This day in history

[January 08, 2009]  (AP)  Today is Thursday, Jan. 8, the eighth day of 2009. There are 357 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Jan. 8, 1935, rock-and-roll legend Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Miss.

On this date:

In 1798, the Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was declared in effect by President John Adams nearly three years after its ratification by the states; it prohibited a citizen of one state from suing another state in federal court.

In 1815, U.S. forces led by Gen. Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, the closing engagement of the War of 1812.

In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson outlined his "Fourteen Points" for lasting peace after World War I. Mississippi became the first state to ratify the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which established Prohibition.

In 1959, Charles de Gaulle was inaugurated as president of France's Fifth Republic. In Cuba, Fidel Castro and his army arrived in Havana in triumph following the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a "War on Poverty" in his State of the Union address.

In 1973, the Paris peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam resumed.

In 1976, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai died in Beijing.

In 1987, for the first time, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 2,000, ending the day at 2,002.25.

In 1989, 47 people were killed when a British Midland Boeing 737-400 carrying 126 people crashed in central England.

In 2003, a US Airways Express commuter plane crashed at the Charlotte, N.C., airport, killing all 21 people on board. A Turkish Airlines jet crashed in Turkey, killing 75 people.

Ten years ago: By a unanimous vote, senators formally ratified the rules for President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial. The top two executives of Salt Lake City's Olympic organizing committee resigned amid disclosures that civic boosters had given cash to members of the International Olympic Committee.

Five years ago: A U.S. Black Hawk medevac helicopter crashed near Fallujah, Iraq, killing all nine soldiers aboard. Libya agreed to compensate family members of victims of a 1989 bombing of a French passenger plane over the Niger desert that killed 170 people.

One year ago: Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican John McCain won the New Hampshire primaries. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, the only officer charged in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, was cleared of criminal wrongdoing. A quick-thinking Boy Scout foiled an assassination attempt on the president of the Maldives, grabbing an attacker's knife as the man leapt from a crowd. Paintings by Pablo Picasso and Brazilian painter Candido Portinari, stolen from Brazil's Sao Paulo Museum in December 2007, were recovered.

Today's birthdays: Actor-comedian Larry Storch is 86. Actor Ron Moody is 85. Comedian Soupy Sales is 83. Broadcast journalist Sander Vanocur is 81. CBS newsman Charles Osgood is 76. Singer Shirley Bassey is 72. Game show host Bob Eubanks is 71. Country-gospel singer Cristy Lane is 69. Rhythm-and-blues singer Anthony Gourdine (Little Anthony and the Imperials) is 68. Actress Yvette Mimieux is 67. Physicist Stephen Hawking is 67. Rock musician Robby Krieger (The Doors) is 63. Rock singer David Bowie is 62. Movie director John McTiernan is 58. Actress Harriet Sansom Harris is 54. Singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith is 45. Actress Maria Pitillo is 44. Actress Michelle Forbes is 44. Singer R. Kelly is 42. Rock musician Jeff Abercrombie (Fuel) is 40. Actress Ami Dolenz is 40. Reggae singer Sean Paul is 36. Country singer Tift Merritt is 34. Actress-rock singer Jenny Lewis is 33. Actress Amber Benson is 32. Actor Scott Whyte is 31. Actress Sarah Polley is 30. Actress Rachel Nichols is 29. Actress Gaby Hoffman is 27. Rock musician Disashi Lumumbo-Kasongo (Gym Class Heroes) is 26.

Thought for today: "In order to go on living, one must try to escape the death involved in perfectionism." -- Hannah Arendt, American author and historian (1906-1975)

[Associated Press]

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