Today is Sunday, Jan. 8, the eighth day of 2017. There are 357 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Jan. 8, 1867, the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in overriding President Andrew Johnson's veto of the District of Columbia Suffrage Bill, giving black men in the nation's capital the right to vote.
On this date:
In 1642, astronomer Galileo Galilei died in Arcetri, Italy.
In 1790, President George Washington delivered his first State of the Union address to Congress in New York.
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 gotten word of the signing of a peace treaty.
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 1935, rock-and-roll legend Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.
In 1959, Charles de Gaulle was inaugurated as president of France's Fifth Republic.
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson, in his State of the Union address, declared an "unconditional war on poverty in America."
In 1976, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, 77, died in Beijing.
In 1982, American Telephone and Telegraph settled the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against it by agreeing to divest itself of the 22 Bell System companies.
In 1987, for the first time, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 2,000, ending the day at 2,002.25.
In 1997, the state of Arkansas put three men to death in the second triple execution since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. (The first also occurred in Arkansas, in 1994.)
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, 12 others also wounded. (Gunman Jared Lee Loughner (LAWF'-nur) was sentenced in Nov. 2012 to seven consecutive life sentences, plus 140 years.)
