January 8th
Today in America's Present Past
1705 | Zipporah Potter Atkins, the first black American to own property, died.
1735 | John Carroll, the founder of Georgetown University, was born.
1790 | POTUS: President George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address.
1792 | Musician Lowell Mason was born.
1811 | Civil Rights: Charles Deslondes leads an unsuccessful slave revolt in Louisiana.
1815 | War of 1812: Andrew Jackson leads American forces to victory over the British in the Battle of New Orleans.
1825 | Entrepreneur Eli Whitney died.
1835 | POTUS: Democrat President Andrew Jackson announces the U.S. national debt is zero for the first time.
1838 | Patriot War starts.
1862 | Frank Nelson Doubleday was born.
1863 | Civil War: The Second Battle of Springfield.
1867 | Civil Rights: The U.S. Congress passes a bill to authorize African American men to vote in the District of Columbia.
1867 | Economist Emily Greene Balch was born.
1877 | Indian Wars: “Crazy Horse” and his forces are defeated at the Battle of Wolf Mountain.
1899 | Inventor Herman Hollerith issued a patent for the punch-card calculator.
1900 | POTUS: Republican President William McKinley puts Alaska under military rule.
1909 | Educator Evelyn Wood was born.
1911 | Actress Gypsy Rose Lee was born.
1918 | POTUS: Democrat President Woodrow Wilson makes his “Fourteen Points” speech.
1925 | Painter George Bellows died.
1926 | Actor Soupy Sales was born.
1933 | Journalist Charles Osgood was born.
1935 | Musician Elvis Presley was born.
1956 | Missionary Jim Elliot is murdered.
1958 | Architect Mary Colter died.
1964 | POTUS: Democrat President Lyndon Johnson declares “War on Poverty.”
1973 | POTUS: The “Watergate” break-in trial of seven men began.
1975 | Civil Rights: Democrat Ella T. Grasso became the first woman elected as a state Governor in Connecticut.
2002 | POTUS: Republican President George W. Bush signs “No Child Left Behind” laws.
2002 | Entrepreneur Dave Thomas died.
2005 | U.S.S. San Francisco collides at full speed with an underwater mountain, killing one sailor.
2011 | Congress: Democrat Congresswoman Gabby Giffords is wounded in a mass shooting.