Today in History for 8th January 2026

Historical Events

1656 – Oldest surviving commercial newspaper, “Weeckelycke Courante van Europa”, now known as “Haarlems Dagblad”, and still in print, begins publication in Haarlem, Netherlands
1716 – Amsterdam gang leader and thief “Sjako” arrested
1948 – Queen Wilhelmina signs death sentence against Ans van Dijk for treason
1984 – AFC Championship, LA Memorial Coliseum: Los Angeles Raiders beat Seattle Seahawks, 30-14
2008 – New Jersey officially apologizes for slavery, becoming the first Northern state to do so

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1824 – Francisco González Bocanegra, Mexican poet (Mexican national anthem), born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico (d. 1861)
1934 – Gene Freese, American MLB baseball player (Pittsburgh Pirates and 5 other teams), born in Wheeling, West Virginia (d. 2013)
1965 – Michelle Forbes [Guajardo], American actress (True Blood, Guiding Light, Star Trek: The Next Generation), born in Austin, Texas
1986 – Peng Shuai, Chinese tennis player (1st Chinese player to reach No.1 ranking – doubles with Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan, 2014), born in Xiangtan, China
1987 – Cynthia Erivo, British Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award-winning stage and screen actress (The Color Purple; Harriet; Wicked (film)) and singer-songwriter (“Stand Up”), born in London, England

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1900 – Billy Bates, English cricket all-rounder (15 Tests, 5 x 50, 50 wickets, BB 7/28, hat-trick 1883; Yorkshire CCC), dies from pneumonia at 44
1916 – Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (b. 1884)
1963 – Stark Young, American writer (So Red the Rose), dies at 81
1990 – Terry-Thomas [Thomas Terry Stevens], English comedian and actor (I’m All Right Jack; Private’s Progress), dies of Parkinson’s disease at 78
2007 – Arthur Cockfield ‘The Father of the Single Market, British politician ‘(European Commissioner), dies at 90

More Famous Deaths »

Famous Deaths for 7th January 2026

1721 – Rochus Aerts, Flemish sculptor, dies [or 1739]
1887 – Abraham van Lier, Dutch theater director (Grand Théâtre des Variétés), dies at 73
1951 – René Guénon, French-Egyptian metaphysician, traditionalist and author, dies at 64
1984 – Alfred Kastler, French physicist (Nobel 1966 – Hertzian resonances within atoms), dies at 81
1988 – Michel Auclair [Vladimir Vujović], German actor (Funny Face; The Day of the Jackal), dies at 65
1993 – Richard Branda, American actor (You Are There, Two-Minute Warning), dies of colon cancer at 57
1994 – Bobby Pratt, American jazz trombone and piano player, dies at 67
2000 – Gary Albright, American professional wrestler (b. 1963)
2005 – Rosemary Kennedy, American sister of President John F. Kennedy who underwent a frontal lobotomy, dies at 86
2024 – Duncan Hales, New Zealand rugby union three-quarter (4 Tests; Canterbury RFU, Manawatu RFU), dies at 76

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events for 7th January 2026

1325 – Afonso IV succeeds Denis as King of Portugal
1862 – Romney Campaign: Stonewall Jackson march towards Romney, West Virginia
1930 – French physicist Marguerite Perey discovers francium (Fr), the last naturally occurring element discovered
1955 – 20 year-old future world heavyweight boxing champion Floyd Patterson scores a 5th-round TKO of Willie Troy in a non-title super middleweight bout at New York’s Madison Square Garden
1968 – Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off
1973 – British Darts Organisation founded in North London
1995 – Limited run of Patrick Stewart’s one-man show “A Christmas Carol”, based on Charles Dickens’ novel, closes at Richard Rodgers Theater, NYC, after 18 performances
2012 – Hot air balloon crashes in Carterton, New Zealand, killing 11

More Historical Events »

Today in History for 7th January 2026

Historical Events

1890 – African American inventor William Purvis receives a patent for the fountain pen
1956 – Indian batsman Vinoo Mankad scores 231 v NZ, 413 opening stand with Roy
1974 – Gasoline rationing begins in the Netherlands
1990 – Lynn Jennings runs world record indoor 5km indoor at 15:22.64
2001 – 27th People’s Choice Awards: Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts win (Dramatic Motion Picture) and Drew Carey and Jennifer Aniston win (TV)

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1827 – Sandford Fleming, Scottish-Canadian engineer; introduced Universal Standard Time, born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland (d. 1915)
1948 – Steve Sheetz, American businessman, philanthropist and chief executive of Sheetz convenience stores (1984-95), born in Altoona, Pennsylvania (d. 2026)
1965 – Five for Fighting [Vladimir John Ondrasik], American soft rock-pop pianist, singer-songwriter, and record producer (“Superman (It’s Not Easy)”; “100 Years”), born in Los Angeles, California
1977 – John Gidding, American architect and TV host (Designed to Sell), born in Istanbul, Turkey
1991 – Eden Hazard, Belgian soccer midfielder (126 caps; Lille, Chelsea 245 games, Real Madrid), born in La Louvière, Belgium

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1783 – William Tans’ur, English hymnist, dies at 76
1892 – Muḥammad Tawfīq Pasha, Khedive of Egypt (1879-92), dies at 39
1974 – Charles Alfred Coulson, British chemist (theoretical), dies at 63
1980 – Sarah Selby, American actress (Tower of London), dies at 74
2015 – Tadeusz Konwicki, Polish writer (Bohin Manor) and film director, dies at 88

More Famous Deaths »

Famous Deaths for 6th January 2026

1685 – Malachias Siebenhaar, Bohemian-German composer, dies at 68
1689 – Seth Ward, English mathematician and astronomer (b. 1617)
1829 – Josef Dobrovský, Czech linguist known for “History of the Bohemian Language and Literature”, dies at 75
1936 – Charles Stoneham, American owner of the NY Giants), dies at 59
1941 – Franz Hessel, German writer (Spazieren in Berlin (Walking in Berlin), poet, and translator (Marcel Proust), dies from complications of a stroke suffered while in an internment camp, at 60
1961 – Regina Ullmann, Swiss poet and writer, dies at 76
1986 – Louis Lebeer, Belgian art historian, engraver, and academic, dies at 90
1991 – Ada Moore, entertainer, dies of cancer at 64
1994 – Morty the Moose, American character actor (Northern Exposure), dies at 6
2022 – Sidney Poitier, Bahamian-American actor, first black actor to win Oscar for Best Actor (“Lillies in the Field”; “To Sir With Love”; “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”), director (Stir Crazy), civil rights advocate, and diplomat, dies at 94

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events for 6th January 2026

1802 – Naturalists Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland reach Quito, Ecuador
1842 – 4,500 British and Indian troops leave Kabul, massacred before reaching India
1870 – Inauguration of the Musikverein concert hall in Vienna, Austria; designed by Danish architect Theophil Hansen for the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna, built on land provided by Emperor Franz Joseph I
1922 – -13] Conference of Cannes concerning German retribution payments
1950 – Britain recognizes Communist government of China
1969 – WLIW TV channel 21 in Garden City, NY (PBS) begins broadcasting
1975 – TV game show “Wheel of Fortune” debuts on NBC
1980 – AFC Championship, Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Houston Oilers, 27-13

More Historical Events »

Today in History for 6th January 2026

Historical Events

1938 – Bronze memorial statue of explorer Henry Hudson erected in the Bronx, New York
1980 – The beginning of the first GPS epoch
2009 – Israel begins an assault on the Gaza Strip
2013 – The NHL reaches an agreement to end a 113 day lockout
2021 – North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says country’s five-year economic plan has failed at opening of a rare meeting of the Workers’ Party

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1595 – Claude Favre de Vaugelas, Savoyard grammarian and man of letters, born in Meximieux, Duchy of Savoy (d. 1650)
1853 – Clement Reid, English geologist and paleobotanist, first to suggest a drowned land bridge between Britain and Europe (now called Doggerland), born in London (d. 1916)
1899 – Sophie-Carmen “Sonia” Eckhardt-Gramatté, Russian-Canadian pianist and composer, born in Moscow, Russia (d. 1974)
1970 – John Gerak, NFL tight end/guide (Minnesota Vikings, St Louis Rams), born in Youngstown, Ohio
1982 – Gilbert Arenas, American basketball player, born in Tampa, Florida

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1541 – Bernard van Orley, Flemish royal painter of Hungary, dies at about 52
1852 – Louis Braille, French educator and inventor of a system of reading and writing for the blind, dies of tuberculosis at 43
1958 – Josephine CMA, princess of Belgium/nun, dies at 85
1995 – Joe Slovo, Latvian-South African attorney and politician (Secretary General of SACR), dies at 68
2008 – Yunus Mahomed, South African lawyer and activist (UDF), dies at 57

More Famous Deaths »

Famous Deaths for 5th January 2026

1465 – Charles, Duke of Orléans, French poet and noble who spent 25 years as a prisoner of war, dies at 70
1891 – Emma Abbott, American soprano, dies at 40
1946 – George “Slim” Summerville, American actor (All Quiet on the Western Front, Keystone Cops), dies of a stroke at 53
1982 – Harvey Lembeck, American stage and screen actor (The Phil Silvers Show; Stalag 17; Beach Party films), dies of a heat attack at 58
1995 – Mansour Sattari, Iranian Brigadier General and commandant (Iran Air Force), dies at 46
2006 – Joseph Pichler, American child actor (Beethoven’s 3rd, The Fan), disappears at 18
2014 – Jerry Coleman, American MLB second baseman, dies from complications from brain bleeding and surgery at 89
2018 – Jerry Van Dyke, American actor (My Mother the Car, Coach), dies at 86
2018 – Antonio Valentín Angelillo, Italian-Argentinian footballer who played for both Argentina and Italy, dies at 80
2024 – McCanna “Mac” Anthony Sinise, son of Gary Sinise, passes away from chordoma at 33

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events for 5th January 2026

1809 – Treaty of Dardanelles concluded between Britain and France
1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross sworn in as Governor of Wyoming, 1st woman governor in USA
1929 – Coup by King Alexander in South Slavia
1930 – Bonnie Parker meets Clyde Barrow for the first time at Clarence Clay’s house
1941 – British Australian troops conquer Bardia, Libya
1990 – J Donald Crump appointed 8th Commissioner of CFL
1993 – Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (first legal hanging in America since 1965)
2020 – Iran pulls out of the 2015 nuclear deal, will not limit its uranium enrichment

More Historical Events »

Today in History for 5th January 2026

Historical Events

1781 – British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burns Richmond, Virginia
1970 – 23,000 Belgian mine workers strike
1972 – Largest crowd at Cleveland Arena (Cavs vs Lakers-11,178)
2020 – Iran pulls out of the 2015 nuclear deal, will not limit its uranium enrichment
2023 – Pocahontas revealed as the 12th great-grandmother of actor Edward Norton on PBS’s “Finding Your Roots”

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1661 – Jacob Balthasar Schutz, German composer, born in the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1700)
1828 – August Valentine Kautz, German-American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Baden, Germany (d. 1895)
1888 – George “Rube” Foster, American baseball pitcher (World Series 1915, 16; no-hitter 1916; Boston Red Sox), born in Lehigh, Oklahoma (d. 1976)
1939 – Bridget Parker, British equestrian 3 day event (Olympic gold 1972), born in Northumberland, England
1980 – Bennie Joppru, National Football League tight end, born in Dickinson, North Dakota

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1968 – Jean Murat, French actor (Eternal Rain, Carnival Flanders), dies at 79
1996 – Jay Arena, American pediatrician (Duke Poison Center Director, inventor of the child-proof safety cap), dies at 86
2005 – Danny Sugerman, American music manager (The Doors), dies of lung cancer at 50
2007 – Momofuku Ando, Taiwanese-Japanese inventor of instant noodles and cup noodles, dies of heart failure at 96
2024 – (Derek) “Del” Palmer, English session and touring bassist, and sound engineer (Kate Bush), dies at 71

More Famous Deaths »