Today is Thursday, Jan. 8, the eighth day of 2026. There are 357 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Jan. 8, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson, in his State of the Union address, declared an “unconditional war on poverty in America.”
Also on this date:
In 1790, President George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address in New York City.
In 1815, the last major engagement of the War of 1812 came to an end as U.S. forces defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, not having received word of the December signing of a peace treaty.
In 1867, the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in overriding President Andrew Johnson’s veto of the District of Columbia Suffrage Act, giving Black men in the nation’s capital the right to vote.
In 1998, Ramzi Yousef (RAHM’-zee YOO’-sef), the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was sentenced in New York to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In 2011, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was shot and critically wounded when a gunman opened fire as the congresswoman met with constituents in Tucson; six people were killed and 12 others were injured. (Gunman Jared Lee Loughner was sentenced in 2012 to seven consecutive life sentences, plus 140 years.)
In 2016, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the world’s most-wanted drug lord, was captured for a third time in a daring raid by Mexican marines, six months after walking through a tunnel to freedom from a maximum-security prison.
In 2020, Iran struck back at the United States for killing Iran’s top military commander, firing missiles at two Iraqi military bases housing American troops. More than 100 U.S. service members were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries later. As Iran braced for a counterattack the same day, the country’s Revolutionary Guard shot down a Ukrainian jetliner departing Tehran after apparently mistaking it for a missile, killing all 176 people on board.
In 2023, supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who refused to accept his election defeat, stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace in the capital of Brasilia, a week after the inauguration of his leftist rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Today’s birthdays:
- Singer Shirley Bassey is 89.
- Fashion designer Carolina Herrera is 87.
- Country-gospel singer Cristy Lane is 86.
- Rock musician Robby Krieger (The Doors) is 80.
- Singer Jenny Lewis is 50.
- Filmmaker and actor Sarah Polley is 47.
- Actor Gaby Hoffman is 44.
- Actor Cynthia Erivo is 39.
- Actor Drew Scheid is 28.
