On This Day — 8 January
2000s
2023
Supporters of former Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro storm the Brazilian Congress.
Jair Bolsonaro
2021
Twenty-three people are killed in what is described as a police ″massacre″ in La Vega, Caracas, Venezuela.
La Vega raid
2020
Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 crashes immediately after takeoff at Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport; all 176 on board are killed. The plane was shot down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile.
Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752
2016
Joaquín Guzmán, widely regarded as the world's most powerful drug trafficker, is recaptured following his escape from a maximum security prison in Mexico.
El Chapo
2016
West Air Sweden Flight 294 crashes near the Swedish reservoir of Akkajaure; both pilots, the only people on board, are killed.
West Air Sweden Flight 294
2011
Sitting US Congresswoman Gabby Giffords is shot in the head along with 18 others in a mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona. Giffords survived the assassination attempt, but six others died, including John Roll, a federal judge.
Gabby Giffords
2010
Gunmen from an offshoot of 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 people and injuring another nine.
Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda
2009
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in northern Costa Rica kills 15 people and injures 32.
2009 Cinchona earthquake
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.
USS San Francisco (SSN-711)
2004
The RMS Queen Mary 2, then the largest ocean liner ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
Queen Mary 2
2003
Turkish Airlines Flight 634 crashes near Diyarbakır Airport, Turkey, killing the entire crew and 70 of the 75 passengers.
Turkish Airlines Flight 634
2003
Air Midwest Flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte-Douglas Airport, in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing all 21 people on board.
Air Midwest Flight 5481
2002
President of the United States George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act.
George W. Bush
1900s
1996
An Antonov An-32 cargo aircraft crashes into a crowded market in Kinshasa, Zaire, killing up to 223 people on the ground; two of six crew members are also killed.
Antonov An-32
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.
Astronaut
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.
Kegworth air disaster
1982
Breakup of the Bell System: In the United States, AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions.
Breakup of the Bell System
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".
Trans-en-Provence case
1977
Three bombs explode in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
1977 Moscow bombings
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.
Ella Grasso
1973
Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched.
Soviet Union
1973
Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.
Watergate scandal
1972
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.
President of Pakistan
1964
President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in the United States.
Lyndon B. Johnson
1961
In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle's policies in Algeria.
1961 French referendum on Algerian self-determination
1959
Charles de Gaulle is proclaimed as the first President of the French Fifth Republic.
Charles de Gaulle
1956
Operation Auca: Five U.S. missionaries are killed by the Waorani of Ecuador shortly after making first contact.
Operation Auca
1946
Andrei Zhdanov, Chairman of the Finnish Allied Commission, submits to the Finnish War Criminal Court an interrogation report by General Erich Buschenhagen, a German prisoner of war, on the contacts between Finnish and German military personnel before the Continuation War and a copy of Hitler's Barbarossa plan.
Andrei Zhdanov
1945
World War II: Philippine Commonwealth troops under the Philippine Commonwealth Army units enter the province of Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon and attack invading Japanese Imperial forces.
Commonwealth of the Philippines
1940
World War II: Britain introduces food rationing.
World War II
1936
Kashf-e hijab decree is made and immediately enforced by Reza Shah, Iran's head of state, banning the wearing of Islamic veils in public.
Kashf-e hijab
1933
Anarchist insurrection of January 1933 breaks out in Barcelona, Spain.
Anarchist insurrection of January 1933
1926
Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuỵ is crowned emperor of Vietnam, the country's last monarch.
Bảo Đại
1926
Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz.
Ibn Saud
1920
The steel strike of 1919 ends in failure for the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers labor union.
1919 General Steel Strike
1918
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" as conditions for ending World War I.
Woodrow Wilson
1912
The African National Congress is founded, under the name South African Native National Congress (SANNC).
African National Congress
1912
The city of San Diego passes an ordinance restricting free speech, provoking months of civil unrest between socialist Wobblies and business leaders that become the bloodiest free speech fight in history.
San Diego
1900
President William McKinley places Alaska under military rule.
William McKinley
1800s
1889
Herman Hollerith is issued US patent #395,791 for the 'Art of Applying Statistics' — his punched card calculator.
Herman Hollerith
1877
Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle against the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory.
Crazy Horse
1867
The United States Congress passes the bill to allow African American men the right to vote in Washington, D.C.
African Americans
1863
American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield.
American Civil War
1835
US President Andrew Jackson announces a celebratory dinner after having reduced the United States national debt to zero for the only time.
Andrew Jackson
1828
The Democratic Party of the United States is organized.
Democratic Party (United States)
1815
War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.
War of 1812
1811
Charles Deslondes leads an unsuccessful slave revolt in the North American settlements of St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.
Charles Deslondes
1806
The Dutch Cape Colony in southern Africa becomes the British Cape Colony as a result of the Battle of Blaauwberg.
Dutch Cape Colony
Before 1800
1790
George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address in New York City.
George Washington
1746
Second Jacobite rising: Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.
Jacobite rising of 1745
1735
The premiere of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante takes place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
George Frideric Handel
1547
The first Lithuanian-language book, the Catechism of Martynas Mažvydas, is published in Königsberg.
Lithuanian language
1499
Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany in accordance with a law set by his predecessor, Charles VIII.
Louis XII
1454
The papal bull Romanus Pontifex awards the Kingdom of Portugal exclusive trade and colonization rights to all of Africa south of Cape Bojador.
Papal bull
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.
François Grimaldi
871
Æthelred I and Alfred the Great lead a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by Danelaw Vikings.
Æthelred I of Wessex
307
Sima Chi becomes emperor of the Jin dynasty in succession to his brother, Sima Zhong, despite a challenge from his other brother, Sima Ying.
Emperor Huai of Jin