Today in History
Today is Monday, Jan. 8, the eighth day of 2018. There are 357 days left in the year.
Today’s highlights
On Jan. 8, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson outlined his Fourteen Points for lasting peace after World War I. Mississippi became the first state to ratify the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which established Prohibition.
On this date
In 1642, astronomer Galileo Galilei died in Arcetri, Italy.
In 1790, President George Washington delivered his first State of the Union address to Congress in New York.
In 1815, the last major engagement of the War of 1812 came to an end as U.S. forces defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, not having gotten word of the signing of a peace treaty.
In 1867, the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in overriding President Andrew Johnson’s veto of the District of Columbia Suffrage Bill, giving black men in the nation’s capital the right to vote.
In 1935, rock-and-roll legend Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.
In 1959, Charles de Gaulle was inaugurated as president of France’s Fifth Republic.
In 1968, the Otis Redding single “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” was released on the Volt label almost a month after the singer’s death in a plane crash.
In 1976, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, 77, died in Beijing.
In 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.
In 1987, for the first time, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 2,000, ending the day at 2,002.25.
In 1998, Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was sentenced in New York to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In 2011, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was shot and critically wounded when a gunman opened fire as the congresswoman met with constituents in Tucson; six people were killed, 12 others also injured. (Gunman Jared Lee Loughner was sentenced in November 2012 to seven consecutive life sentences, plus 140 years.)
Ten years ago: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton powered to victory in New Hampshire’s 2008 Democratic primary in a startling upset, defeating Sen. Barack Obama and resurrecting her bid for the White House; Sen. John McCain defeated his Republican rivals to move back into contention for the GOP nomination. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, the only officer charged in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, was cleared of criminal wrongdoing. Paintings by Pablo Picasso and Brazilian painter Candido Portinari, stolen from Brazil’s Sao Paulo Museum in December 2007, were recovered.
Five years ago: Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, launched a political action committee aimed at curbing gun violence as her Arizona hometown paused to mark the second anniversary of the deadly shooting rampage.
One year ago: A Palestinian truck driver rammed his vehicle into a crowd of Israeli soldiers, killing at least four people in one of the deadliest attacks of a year and halflong wave of violence (the driver was shot dead). “La La Land” won seven Golden Globe Awards, including best motion picture, comedy or musical, while “Moonlight” was recognized as best movie drama; Meryl Streep, accepting a lifetime achievement award, criticized Presidentelect Donald Trump without mentioning him by name.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor-comedian Larry Storch is 95. Broadcast journalist Sander Vanocur is 90. CBS