On this day in History - Jan. 08

• 871 - Battle of Ashdown - Ethelred of Wessex defeats Danish invasion army.
• 1198 - Innocentius III becomes Pope.
• 1324 - Marco Polo Italian explorer, dies (b. 1254).
• 1455 - A Bula do Papa Nicolau V, «Romanus Pontifex» concede ao rei de Portugal, aos seus sucessores e ao infante D. Henrique, as terras descobertas e a descobrir pelos navegadores e exploradores ao serviço da Coroa de Portugal.
• 1598 - Jews are expelled from Genoa Italy .
• 1642 - Galileo Galilei, dies in Arcetri, Italy; astronomer, father of the scientific method (b. 1564).
• 1766 - Una flotilla inglesa se apodera del puerto de Egmont, en las islas Malvinas.
• 1786 - Nicholas Biddle was born, financier ,made 2nd bank of US 1st effective central bank.
• 1800 - Austrians defeat French in 2nd battle of Novi .
• 1810 - Robert Schumann Zwickau Germ, composer (Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik) .
• 1815 - War of 1812: In the Battle of New Orleans Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.
• 1823 - Alfred Russel Wallace, was born, British naturalist and biologist (d. 1913)
  1824 - Wilkie Collins was born, author .
• 1838 - Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).
• 1856 - Borax is discovered (John Veatch).
• 1867 - African American men granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia.
• 1870 - Miguel Primo de Rivera, dictator of Spain (d. 1930).
• 1877 - Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry (Montana).
• 1881 -William Piper was born , airplane manufacturer.
• 1885 - Tratado de paz y amistad entre España y la República de Ecuador.
• 1889 - Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his electric tabulating machine.
• 1894 - A fire at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago causes a good deal of damage.
• 1896 - Muere Paul Verlaine, poeta francés, creador del simbolismo ( Elégies, Bonne Chanson) .
• 1896 - Manuel Rojas was born, Sepulveda Chile, writer (Men of the South) .
• 1900 - United States President William McKinley places Alaska under military rule.
• 1909 - El político cubano Juan Miguel Gómez, líder del partido liberal de su país, es elegido presidente de la República.
• 1912 - Jose Ferrer was born, Puerto Rican actor .
• 1913. Tomada de posse do 1.º governo Afonso Costa (Portugal) .
• 1918-Woodrow Wilson outlined his Fourteen Points peace program.
• 1926 - Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud becomes the King of Hejaz and renames it Saudi Arabia.
• 1928 - Se funda el Clube Atletico Bragantino, de Bragança Paulista, Brasil.
• 1929 - Son repatriadas las fuerzas estadounidenses de ocupación en Nicaragua.
• 1935 - - A.C. Hardy patents the spectrophotometer.
• 1935 - Mao-Tse-Toung devient Président du parti Communiste Chinois.
• 1935 -Elvis Presley was born in Yupelo, Mississipi [d. 1977]singer, guitarrist .
• 1937 - Shirley Bassey, was born in Cardiff, Welsh singer .
• 1941 - Muere Lord Robert Baden-Powell of Gilwell, general británico, fundador de los "boy scouts".
• 1942 -Stephen William Hawking was born, British theoretical physicist.
• 1946 - Aparece la revista "France Football", por entonces, órgano oficial de la Fédération Française de Football.
• 1947 - David Bowie, was born, English singer .
• 1950 - Joseph A Schumpeter, dies; Austrian/US economist/Minister of Finance, dies at 66
  1952 - Jordan adopts constitution .
• 1953 - René Mayer becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1959 - Fidel Castro, al frente de sus tropas revolucionarias, entra victorioso en La Habana.
• 1959 -Charles de Gaulle became the first president of France's Fifth Republic.
• 1959 - Michel Debré becomes Prime Minister of France .
• 1961 - Calvin Smith, American athlete.
• 1962 - 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.
• 1966 Georges Pompidou forms his third cabinet as French premier .
• 1969- R. Kelly, was born, American R&B singer .
• 1969 - Se crea la Universidad de Concepción del Uruguay.
• 1971 - Los tupamaros secuestran al embajador británico en Uruguay.
• 1971 - Muere el autor teatral argentino Armando Discépolo.
• 1973 - Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of placing bugs in Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.
• 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 Pearl Amoah, was born, Miss Ghana-Universe (1996).
• 1978 - Petra Minarova was born, Miss Czech Republic-Universe (1997) .
• 1979 - Argentina and Chile sign Beagle Canal accord .
• 1979 - Vietnamese troops overtook Khmer Rouge and occupy Phnom Penh .
• 1979 - 512 die as oil tanker Bantry Bay blows up.
• 1982 Oscar Ribas Reig se convierte en el primer presidente del Principado de Andorra.
• 1982 -The AT&T Bell System telephone monopoly agreed to divest itself of 22 Bell System companies and split itself into seven "Baby Bells."
• 1986 - President Reagan freezes Libyan assets in the US .
• 1989 -Boeing 737-400 crashes in England, 46 die .
• 1994 - Lanzamiento de la nave espacial rusa Soyuz TM-18 desde el cosmódromo de Baikonur (Kazajistán) con destino a la estación espacial Mir y con tres cosmonautas a bordo.
• 1995 - Muere el ex boxeador argentino Carlos Monzón en un accidente automovilístico, en una salida con permiso de la cárcel.
• 1996 - Muere Francois Mitterrand, ex presidente de Francia.
• 1997 - Muere Melvin Calvin, (b. 1911) científico y profesor estadounidense, P. Nobel de Química 1961.
• 1998 - Muere Walter Diemer inventor del chicle en 1928.
• 1998 -The mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef, was sentenced to life in prison.
• 2001 -Entra en vigor en España la nueva Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil (LEC).
• 2003 - Ron Goodwin dies at age 77, British composer Ron Goodwin was nominated for a Golden Glode for his Score of Alfred Hitchcock’s "Frenzy". He composed the music for several other horror/sci-fi/suspense.
• 2003 -Billy Van, dies. Canadian comedian Billy Van died at age 68 after a long battle with cancer. Mr. Van appeared on numerous TV series during the last three decades.