HISTORY AT A GLANCE

TODAY is Monday, January 8, the 8th day of 2018. There are 357 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1961 – In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle’s

policies in Algeria. 1962 – The Harmelen train disaster killed 93 people in the

Netherlands. 1971 – 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. 1973 – Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched. 1973 – Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins. 1977 – Three bombs explode in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. 1979 – The tanker Betelgeuse explodes in Bantry Bay, Ireland. 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”. 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. 1989 – Beginning of Japanese Heisei period. 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. 1996 – An Antonov An-32 cargo aircraft crashes into a crowded market in Kinshasa, Zaire, killing up to 237 on the ground; the aircraft’s crew of six survive the crash. 2003 – Turkish Airlines Flight 634 crashes near Diyarbakir Airport, Turkey, killing the entire crew and 70 of 75 passengers. 2004 – The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, is christened by her namesake’s granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II. 2009 – A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in northern Costa Rica

kills 15 people and injures 32. 2010 – Gunmen from an offshoot the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda attacked the bus carrying the Togo national football team on its way to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, killing three.