January 8
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Featured Event
Science History Images/Alamy
The Mysterious Sighting at Trans-en-Provence
On this day in 1981, a man in southeastern France observed what he called a “bulging disk” consisting of “two plates glued to each other by the rim.” The unidentified flying object landed briefly in a nearby field and then took off, vanishing over some trees. Though it has been extensively studied, the sighting has never been scientifically explained. [Read today’s edition of Today in History >>]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
© 1957 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.; photograph, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
I’m not kidding myself. My voice alone is just an ordinary voice. What people come to see is how I use it. If I stand still while I’m singing, I’m dead. Man, I might as well go back to driving a truck.
American popular singer and film star Elvis Presley, born this day in 1935, was widely known as the “King of Rock and Roll” and was one of that genre’s dominant performers from the mid-1950s until his death in 1977.
Famous Birthdays
More on January 8
Eraldo Peres—AP/Shutterstock.com
2023
Thousands of supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, the incumbent who had lost the Brazilian presidential election in October 2022, stormed the country’s Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential palace in Brasília.
© Xinhua/David de la Paz—Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images
2016
Joaquín Guzmán (“El Chapo”), head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, was captured in Los Mochis after escaping prison some six months earlier. He was later extradited to the United States, where he was convicted of various crimes. [Read about five other notorious prison escapes.]
Office of U.S. House of Representative Gabrielle Giffords
2011
U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords was shot during an assassination attempt in Arizona. Although she and 12 others who were shot survived, six people were killed. [Take our quiz about the history of American politics.]
Richard Drew/AP Images
1998
Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, convicted of plotting the 1993 terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, was sentenced to life in prison.
TSW—CLICK/Chicago
1997
The principality of Monaco began celebrating the 700th anniversary of the rule of the Grimaldi family, who seized power in 1297 and gained firm possession of Monaco in 1419.
Bruno Barbey/Magnum Photos
1959
Charles de Gaulle was inaugurated as president of France’s Fifth Republic. [Test your knowledge of French history.]
Kim Shiflett/NASA
1942
Stephen Hawking, who developed a theory of exploding black holes that drew upon both relativity theory and quantum mechanics, was born in Oxford, England. [How much do you know about physics?]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1918
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announced his Fourteen Points, an outline for peace following World War I. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about U.S. presidents.]
© African National Congress
1912
The African National Congress was founded. Originally called the South African Native National Congress, its main goal was the maintenance of voting rights for persons of mixed race and for Black Africans in Cape Province.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital File Number: cph 3g06222)
1815
U.S. General Andrew Jackson defeated Great Britain in the Battle of New Orleans, the final engagement in the War of 1812. [Take our history of war quiz.]
Scala/Art Resource, New York
1790
U.S. President George Washington delivered the first State of the Union, an annual address to Congress. [Test your knowledge of U.S. presidential history.]