Today in History 1900 United States President William McKinley places Alaska under military rule; in 1918 President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I; and in 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in the United States.

The On This Day In History archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

January 8 is the eighth day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 357 days remaining until the end of the year (358 in leap years).

EVENTS

307 – Jin Huidi, Chinese Emperor of the Jin Dynasty, is poisoned, and succeeded by his son, Jin Huaidi.

871 – Battle of Ashdown – Ethelred of Wessex defeats Danish invasion army.

1198 – Innocent III becomes Pope.

1297 – François Grimaldi, disguised as a monk, leads his men to capture the Rock of Monaco; from then on, his family rules the Principality of Monaco.

1499 – King Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany.

1697 – Thomas Aikenhead of Edinburgh becomes the last person in Scotland, and in the present–day United Kingdom, to be executed for blasphemy.

1734 – Premiere of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

1746 – Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.

1781 – An earthquake hits Tabriz, Persia, killing over 50,000 people.

1790 – In New York City, George Washington makes the US' first State of the Union Address.

1806 – Cape Colony becomes a British colony.

1815 – War of 1812: In the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.

1835 – US national debt is at zero, for the only time in US history.

1838 – Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).

1856 – Borax is discovered (John Veatch).

1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield.

1867 – African American men granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia.

1877 – In Montana, Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry.

1889 – Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his electric tabulating machine.

1893 – Captain Thomas Robertson discovers Dundee Island in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica.

1894 – A fire at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago causes a good deal of damage.

1900 – United States President William McKinley places Alaska under military rule.

1906 – A landslide in Haverstraw, New York kills 20 due to the excavation of clay along the Hudson River.

1908 – A train collision occurs in the Park Avenue Tunnel in New York City killing 17, injuring 38 and leading to increased demand for electric trains.

1912 – The African National Congress is founded.

1916 – World War I: Allied forces withdraw from Gallipoli.

1918 – President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I.

1926 – Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud becomes the King of Hejaz and renames it Saudi Arabia.

1935 – A.C. Hardy patents the spectrophotometer.

1942 – World War II: To stop Japanese advances in the Pacific Ocean, the Allies create the commando ABDACOM.

1953 – René Mayer becomes Prime Minister of France.

1958 – 14 year old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess Championship.

1959 – Michel Debré becomes Prime Minister of France, while Charles de Gaulle becomes the first President of France's Fifth Republic.

1961 – In a referendum, a majority of French voters supports Charles de Gaulle's policies on Algeria, which would lead towards the country's independence from France.

1963 – Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time (National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC).

1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in the United States.

1971 – Bowing to international pressure, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto releases Bengali leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

1973 – Watergate scandal: The trial begins for seven men accused of placing bugs in United States Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.

1973 – The Soviet Luna 21 space mission is launched.

1975 – Ella Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, becoming the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States who did not succeed her husband.

1977 – Three bombs explode in Moscow, within 37 minutes, killing 7 people. These attacks are suspected to have been carried out by an Armenian Separatist group.

1982 – AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty–two subdivisions.

1989 – Kegworth Air Disaster: British Midland Flight 92 crashes onto the M1 motorway, killing 47 people out of the 127 on board.

1992 – President of the United States George H. W. Bush becomes ill on a visit in Japan and vomits on the Japanese Prime Minister.

1994 – Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He will stay on the space station till March 22, 1995 for a record 437 days in space.

1996 – An Antonov 32 cargo jet crashes into the central market in Kinshasa, Zaire killing more than 350 people

1998 – Ramzi Yousef is sentenced to life in prison for planning the World Trade Center bombing and for planning Project Bojinka.

1999 – Cosmologists announce that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing.

2003 – In Kosciuszko National Park, Australia, following several lightning strikes during the dry season, bush fires break out.

2003 – US Airways flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina killing all 21 people aboard.

2004 – Queen Elizabeth names the Queen Mary II cruise liner, the largest passenger ship ever built.

2010 – The Togo national football team is targeted in an attack in Cabinda, Angola, and therefore withdraws from the African Cup of Nations.

2011 – 2011 Tucson shooting: Six people are killed in a shooting in Tucson, Arizona, and several are injured, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Jared Lee Loughner is arrested for the shooting.

2015 – Maithripala Sirisena is elected President of Sri Lanka, defeating Mahinda Rajapaksa, and takes office the next day.