JANUARY 8TH

Today is Thursday, Jan. 8th, 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 medivac 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).

"Let's all be careful out there!"