Anniversaries 8 January

Birth

Husayn ibn Ali32

The grandson of Muhammad and the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib 626–680

Su Shi4

Chinese writer 1037–1101

Baltasar Gracián31

Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer and philosopher 1601–1658

Orson Hyde2

American Mormon leader 1805–1878

James Longstreet5

Confederate Army general 1821–1904

Alfred Russel Wallace12

British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist an… 1823–1913

Wilkie Collins36

British writer 1824–1889

Hans von Bülow3

German musician 1830–1894

James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon2

British politician 1871–1940

A. J. Muste12

Christian pacifist and civil rights activist 1885–1967

Robert Clarkson Clothier1

American academic administrator 1885–1970

Richard Courant4

German American mathematician (1888-1972) 1888–1972

Storm Jameson1

British writer 1891–1986

Maximilian Kolbe2

Polish Conventual Franciscan friar 1894–1941

S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike1

Sri Lankan politician 1899–1959

Carl R. Rogers28

American psychologist 1902–1987

William Hartnell4

English actor 1908–1975

George Forsythe5

Stanford University computer scientist 1917–1972

Philip Selznick20

American sociologist 1919–2010

Edward Robert Harrison2

British astronomer 1919–2007

Leonardo Sciascia1

Italian writer 1921–1989

Joseph Weizenbaum1

German-American computer scientist 1923–2008

Charles Tomlinson2

English poet 1927–2015

Gerry Spence46

American lawyer 1929

Daniel A. Wren5

American business theorist 1932

Alexandra Ripley1

American writer 1934–2004

Lewis H. Lapham34

American journalist 1935

Robert Littell1

American novelist 1935

Elvis Presley42

American singer and actor 1935–1977

Robert M. May2

Australian scientist who has been Chief Scientific Adviser … 1936

Graham Chapman26

English comedian, writer and actor 1941–1989

Stephen Hawking122

British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author 1942–2018

Charles Murray4

American libertarian political scientist, author, and colum… 1943

Terry Brooks26

American writer 1944

Robby Krieger3

American rock guitarist and songwriter 1946

David Bowie105

British musician, actor, record producer and arranger 1947–2016

Mark Victor Hansen1

American writer 1948

Peter J. Carroll45

British occultist 1953

Archie Roach1

Australian musician 1956–2022

Anita Dunn4

American political strategist 1958

Betsy DeVos4

11th United States Secretary of Education 1958

Tom Watson (Labour politician)12

British politician 1967

Jenny Lewis14

American actor, singer-songwriter 1976

Amber Benson19

actress from the United States 1977

Kim Jong-un8

3rd Supreme Leader of North Korea 1984

Peng Shuai4

Chinese female tennis player (1986-) 1986

Paola Di Benedetto1

Italian showgirl, model, television presenter and radio host 1995

Alexard Esther2

Alexard Esther also know as Jenny Queen is a Haitian short … 1996

Noah Cyrus2

American singer and actress 2000

Death

Marco Polo5

Venetian explorer and merchant noted for travel to central … 1254–1324

Philibert de l'Orme2

French architect of the Renaissance. 1514–1570

Galileo Galilei70

Italian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and astronomer 1564–1642

Richard Watson4

British methodist theologian 1781–1833

Emperor Norton4

Self-proclaimed Emperor of the United States 1811–1880

Colin Blackburn, Baron Blackburn8

British judge 1813–1896

Keshub Chunder Sen23

Indian academic 1838–1884

Paul Verlaine11

French poet 1844–1896

Katrina Trask1

American writer 1853–1922

Robert Baden-Powell23

lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder and… 1857–1941

Charles Alexander Eastman2

American scouting pioneer 1858–1939

Peter Altenberg1

Austrian writer and poet 1859–1919

Joseph Franklin Rutherford6

American judge 1869–1942

Charles Edward Merriam8

American political scientist 1874–1953

Yoshijirō Umezu6

Japanese general 1882–1949

Joseph Alois Schumpeter13

Austrian economist 1883–1950

Kurt Schwitters32

German artist 1887–1948

Dion Fortune10

British occultist and author 1890–1946

Zhou Enlai8

1st Premier of the People's Republic of China 1898–1976

Kenneth Patchen11

American writer and poet 1911–1972

Nicolas Schöffer2

French sculptor and plastician 1912–1992

Michel Thomas4

American linguist and language teacher 1914–2005

François Mitterrand9

21st President of the French Republic 1916–1996

Art Clokey5

American animator 1921–2010

Yvonne De Carlo9

Canadian-American actress, dancer, and singer 1922–2007

André Gernez3

French physician 1923–2014

Jim Elliot5

Martyred Christian missionary to Ecuador 1927–1956

Ed McCully3

American Christian missionary 1927–1956

Jaime Gil de Biedma1

Spanish poet 1929–1990

Jenny Joseph3

Poet 1932–2018

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani14

Iranian politician, Shi'a cleric and Writer 1934–2017

Richard John Neuhaus1

Canadian-American Christian writer 1936–2009

Tony Banks16

British politician 1942–2006

Tony Halme1

Finnish boxer and politician 1963–2010