History for January 8

History for January 8 - On-This-Day.com:
James Longstreet 1821 - U.S. Civil War general, Soupy Sales (Milton Hines) 1926 - Comedian (Host: The Soupy Sales Show), Elvis Presley 1935 - Musician, known as "the King of rock 'n' roll"


Yvette Mimieux 1941 - Actress ("The Time Machine", "The Most Deadly Game"), Stephen Hawking 1942 - Theoretical physicist, writer ("A Brief History of Time"), David Bowie (David Robert Jones) 1947 Singer, movies ("The Man Who Fell to Earth", "Labyrinth", "Basquiat"), Broadway ("The Elephant Man")


1642 - Astronomer Galileo Galilei died in Arcetri, Italy.


1815 - The Battle of New Orleans began. The War of 1812 had officially ended on December 24, 1814, with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. The news of the signing had not reached British troops in time to prevent their attack on New Orleans.


1889 - The tabulating machine was patented by Dr. Herman Hollerith. His firm, Tabulating Machine Company, later became International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).


1918 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announced his Fourteen Points as the basis for peace upon the end of World War I.


1958 - Bobby Fisher, at the age of 14, won the United States Chess Championship for the first time.


1964 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson declared a "War on Poverty."

1994 - Tonya Harding won the ladies' U.S. Figure Skating Championship in Detroit, MI, a day after Nancy Kerrigan dropped out because of a clubbing attack that injured her right knee. The U.S. Figure Skating Association later took the title from Harding because of her involvement in the attack.


1998 - Ramzi Yousef was sentenced to life in prison for his role of mastermind behind the World Trade Center bombing in New York.