On Jan. 8, 1642, astronomer Galileo Galilei died in Arcetri, Italy; he was 77.
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 1909 educator Evelyn Wood, developer of a widely used method of speed reading, was born in Ogden, Utah.
In 1918 President Woodrow Wilson outlined his 14 points for peace after World War I.
In 1935 Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Miss.
In 1942 theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking was born in Oxford, England.
In 1947 singer-songwriter David Bowie was born David Robert Jones in London.
In 1959 Charles de Gaulle was inaugurated president of France’s Fifth Republic.
In 1964 President Lyndon Johnson declared a “War on Poverty.”
In 1965 the Star of India and other stolen gems were returned to the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
In 1975 Judge John Sirica ordered the release of Watergate figures John Dean, Herbert Kalmbach and Jeb Stuart Magruder from prison.
In 1985 Rev. Lawrence Martin Jenco of Joliet was kidnapped in Lebanon. (He was released 19 months later).
In 1987 the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 2,000 for the first time, at 2,002.25.
In 1992 President George H.W. Bush, suffering from stomach flu, collapsed during a state dinner in Tokyo.
In 1993 seven people were found shot to death at a Brown’s Chicken & Pasta restaurant in Palatine. (Two suspects were arrested in May 2002, but their cases have yet to go to trial.)
In 1996 former French President Francois Mitterrand died in Paris; he was 79.
In 1998 Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was sentenced in New York to life in prison.
In 2002 Ozzie Smith, regarded as the finest-fielding shortstop ever, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on his first try. Also in 2002 Wendy’s fast food chain founder Dave Thomas died in Ft. Lauderdale; he was 69.
