January 8 in History
1835
January 8, 1835:The United States national debt is at zero for the first and only time in history.
1867
January 8, 1867:African-American men earn the right to vote in Washington, D.C.
1941
January 8, 1941:Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst orders his newspapers to not promote the film, “Citizen Kane” because the film’s main character was based on him and it did not portray him in a positive light.
1946
January 8, 1946:Elvis Presley, aged 11, receives his first guitar from his mother as a birthday present.
1959
January 8, 1959:Charles de Gaulle is sworn in as the President of France.
1963
January 8, 1963:The famous Mona Lisa painting is exhibited in the United States for the first time at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
1976
January 8, 1976:E.L. Doctorow’s novel, “Ragtime” receives the National Book Critics Circle Award.
1998
January 8, 1998:Ramzi Ahmed Yousef receives a life imprisonment sentence for being the brain behind the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing.
2011
January 8, 2011:Gabby Giffords, a U.S. Representative, survives a shooting as part of an assassination attempt.
2016
January 8, 2016:Having escaped from prison six months prior, Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman (also known as El Chapo) is captured in Los Mochis.