January 08
1815
The Battle of New Orleans, the last battle in the War of 1812, was fought.
1918
Woodrow Wilson outlined his Fourteen Points peace program.
1958
Bobby Fischer won the United States Chess Championship for the first time at age 14.
1959
Charles de Gaulle became the first president of France’s Fifth Republic.
1964
President Lyndon Johnson announced his War on Poverty.
1982
The AT&T Bell System telephone monopoly agreed to divest itself of 22 Bell System companies and split itself into seven “Baby Bells.”
1998
The mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef, was sentenced to life in prison.
2011
Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords is among 17 shot by a gunman at a meeting outside a grocery store. Six people are fatally wounded, including United States District Court Judge John Roll, and a young girl. Police identify the gunman as Jared Lee Loughner.
Birthdays
Stephen William Hawking
1942, British theoretical physicist.
John Carroll
churchman (1735)
Edmond Charles Genêt
diplomat (1763)
Nicholas Biddle
financier (1786)
Wilkie Collins
author (1824)
Emily Greene Balch
economist and sociologist (1867)
William Piper
airplane manufacturer (1881)
Carl Rogers
psychologist (1902)
Jose Ferrer
actor (1912)
Elvis Presley
singer, actor (1935)
David Bowie
musician, actor (1947)