According to Gregory calendar, January 08, the day number 365 in a year and if it is a leap year then the day number is 366. January 08 has its own special significance in India and world history.
Here you will find some important events that happened in Indian History on January 08. Read on to know more about this day.
List of Important Historical events of 8th January:
- 1026 Sultan Mahmud looted the Somnath temple and destroyed it.
- 1642: Italian physicist astronomer and scholar Galileo Galile died at the age of 78.
- 1656: Oldest surviving commercial newspaper begins (Haarlem, Netherlands)
- 1705: George Frederick Handel premieres “Almeira” in Hamburg.
- 1716: Dutch gang leader “Sajko” arrested.
- 1734: George Friedrich Handel’s Ariandant premiered at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
- 1745: Britain, Austria, Netherlands and anti-Saxony signed Prussian Quadruple Alliance.
- 1790: 1st US President George Washington delivers 1st state of the union address
- 1800: Austria defeats France in the Second Battle of Navi.
- 1800: Wild boy Aveyron is discovered in southern France.
- 1835: US national debt is $0 for the first and only time in history
- 1836: London and Greenwich Railway open their first section, the first railway station in London, England.
- 1842: Delft University of Technology founded the Royal Academy for the Education of Civil Engineers by William II of the Netherlands.
- 1856: Dr. John Veitch discovers ‘borax’ (hydrated sodium borate).
- 1856: A large amount of Borox deposits were discovered in California by John Vecht.
- 1884: Keshav Chandra Sen, the nationalist leader of Bengal and the speaker of Brahmas Samaj, died in Calcutta (now Kolkata).
- 1889: Hermann Hollerith received a patent for the invention of the punch card tabulating machine.
- 1912: Chiefs, representatives of people’s and church organisations, and other prominent individuals form the African National Congress and declare its aim to bring all Africans together as one people to defend their rights and freedoms
- 1916: WWI: ANZAC forces withdraw from the Gallipoli Peninsula after Ottoman forces successfully defend access to Constantinople
- 1926: Abdulaziz Ibn Saud becomes King of Nejd and Hejaz; forerunner of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
- 1929: Saeed Jaffrey, Indian actor (The Chess Players, Gandhi), born in Punjab, India (d. 2015)
- 1929: First telephone contact is established between the Netherlands and the West Indies.
- 1940: The British government introduced ration cards for butter, bacon, ham and sugar.
- 1952: 8 million refugees were found within the borders of West Germany.
- 1958: 14-year-old Bobby Fisher wins the United States Chess Championship.
- 1961: A referendum is held in France over Algeria’s independence. Algeria recorded only 69 percent of the vote in favor.
- 1965: Star of India returned to American Museum of Natural History
- 1965: The first film of Indian cinema ‘Do Bigha Zameen’ which won international acclaim, its filmmaker Bimal Roy died.
- 1968: Martin Luther King, the leader of the Blacks struggle in America, was shot dead by unknown invaders, leading to his death.
- 1973: Launches Luna 21, Russia’s space mission.
- 1975: Harris Jayaraj, Indian music composer, born in Chennai, India
- 1981: India all out 63 in one-day international v Australia
- 1984: The first Indian female pilot Sushma Mukhopadhyay passed away.
- 1996: Zirion cargo plane Kinshasa crashes in a crowded market, killing 300 people.
- 2009: A 6.1 magnitude earthquake in the northern region of Costa Rica killed 15 people and injured 32 others.