On this day in history

January 8

30 births · 13 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

108

Fourteen Points

108 years ago

Born this day

1935

Elvis Presley

Would be 91

Photo (modified): Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. · Public domain

Oldest record

989th

Su Shi

birth anniversary

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Famous births30

1037 · 989 yrs

Su Shi

Su Shi (Chinese: 蘇軾; 8 January 1037 – 24 August 1101), courtesy name Zizhan (子瞻), art name Householder Dongpo (東坡居士), was a Chinese literatus, scholar-official, poet, writer, calligrapher, painter and gastronomist of the Song dynasty.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 64

View profile Photo (modified): Zhao Mengfu · Public domain

1379 · 647 yrs

Callixtus III

Pope Callixtus III (Italian: Callisto III, Valencian: Calixt III, Spanish: Calixto III; 31 December 1378 – 6 August 1458), born Alonso de Borja, but referred to in English-language accounts as Alfonso de Borgia as a member of the House of Borgia, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 79

View profile Photo (modified): Sano di Pietro · Public domain

1601 · 425 yrs

Baltasar Gracián

Baltasar Gracián y Morales (Spanish:; 8 January 1601 – 6 December 1658), better known as Baltasar Gracián, was a Spanish Jesuit priest and Baroque prose writer and philosopher. He was born in Belmonte, near Calatayud (Aragón).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 57

View profile Photo (modified): anonymous · Public domain

1823 · 203 yrs

Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was an English naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and illustrator.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 90

View profile Photo (modified): London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company (active 1855-1922) · Public domain

1824 · 202 yrs

Wilkie Collins

William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for The Woman in White (1860), a mystery novel and early sensation novel, and for The Moonstone (1868), which established many of the ground rules of the modern detective novel and is also perhaps the…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 65

View profile Photo (modified): Rudolf Lehmann · Public domain

1867 · 159 yrs

Emily Greene Balch

Emily Greene Balch (January 8, 1867 – January 9, 1961) was an American economist, sociologist and pacifist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 94

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1870 · 156 yrs

Miguel Primo de Rivera, 2nd Marquis of Estella

Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquis of Estella, GE (8 January 1870 – 16 March 1930), was a Spanish dictator and military officer who ruled as prime minister of Spain from 1923 to 1930 during the last years of the Bourbon Restoration. He was born into a landowning family of Andalusian aristocrats.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 60

View profile Photo (modified): Kaulak · CC0

1891 · 135 yrs

Walther Bothe

Walther Wilhelm Georg Bothe (German:; 8 January 1891 – 8 February 1957) was a German experimental physicist who shared the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics with Max Born "for the coincidence method and his discoveries made therewith." Bothe served in the military during World War I from 1914, and he was a prisoner of war…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 135

View profile Photo (modified): Nobel foundation · Public domain

1894 · 132 yrs

Maximilian Kolbe

Maximilian Maria Kolbe, OFM Conv. (born Raymund Kolbe; Polish: Maksymilian Maria Kolbe; 8 January 1894 – 14 August 1941) was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar, priest, missionary, and martyr.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionWould be 132

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1902 · 124 yrs

Georgy Malenkov

Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov (8 January 1902 – 14 January 1988) was a Soviet politician who succeeded Joseph Stalin as Premier and the overall leader of the Soviet Union in March 1953.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 124

View profile Photo (modified): Grigory Vayl · Public domain

1902 · 124 yrs

Carl Rogers

Carl Ransom Rogers (January 8, 1902 – February 4, 1987) was an American psychologist who was one of the founders of humanistic psychology and was known especially for his person-centered psychotherapy.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 124

View profile Photo (modified): The original uploader was Didius at Dutch Wikipedia . · CC BY 2.5

1912 · 114 yrs

José Ferrer

José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón (January 8, 1912 – January 26, 1992) was a Puerto Rican actor and director of stage, film and television. He was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic American actors during his lifetime and after, with a career spanning nearly 60 years between 1935 and 1992.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 114

View profile Photo (modified): Press photo · Public domain

Showing 12 of 30

Famous deaths13

1324 · 702 yrs

Marco Polo

Marco Polo (c. 1254 – 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer, and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in The Travels of Marco Polo (also known as Book of the Marvels of the World and Il Milione, c.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ExplorationDied aged 69

View profile Photo (modified): Salviati · Public domain

1642 · 384 yrs

Galileo Galilei

Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer and polymath. He was born in Pisa, then part of the Duchy of Florence.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 77

View profile Photo (modified): Justus Sustermans · Public domain

1713 · 313 yrs

Arcangelo Corelli

Arcangelo Corelli (also UK:, US:; Italian:; 17 February 1653 – 8 January 1713) was an Italian composer, musician, and violinist of the middle Baroque era.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicDied aged 59

View profile Photo (modified): Hugh Howard (1675-1737) · Public domain

1793 · 233 yrs

Carlo Goldoni

Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni (also US:; Italian:; 25 February 1707 – 6 February 1793) was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 85

View profile Photo (modified): Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0

1896 · 130 yrs

Paul Verlaine

Paul Marie Verlaine ( vair-LEN; French:; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet, writer and critic associated with the Symbolist, Parnassianist and Decadent movements. He is considered one of the paramount exponents of the fin de siècle in French and international poetry.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 51

View profile Photo (modified): Otto Wegener · Public domain

1934 · 92 yrs

Andrei Bely

Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev (Russian: Бори́с Никола́евич Буга́ев, IPA:; 26 October 1880 – 8 January 1934), better known by the pen name Andrei Bely or Biely, was a Russian and Soviet novelist, Symbolist poet, theorist and literary critic. He was a committed anthroposophist and follower of Rudolf Steiner.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 146

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1941 · 85 yrs

Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell

Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell (22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941), was a British Army officer, writer, founder of The Boy Scouts Association and its first Chief Scout, and founder, with his sister Agnes, of The Girl Guides Association.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 83

View profile Photo (modified): Francis Henry Hart, for Elliott & Fry · Public domain

1950 · 76 yrs

Joseph Schumpeter

Joseph Alois Schumpeter (German:; February 8, 1883 – January 8, 1950) was an Austrian political economist. He served briefly as Finance Minister of Austria in 1919.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 143

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown · Public domain

1976 · 50 yrs

Zhou Enlai

Zhou Enlai (Chinese: 周恩来; pinyin: Zhōu Ēnlái; Wade–Giles: Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from October 1949 until his death in January 1976.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 128

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1996 · 30 yrs

François Mitterrand

François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (26 October 1916 – 8 January 1996) was President of France from 1981 to 1995. He was the first left-wing politician to assume the presidency under the Fifth Republic, successfully remaining in office longer than any other republican head of state in French history.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 110

View profile Photo (modified): Comet Photo AG (Zürich) · CC BY-SA 4.0

1997 · 29 yrs

Melvin Calvin

Melvin Ellis Calvin (April 8, 1911 – January 8, 1997) was an American biochemist known for discovering the Calvin cycle along with Andrew Benson and James Bassham. He was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants".

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 115

View profile Photo (modified): "Photolab" · Public domain

2002 · 24 yrs

Alexander Prokhorov

Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov (born Alexander Michael Prochoroff; Russian: Александр Михайлович Прохоров; 11 July 1916 – 8 January 2002) was an Australian-born Soviet physicist and researcher whose work focused on quantum electronics. His most famous and well-known works were on optics and electromagnetic research.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 110

View profile Photo (modified): Nobel foundation · Public domain

Showing 12 of 13

Events5

1815 · 211 yrs

Battle of New Orleans

The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815, between the British Army under Major General Sir Edward Pakenham and the United States Army under Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson, roughly 5 miles (8 km) southeast of the French Quarter of New Orleans, in the current suburb of Chalmette, Louisiana.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1918 · 108 yrs

Fourteen Points

The Fourteen Points was a statement of principles for peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end World War I. The principles were outlined in a January 8, 1918, speech on war aims and peace terms to the United States Congress by President Woodrow Wilson.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

2020 · 6 yrs

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Tehran to Kyiv, operated by Ukraine International Airlines.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

2020 · 6 yrs

2020 Iranian attack on U.S. forces in Iraq

On 8 January 2020, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) conducted Operation Martyr Soleimani (Persian: عملیات شهید سلیمانی), launching over 12 ballistic missiles against the United States Armed Forces at al-Asad Airbase in Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq, as well as another airbase in Erbil, in response to the…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

2023 · 3 yrs

2023 Brazilian Congress attack

On 8 January 2023, following the defeat of then-president Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 Brazilian general election and the inauguration of his successor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a mob of Bolsonaro's supporters attacked Brazil's federal government buildings in the capital, Brasília.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

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