Today is Wednesday, Jan. 8, the eighth day of 2025. There are 357 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Jan. 8, 2016, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the world’s most-wanted drug lord, was captured for a third time in a daring raid by Mexican marines, six months after walking through a tunnel to freedom from a maximum security prison.
Also on this date:
In 1790, President George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address in New York City.
In 1815, the last major engagement of the War of 1812 came to an end as U.S. forces defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, not having received word of the signing of a peace treaty.
In 1867, the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in overriding President Andrew Johnson’s veto of the District of Columbia Suffrage Act, giving Black men in the nation’s capital the right to vote.
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson, in his State of the Union address, declared an “unconditional war on poverty in America.”
In 1998, Ramzi Yousef (RAHM’-zee YOO’-sef), the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was sentenced in New York to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In 2011, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was shot and critically wounded when a gunman opened fire as the congresswoman met with constituents in Tucson; six people were killed and 12 others were injured. (Gunman Jared Lee Loughner (LAWF’-nur) was sentenced in Nov. 2012 to seven consecutive life sentences, plus 140 years.)
In 2020, Iran struck back at the United States for killing Iran’s top military commander, firing missiles at two Iraqi military bases housing American troops. More than 100 U.S. service members were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries after the attack. As Iran braced for a counterattack, the country’s Revolutionary Guard shot down a Ukrainian jetliner after apparently mistaking it for a missile; all 176 people on board were killed.
In 2023, supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who refused to accept his election defeat, stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace in the capital, a week after the inauguration of his leftist rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Today’s birthdays:
- Singer Shirley Bassey is 88.
- Fashion designer Carolina Herrera is 86.
- Country-gospel singer Cristy Lane is 85.
- Rock musician Robby Krieger (The Doors) is 79.
- Filmmaker Sarah Polley is 46.
- Actor Gaby Hoffman is 43.
- Actor Cynthia Erivo is 38.