth Republic.Europe
34. 1961In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle's policies in Algeria.EuropeAfrica
35. 1964President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in the United States.North America
36. 1972Bowing 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.Asia
37. 1973Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.North America
38. 1973Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched.Europe
39. 1975Ella T. Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first woman to serve as a governor in the United States other than by succeeding her husband.North America
40. 1977Three bombs explode in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.Europe
41. 1981A 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".Europe
42. 1982Breakup of the Bell System: In the United States, AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions.North America
43. 1989Kegworth air disaster: British Midland Flight 92, a Boeing 737-400, crashes into the M1 motorway, killing 47 of the 126 people on board.Europe
44. 1994Russian 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.Europe
45. 1996An Antonov An-32 cargo aircraft crashes into a crowded market in Kinshasa, Zaire, killing up to 223 people on the ground; two of six crew members are also killed.Africa
46. 2002President of the United States George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act.North America
47. 2003Air Midwest Flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte-Douglas Airport, in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing all 21 people on board.North America
48. 2003Turkish Airlines Flight 634 crashes near Diyarbakır Airport, Turkey, killing the entire crew and 70 of the 75 passengers.Middle East
49. 2004The RMS Queen Mary 2, then the largest ocean liner ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.Europe
50. 2005The 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.North AmericaOceania
51. 2009A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in northern Costa Rica kills 15 people and injures 32.Latin America
52. 2010Gunmen from an offshoot of 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 people and injuring another nine.Africa
53. 2011Sitting US Congresswoman Gabby Giffords is shot in the head along with 18 others in a mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona. Giffords survived the assassination attempt, but six others died, including John Roll, a federal judge.North America
54. 2016West Air Sweden Flight 294 crashes near the Swedish reservoir of Akkajaure; both pilots, the only people on board, are killed.Europe
55. 2016Joaquín Guzmán, widely regarded as the world's most powerful drug trafficker, is recaptured following his escape from a maximum security prison in Mexico.Latin America
56. 2020Ukraine 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.EuropeMiddle East
57. 2021Twenty-three people are killed in what is described as a police ″massacre″ in La Vega, Caracas, Venezuela.Latin America
58. 2023Supporters of former Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro storm the Brazilian Congress.Latin AmericaNorth America

Source: Wikipedia "January 8" / CC BY-SA 4.0