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Today in History ~ January 8
Events0794 - Vikings attacked Lindisfarne Island
1598 - Genoa, Italy expels Jews
1656 - Oldest surviving commercial newspaper begins (Haarlem, Netherlands)
1705 - Georg F Handel's 1st opera "Almira," premieres in Hamburg
1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie's troops occupy Stirling
1798 - 11th Amendment ratified, regarding judicial powers
1806 - Lewis & Clark find skeleton of 105' blue whale in Oregon
1815 - The forces of American Gen. Andrew Jackson decisively defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, the closing engagement of the War of 1812. (War of 1812 ended 12/24/1814 but nobody knew) [H]
1833 - Boston Academy of Music, 1st US music school, established
1838 - 1st telegraph message sent using dots & dashes (NJ)
1853 - 1st US bronze equestrian statue (of Andrew Jackson) unveiled, Wash
1856 - Dr John A Veatch discovers borax, Tuscan Springs, Calif
1867 - Congress approved legislation that, for the first time, allowed blacks to vote in the District of Columbia, despite Pres Johnson's veto [H]
1877 - Crazy Horse fights his final battle
1889 - Dr Herman Hollerith receives 1st US patent for a tabulating machine.
1894 - Columbian Exposition in Chicago destroyed by fire
1904 - Pope Pius X banned low cut dresses in the presence of churchmen
1916 - Allied forced staged a full retreat from the shores of the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, ending a disastrous invasion of the Ottoman Empire that resulted in 250,000 Allied casualties. [H]
1918 - Mississippi becomes 1st state to ratify 18th amendment (prohibition)
1918 - President Wilson outlined his 14 points for peace after World War I.
1935 - Spectrophotometer patented, AC Hardy
1940 - Britain's 1st WW II rationing (bacon, butter & sugar)
1947 - Gen George Marshall becomes Sect of State
1951 - Thought extinct since 1615, a Cahow is rediscovered in Bermuda
1956 - Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog," single goes to #1 for a record 11 weeks (for a single)
1958 - Bobby Fisher won the United States Chess Championship for the first time at 14 years of age.
1959 - Charles de Gaulle inaugurated as pres of France's 5th Republic
1963 - "Mona Lisa," on loan, unveiled in America's National Gallery of Art
1964 - President Lyndon B Johnson declares "War on Poverty"
1968 - Jacques Cousteau's 1st undersea special on US network TV
1971 - 29 pilot whales beach themselves & die at San Clemente Island, off Calif
1973 - Secret peace talks between US & North Vietnam resumed near Paris
1973 - The trial of the "Watergate Seven" began in Washington, D.C. The defendants were charged with breaking into Democratic Party national headquarters.
1975 - Judge Sirica orders release of Watergate's John W Dean III, Herbert W Kalmbach & Jeb Stuart Magruder from prison
1978 - Israeli government votes to `strengthen' settlements in occupied Sinai
1981 - "Pirates of Penzance" opens at Uris Theater NYC for 772 performances
1982 - Justice Dept withdraws antitrust suit against IBM
1982 - American Telephone and Telegraph settled the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against it by agreeing to divest itself of the 22 Bell System companies.
1987 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 2000 for the first time, ending the day at 2,002.25.
1987 - Kay Orr was inaugurated in Lincoln, Neb., as the nation's first woman Republican governor.
1989 - "42nd Street" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 3,486 performances
1989 - Soviet Union promises to eliminate stockpiles of chemical weapons
1991 - One person was killed and 248 injured when a London commuter train crashed into the buffers at a station.
1991 - Pan American World Airways filed for bankruptcy.
1992 - George Bush gets ill & vomits on Japanese prime minister's lap
1993 - Chicago Bull Michael Jordan scores his 20,000th career point
1993 - Thousands gathered at Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tenn., to purchase the first issue of a stamp honoring the King of Rock 'n' Roll on what would have been his 58th birthday.
1994 - Tonya Harding won the U.S. Figure Skating Championship in Detroit, qualifying her for the Winter Olympics. The U.S. Figure Skating Association also named Nancy Kerrigan to the team, despite her injury in an attack two days earlier.
1995 - "Guys & Dolls" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 1143 performances
1996 - Blizzard buries eastern US causing at least 50 deaths
1997 - A report by University of Texas scientists concluded that exposure to a combination of chemicals was somehow linked to Gulf War Syndrome, responsible for the various ailments reported by veterans of the 1991 conflict.
1997 - The state of Arkansas put three men to death in the second triple execution since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.
1997 - The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on whether to allow physician-assisted suicide.
1997 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin was hospitalized with early signs of pneumonia.
1998 - Unibomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski asks to act as his own lawyer
1998 - World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Ahmed Yousef sentenced to life
2001 - Former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined a quarter of a million dollars for extorting payoffs from businessmen applying for riverboat casino licenses. (Edwards remains out of jail as he appeals his conviction.)
2001 - Pope John Paul II was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
2002 - President Bush signed a major education bill that, among other things, mandated annual testing for students in grades 3-8 and called for tutors for poor schools.
Birthdays Today
1081 - Henry V, Roman German king/emperor (1098/1111-25)
1587 - Johannes Fabricius, Denmark, astronomer (discovered sunspots)
1810 - Robert Schumann, Zwickau Germ, composer (Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik)
1824 - William Wilkie Collins, English novelist (Woman in White)
1830 - Gouverneur Kemble Warren, Major Gen (Union volunteers), died in 1882
1830 - Hans von Bulow, Dresden, pianist/virtuoso conductor
1862 - Frank Nelson Doubleday, publisher/founder (Doubleday & Co)
1868 - Frank Dyson, proved Einstein right about light bent by gravity
1891 - Walter Bothe, Germany, subatomic particle physicist (Nobel 1954)
1896 - Jaromir Weinberger, Prague Czechoslovakia, composer (Bird's Opera, Schwanda der Duddelsacpfeifer)
1902 - Georgy M Malenkov, Stalin's successor as head of CPSU, PM (1953-55)
1909 - Jose Ferrer (Cintron) (director, actor: Deep in my Heart; Rosemary Clooney's husband)
1923 - Giorgio Tozzi, Chicago Illinois, basso (Met Opera - Boris, Don Giovanni)
1923 - Joseph Wiezenbaum, artificial intelligence pioneer
1923 - Larry Storch (comedian, actor: F Troop)
1924 - Ron Moody (actor, singer: Oliver Twist)
1926 - or 1930 - Soupy Sales (Milton or Morton Supman or Hines) (entertainer: The Soupy Sales Show; fired for asking kids to "...go into mommy's purse or daddy's wallet and find all the little green pieces of paper and send them to me!")
1927 - Walter Hergesheimer (hockey)
1928 - Sander Vanocur (newscaster: ABC News)
1930 - Doreen Wilbur (archery)
1933 - Charles Osgood, NYC, news anchor (CBS Weekend News)
1934 - Gene Freese (baseball)
1935 - Elvis Aaron Presley, Tupelo Miss, King of Rock 'n' Roll,
1937 - Shirley Bassey (singer: James Bond themes: Goldfinger, Diamond's Are Forever)
1940 - Anthony Gourdine (singer: group: Little Anthony and The Imperials: Tears on My Pillow, Hurt So Bad)
1941 - Yvette Mimieux (actress: The Time Machine, The Most Deadly Game)
1945 - Ron Ellis (hockey)
1947 - Terry Sylvester (musician: Groups: Swinging Blue Jeans, Hollies)
1948 - David Bowie (Jones) (singer: Changes, Ziggy Stardust)
1948 - Joe Reed (football)
1949 - Wilbur Howard (baseball)
Famous deaths
1324 - Marco Polo, Venetian explorer/gov of Nanking, dies
1642 - Galileo Galilei, Italian physicist/astronomer, Hounded by Inquisition, dies at 77 in Italy. [H]
1713 - Arcangelo Corelli, composer/violinist (Concerti Grossi), dies at 59
1775 - John Baskerville, English printer/type designer, dies at 68
1796 - Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois, French Revolution leader and member of the Commitee of Public Safety that ruled during The Terror, dies in exile at 46
1941 - Robert Baden-Powell, founder (Boy Scout movement), dies at 83
1948 - Richard Tauber, Austria/British tenor/composer (Lehar), dies at 55
1952 - Antonia Maury, discoverer (supergiant, giant & dwarf stars), dies
1975 - Richard Tucker, [Reuben Ticker], US tenor/cantor (La Gioconda), dies at 61
1976 - Chou En-lai, China's PM (1949-76), dies of cancer in Beijing at 78
1990 - Terry Thomas, Engl comic (Heroes), dies of Parkinson's disease at 78
1992 - Menachim Begin, Israeli PM, dies at 78 of a heart attack
1996 - Francois Mitterrand, Pres of France (1981-95), dies of cancer at 79
1998 - Walter Diemer, inventor (bubble gum 1928), dies of heart failure at 93
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-mail me
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