On this day in History - Jan. 08

• 0871 - Battle of Ashdown - Ethelred of Wessex defeats Danish invasion army.
• 1198 - Innocentius III becomes Pope.
• 1297 - Monaco gains its independence.
• 1324 - Marco Polo dies (b. 1254). Italian explorer.
• 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.
• 1499 - Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany
• 1556 - Uesugi Kagekatsu was born (d. 1623). Japanese samurai and warlord.
• 1583 - Simon Episcopius was born (d. 1643). Dutch theologian.
• 1598 - Jews are expelled from Genoa Italy.
• 1601 - Baltasar Gracián y Morales was born (d. 1658). Spanish writer.
• 1628 - François Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, duc de Luxembourg was born (d. 1695). French general.
• 1632 - Samuel Pufendorf was born (d. 1694). German jurist.
• 1635 - Luis Manuel Fernández de Portocarrero was born (d. 1709). Spanish Archbishop of Toledo.
• 1642 - Galileo Galilei, dies in Arcetri, Italy (b. 1564). Astronomer, father of the scientific method.
• 1734 - Premiere of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
• 1735 - John Carroll was born (d.1815). First American Catholic archbishop.
• 1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.
• 1763 - Edmond Charles Genêt was born (d. 1834). French ambassador to the United States
• 1766 - Una flotilla inglesa se apodera del puerto de Egmont, en las islas Malvinas.
• 1786 - Nicholas Biddle was born (d. 1844). American financier, made 2nd bank of US 1st effective central bank.
• 1790 - George Washington delivers the first State of the Union Address address in New York City.
• 1792 - Lowell Mason was born (d. 1872). American composer.
• 1806 - Cape Colony becomes a British colony.
• 1800 - Austrians defeat French in 2nd battle of Novi .
• 1810 - Robert Schumann Zwickau Germ, composer (Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik) .
• 1811 - Unsuccessful slave revolt led by Charles Deslandes in St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.
• 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 (d. 1913). British naturalist and biologist.
• 1824 - Wilkie Collins was born (d. 1889). British novelist..
• 1824 - Francisco González Bocanegra was born (d. 1861). Mexican poet.
• 1836 - Lawrence Alma-Tadema was born (d. 1912). Dutch artist.
• 1838 - Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).
• 1856 - Borax is discovered (John Veatch).
• 1863 - Battle of Springfield of the American Civil War is fought.
• 1867 - African American men granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia.
• 1870 - Miguel Primo de Rivera was born (d. 1930). Dictator of Spain.
• 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 - Paul Verlaine dies. Frenc poet ( 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.
• 1902 - Mouzinho de Albuquerque dies. Portuguese militar.
• 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.
• 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) .
• 1916 - World War I: Allied forces withdraw from Gallipoli.
• 1918 - President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I.
• 1922 - The Social Democratic Youth League of Norway is founded.
• 1926 - Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud becomes the King of Hejaz and renames it Saudi Arabia.
• 1928 - Clube Atletico Bragantino, Bragança Paulista, Brazil, is founded.
• 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 - Lord Robert Baden-Powell of Gilwell dies. British general, founder of the "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.
• 1958 - 14 year old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess Championship.
• 1959 - Conquest of Cuba by Fidel Castro is completed with the conquest of Santiago de Cuba.
• 1959 - Charles de Gaulle became the first president of France's Fifth Republic.
• 1959 - Michel Debré becomes Prime Minister of France .
• 1961 - Calvin Smith was born. 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).
• 1962 - Harmelen train disaster kills 93 in The Netherlands
• 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 - Universidad de Concepción del Uruguay is created.
• 1971 - Los tupamaros secuestran al embajador británico en Uruguay.
• 1971 - Armando Discépolo dies. Argentine theater author.
• 1973 - Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of placing bugs in Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins. 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 - Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched.
• 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."
• 1985 - José Gomes Ferreira dies. Portuguese ficcionist and poet.
• 1986 - President Reagan freezes Libyan assets in the US.
• 1987 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 8.30 to close at 2,002.25 - The Dow's first close above 2,000.
• 1989 - Boeing 737-400 crashes in England, 46 die .
• 1989 - Beginning of Japanese Heisei era
• 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.
• 1995 - Carlos Monzón dies in a car accident. Argentine boxeur.
• 1996 - An Antonov 32 cargo jet crashes into the central market in Kinshasa, Zaire killing more than 350.
• 1996 - François Mitterrand dies. Former President of France.
• 1997 - Melvin Calvin dies (b. 1911). American scientist winner of Nobel Prize for Chemics in 1961.
• 1998 - Walter Diemer dies. Shewing-gum inventor.
• 1998 -The mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef, was sentenced to life in prison.
• 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.
• 2004 - RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, was christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.