January 8 - the day over the years

The Africa National Congress is founded in Bloemfontein on this day in 1912.

Today is Saturday, January 8, the eighth day of 2005.
There are 357 days left in the year.

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A quick recap of what has gone on this date in history

1499 - France's King Louis XII marries Anne, Duchess of Brittany.

1654 - Ukraine joins Russia.
1679 - French explorer la Salle reaches Niagara Falls.

1806 - Britain occupies Cape of Good Hope.
1815 - The Battle of New Orleans takes place with Andrew Jackson defeating the British army in the closing engagement of the American Civil War of 1812.

1912 - The Africa National Congress is founded in Bloemfontein.
1915 - Heavy fighting breaks out in areas of Assee Canal in Belgium and Soissons, France, in World War I.
1918 - US President Woodrow Wilson outlines his 14 points for peace after World War I.
1923 - France begins military occupation of Ruhr valley in Germany.
1926 - Ibn Saud becomes king of Hejaz on King Hussein's expulsion and changes name of kingdom to Saudi Arabia.
1959 - Charles de Gaulle is president in France, inaugurating the Fifth Republic.
1964 - US President Lyndon Johnson declares an "unconditional war on poverty in America."
1972 - Bangladesh leader Sheik Mujibur Rahman arrives in London after being released by Pakistan and appeals for recognition of his new nation.
1973 - Secret peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam resume near Paris.
1974 - Khmer Rouge in Cambodia intensify pressure on Phnom Penh with strikes north and south of the capital.
1982 - Settling an antitrust lawsuit from the U.S. Justice Department, the American Telephone and Telegraph (AT& T) monopoly divests itself of the 22 regional Bell System companies.
1987 - The Dow Jones industrial average closes above 2,000 for the first time, ending the day at 2,002.25.
1989 - Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev says Kremlin is besieged by financial problems that are sapping his reforms.
1990 - East German official discloses that 60,000 members of secret police are still on government payroll despite the previous month's pledge that organization would be dismantled.
1991 - Four Belgians held captive for three years by a Palestinian group in Lebanon are released.
1992 - US President George Bush collapses to the floor at a state dinner in Tokyo. The White House says he is suffering from stomach flu.
1993 - The deputy prime minister of Bosnia is shot to death by Serbian gunmen while Serbian rebel leaders consider an international peace settlement.
1995 - Russian troops pound Chechnya with rocket and mortar fire.
1996 - A cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in Kinshasa, Zaire, killing 255 people by the official count. The unofficial death toll reaches 1,000.
1998 - Ramzi Yousef, an Arab of uncertain nationality, is sentenced to life in prison plus 240 years for masterminding the World Trade Center Bombing in New York that killed six people in 1993.
1999 - Thousands of rioters protesting against the government rampage through the town of Karawang, Indonesia. Officers fire plastic bullets at the mobs, killing at least one person and injuring nine others. In US, the top two executives of Salt Lake City's Olympic Organizing Committee resign after disclosures that civic boosters had given cash to members of the IOC.

2001 - Lawmakers in Manila say they will decide by February 12 whether to impeach the Philippine president, speeding a trial that has battered the economy and set the country on edge.
2002 - The Vatican releases new rules for dealing with pedophilia accusations against the Roman Catholic Church. US Justice Department officials say the United States is seeking as many as 6,000 men from Arab and Muslim countries who ignored deportation orders and remained in the US illegally.
2003 - A US Court of Appeals ruled that US citizens detained in combat abroad could be held indefinitely, without access to a lawyer, with only "limited judicial inquiry" into their detention.

Today's Birthdays:
Wilkie Collins, English writer (1824-1889)
Jose Ferrer, Puerto Rican-born actor-director (1912-1992)
Gerald Durrell, British naturalist and writer (1925-1995)
Saeed Jaffrey, actor (1929--)
Elvis Presley, entertainer, singer and actor (1935-1977)
Shirley Bassey, Welsh-born singer (1937--)
Stephen Hawking, English author and physicist (1942--)
Yvette Mimieux, French actress (1942--)
David Bowie, English singer-actor (1947--)
Calvin Smith, US athlete (1961--)
Michelle Forbes, U.S. actress (1967--)
Gaby Hoffman, U.S. actress (1982--)