Historical Events and Current Affairs on January 8

1198 : Lotario di Segni elected Pope Innocentius III
1214 : Earl Ferrand of Flanders drops ties with France
1499 : Brittany to keep duchy for the crown
1499 : Louis XII of France after papal divorce marries Anne, Duchess of
1558 : French troops under duke de Guise occupy Calais
1598 : Genoa Italy expels Jews
1598 : Jews are expelled from Genoa Italy
1656 : Oldest surviving commercial newspaper begins (Haarlem, Netherlands)
1675 : 1st American commercial corporation chartered (NY Fishing Co)
1705 : Georg F H?ndels 1st opera "Almira," premieres in Hamburg
1716 : Dutch gang leader "Sjako" arrested
1745 : England, Austria, Neth & Saxon sign anti-Prussian Quadruple Alliance
1746 : Bonnie Prince Charlie's troops occupy Stirling [NS=Jan 19]
1760 : Comet C/1760 A1 (Great comet) approaches within 0.0682 AUs of Earth
1790 : George Washington delivers 1st state of union address (or Jan 4)
1798 : 11th Amendment ratified, judicial powers construed
1800 : Austrians defeat French in 2nd battle of Novi
1800 : Wild Boy of Aveyron discovered in southern France
1806 : Cape colony becomes English colony
1806 : Lewis & Clark find skeleton of 105' blue whale in Oregon
1811 : Louisiana slave revolt by Charles Deslondes at German Coast
1815 : Battle of New Orleans-War of 1812 ended 12/24/1814 but nobody knew
1830 : Dutch King Willem I fires him displeasing parliament members
1833 : Boston Academy of Music, 1st US music school, established
1838 : 1st telegraph message sent using dots & dashes (NJ)
1838 : Rebellion at Amherstburg, Ontario breaks out
1842 : Dutch King Willem II charters Technical College Delft
1848 : Austrian soldiers kill 10 students, Pavia
1853 : 1st US bronze equestrian statue (of Andrew Jackson) unveiled, Wash
1856 : Dr John A Veatch discovers borax, Tuscan Springs, Calif
1857 : Dion Boucicauly's "Poor of NY," premieres in NYC
1865 : Sen Everett Dirksen introduces a bill to make marigold the natl flower
1867 : Legislation gives suffrage to DC blacks, despite Pres Johnson's veto
1870 : US mint at Carson City, Nevada begins issuing coins
1878 : Secret meeting of King Leopold II's agent & Henry Morton Stanley
1884 : Chrome tanning process for leather patented by Augustus Schultz
1889 : 1st Computer patented
1889 : Dr Herman Hollerith receives 1st US patent for a tabulating machine
1894 : Columbus World's fair in Chicago destroyed by fire
1897 : Michael Eagan wins 1st US national amateur handball championship
1901 : NSW score 918 all out vs South Australia in 560 minutes
1902 : 1st National Bowling Championship held (Chicago, Ill)
1904 : Pope Pius X banned low cut dresses in the presence of churchmen
1913 : Frank Chance becomes Yankee manager
1917 : Austria-Hungarian troops conquer Forlani Italy
1918 : Mississippi becomes 1st state to ratify 18th amendment (prohibition)
1918 : Pres Wilson outlines his 14 points for peace after WW I
1923 : Typography strike in Amsterdam
1925 : 1st all-female US state supreme court appointed, Texas
1926 : Abdul-Aziz ibn Sa'ud becomes king of Hejaz; renames it Saudi Arabia
1929 : 1st telephone connection between Netherlands & West-Indies
1929 : CBS radio network buys WABC in NYC
1930 : Belgium Princess Marie-Jos? marries Italian's crown prince Umberto
1932 : Ratification of present SF City Charter
1934 : Jaap Speyers "Bluejackets" premieres in Amsterdam
1935 : Spectrophotometer patented, AC Hardy
1937 : -50?F (-45.6?C), San Jacinto, Nevada (state record)
1938 : Bradman scores 107 for South Australia v Qld (1st innings)
1940 : Britain's 1st WW II rationing (bacon, butter & sugar)
1941 : British Air Marshal Richard Peirse resigns
1945 : "Youth for Christ" organizes
1947 : Gen George Marshall becomes Sect of State
1947 : Toronto Maple Leaf rookie Howie Meeker scores 5 goals in a game
1948 : Queen Wilhelmina signs death sentence against Ans van Dijk for treason
1949 : "Make Mine Manhattan" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 429 perfs
1949 : "My Romance" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 95 performances
1949 : "Small Wonder" closes at Coronet Theater NYC after 134 performances
1951 : Thought extinct since 1615, a Cahow is rediscovered in Bermuda
1952 : Jordan adopts constitution
1953 : Indians bar night games with Browns (who refuse to share TV receipts)
1953 : Ren? Mayer forms French govt
1954 : "Casual Love" & "I'll Never Stand in Your Way"
1954 : Elvis Presley pays $4 to a Memphis studio & records his 1st two songs,
1955 : Furman sets NCAA basketball single-game scoring record with 154 pt
1955 : Georgia Tech ends Kentucky's 130-game home basketball win streak
1955 : WUNC TV channel 4 in Chapel Hill, NC (PBS) begins broadcasting
1956 : Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Conrad Aiken
1956 : Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog," single goes to #1 &
1956 : stays #1 for a record 11 weeks (for a single)
1958 : Cuban revolutionary forces capture Havana
1959 : Charles de Gaulle inaugurated as pres of France's 5th Republic
1961 : Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Yvor Winters
1962 : Dutch express train crashes into slow commuter train, 93 die (Neth)
1962 : Golfer Jack Nicklaus, 21, 1st pro appearance, he came in 50th
1963 : "Mona Lisa," on loan, unveiled in America's National Gallery of Art
1963 : Dmitri Shostakovitch' Katharina Ismailova, premieres in Riga
1964 : European Parliament accept Mansholt Plan
1964 : President Lyndon B Johnson declares "War on Poverty"
1965 : Sen Dirksen proposes marigold as national flower (didn't pass)
1965 : Star of India returned to American Museum of Natural History
1966 : Beatles' "Rubber Soul," album goes #1 & stays #1 for 6 weeks
1966 : Beatles' "We Can Work It Out," single goes #1 & stays #1 for 3 weeks
1966 : Georges Pompidou appointed French premier
1966 : Who & the Kinks perform on the last "Shindig" TV show on ABC
1968 : Jacques Cousteau's 1st undersea special on US network TV
1971 : 29 pilot whales beach themselves & die at San Clemente Island, Calif
1971 : Voyageurs National Park, Minn established
1972 : Dmitri Shostakovitch' 15th Symphony, premieres in Moscow
1972 : NCAA announces freshman can play on teams starting in fall
1973 : "Tricks" opens at Alvin Theater NYC for 8 performances
1973 : Greg Chappell's best Test bowling, 5-61 v Pakistan at SCG
1973 : Secret peace talks between US & North Vietnam resumed near Paris
1973 : USSR launches Luna 21 for Moon landing
1974 : E Wilson Jr's musical "Let My People Come," premieres in NYC
1974 : Gold hits record $126.50 an ounce in London
1974 : Loch Ness Monster photographed
1974 : Silver hits record $3.40 an ounce in New York
1975 : Herbert W Kalmbach & Jeb Stuart Magruder from prison
1975 : Judge Sirica orders release of Watergate's John W Dean III,
1976 : Franklin Mint strikes 1st gold coins for Netherlands Antilles
1978 : Israeli govt votes to `strengthen' settlements in occupied Sinai
1979 : 512 die as oil tanker Bantry Bay blows up
1979 : Argentina & Chile sign Beagle Canal accord
1979 : Today Show gets a new theme song
1979 : Vietnamese troops overtook Khmer Rouge & occupy Phnom Penh
1980 : Islander Glenn Resch's 20th shut-out opponent-Canucks 3-0
1980 : NCAA decides to sponsor women's championships in 5 sports
1981 : "Pirates of Penzance" opens at Uris Theater NYC for 772 performances
1981 : India all out 63 in one-day international v Australia
1981 : Reds become last team to sign a free agent (Larry Biitner)
1982 : AT&T agrees to divest itself of 22 Bell System companies
1982 : Johnny Cash Parkway opens in Hendersonville Tennessee
1982 : Justice Dept withdraws antitrust suit against IBM, pending since
1984 : NCAA announces that basketball tournament will have 64 teams
1984 : Wash Caps Bengt Gustafsson scores 5 goals to beat Phila 7-1
1985 : Japan launches Sakigake space probe to Halley's Comet
1986 : Willie McCovey is 16th elected to Hall of Fame in his 1st year
1987 : Dow Jones closes above 2,000 for 1st time (2,002.25)
1987 : Jack Sikma (Milwaukee) begins NBA free throw streak of 51 games
1988 : 9th largest NBA crowd 38,873-Chicago at Detroit
1988 : Dow Jones down 140.58 points
1988 : Hewlett-Packard introduces HP-28S Advanced Scientific Calculator
1989 : "42nd Street" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 3,486 perfs
1989 : "Starlight Express" closes at Gershwin Theater NYC after 761 perfs
1989 : Boeing 737-400 crashes in England, 46 die
1989 : Soviet Union promises to eliminate stockpiles of chemical weapons
1991 : "Davis Rules," with Jonathan Winters & Randy Quaid premieres on ABC-TV
1991 : Gaylord Perry, Ferguson Jenkins & Rod Carew elected to Hall of Fame
1991 : Rod Carew is 22nd player elected to Hall of Fame on 1st try
1992 : George Bush gets ill & vomits on Japanese prime minister's lap
1993 : Chicago Bull Michael Jordan scores his 20,000th career point
1993 : Elvis Presley Commemorative Postage Stamp goes on sale
1993 : Michael Jordan scores his 20,000th career point
1993 : NBC offers "Tonight Show" to David Letterman
1994 : Russian manned space craft TM-18, launches into orbit
1995 : "Guys & Dolls" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 1143 perfs
1995 : 15th United Negro College Fund raises $12,200,000
1995 : Mike Schmidt is elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame
1996 : Blizzard buries eastern US causing at least 50 deaths
1996 : For 1st time in 25 years no one is elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1998 : Roseanne files for divorce from 3rd husband Ben Thomas
1998 : Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski asks to act as his own lawyer
1998 : World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Ahmed Yousef sentenced to life

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