Events on January 8 51
Year 307
Jin Huidi, Chinese Emperor of the Jin dynasty, is poisoned and succeeded by Jin Huaidi.
Year 871
Alfred the Great leads a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by Danelaw Vikings.
Year 1297
François 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.
Year 1454
The papal bull Romanus Pontifex awards the Kingdom of Portugal exclusive trade and colonization rights to all of Africa south of Cape Bojador.
Year 1547
The first Lithuanian-language book, Simple Words of Catechism, is published in Königsberg.
Year 1735
Premiere performance of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Year 1790
George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address in New York City.
Year 1811
An unsuccessful slave revolt is led by Charles Deslondes in St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.
Year 1815
War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.
Year 1877
Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle against the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory.
Year 1889
Herman Hollerith is issued US patent #395,791 for the 'Art of Applying Statistics' — his punched card calculator.
Year 1904
The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system.
Year 1918
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I.
Year 1920
The steel strike of 1919 ends in a complete failure for the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers labor union.
Year 1926
Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuỵ ascends the throne, the last monarch of Vietnam.
Year 1936
Kashf-e hijab decree is enforced by Reza Shah ordering the police to physically remove the Hijab from any woman in public.
Year 1945
World War II: Philippine Commonwealth troops under the Philippine Commonwealth Army units enter the province of Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon and attack Japanese Imperial forces.
Year 1956
Operation Auca: Five U.S. missionaries are killed by the Huaorani of Ecuador shortly after making contact with them.
Year 1963
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Year 1971
Bowing 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.
Year 1973
Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.
Year 1975
Ella T. Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States other than by succeeding her husband.
Year 1977
Three bombs explode in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
Year 1981
A 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".
Year 1982
Breakup of the Bell System: AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions.
Year 1989
Kegworth air disaster: British Midland Flight 92, a Boeing 737-400, crashes into the M1 motorway, killing 47 of the 126 people on board.
Year 1992
US President George H. W. Bush vomits on Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa
Year 1994
Russian 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.
Year 1996
An Antonov An-32 cargo aircraft crashes into a crowded market in Kinshasa, Zaire, killing up to 223 on the ground; two of six crew members are also killed.
Year 2003
Turkish Airlines Flight 634 crashes near Diyarbakır Airport, Turkey, killing the entire crew and 70 of the 75 passengers.
Year 2003
Air Midwest Flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte-Douglas Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina, killing all 21 people on board.
Year 2004
The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest ocean liner ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
Year 2005
The 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.
Year 2009
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in northern Costa Rica kills 15 people and injures 32.
Year 2010
Gunmen from an offshoot 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.
Year 2011
The attempted assassination of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords and subsequent shooting in Casas Adobes, Arizona, in which five people were shot dead.