Historical Events on January 8.

1.   1026, 8th January: Sultan Mahmud looted and destroyed the Somnath temple.

2.  1835, 8th January: National debt to the United States reduced to zero for the first time.

3.  1880, 8th January: Mumbai High Court ruled that marriages arranged by Satyashodhak Samaj were legal. The court agreed that non-Brahmins could also officiate at the wedding.

4.  1889, 8th January: To analyze numerical content, Dr. Herman Hollerith received a patent for a calculator in the United States.

5.  1947, 8th January: Establishment of Rajasthan University.

6.  1952, 8th January: Jordan adopted the constitution.

7.  1963, 8th January: Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa exhibited for the first time in the United States at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Famous Birthdays & Birth Anniversaries on January 8.

1.   1909: Ashapurna Devi, a prominent Indian novelist, and poet in Bengali. She is the first woman to win the Dnyanpith award.

2.  1924: Geeta Mukherjee, an Indian politician and social worker.

3.  1926: Kelucharan Mohapatra, a legendary Indian classical dancer, guru, and exponent of Odissi dance.

4.  1925: Mohan Rakesh, one of the pioneers of the Nai Kahani literary movement of the Hindi literature 

5.  1935: Elvis Presley, an American singer, musician, and actor.

6.  1942: Stephen Hawking, an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author.

7.  1984: Kim Jong-un, a North Korean politician, and Supreme Leader of North Korea.

8.  1986: Naveen Kumar Gowda, known by the stage name Yash, is an Indian film actor from the Kannada cinema.

9.  1990: Nusrat Jahan, an Indian film actress, and politician.

Death Anniversaries of famous people on January 8.

1.   1324: Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant, explorer, and writer.

2.  1642: Galileo Galilei, an Italian astronomer, physicist, and engineer.

3.  1825: Eli Whitney, an American inventor.

4.  1884: Keshub Chandra Sen, a Hindu philosopher, and social reformer.

5.  1941: Robert Baden-Powell, a British Army officer, writer, founder, and first Chief Scout of the worldwide Scout Movement.

6.  1950: Joseph Schumpeter, an Austrian political economist.

7.  1965: Bimal Roy, an Indian film director. 

8.  1976: Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China.

9.  1984: Sushma Mukhopadhyay, the first Indian woman pilot.

10.  1995: Madhu Limaye, an Indian socialist essayist and activist.

11.  1996: François Mitterrand, a French statesman, and the former President of France.