Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Today is Monday, Jan. 8, the eighth day of 2007 with 357 to follow. The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The evening stars are Venus, Mercury, Uranus and Neptune. Advertisement Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include financier Nicholas Biddle in 1786; educator and hymn writer Lowell Mason ("Nearer My God To Thee") in 1792; James Longstreet, Confederate general in the Civil War, in 1821; publisher Frank Doubleday in 1862; reading teacher Evelyn Wood in 1909; actor Jose Ferrer in 1912; comic actor Larry Storch in 1923 (age 84); comedian Soupy Sales in 1926 (age 81); newsman Charles Osgood in 1933 (age 74); rock 'n' roll legend Elvis Presley in 1935; singer Shirley Bassey in 1937 (age 70); Bob Eubanks in 1938 (age 69); actress Yvette Mimieux in 1942 (age 65); physicist and author Stephen Hawking in 1942 (age 65), and singer David Bowie in 1947 (age 60). Advertisement On this date in history: In 1815, the forces of U.S Gen. Andrew Jackson decisively defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, the closing engagement of the War of 1812. In 1867, the U.S. Congress approved legislation that, for the first time, allowed blacks to vote in the District of Columbia. In 1916, Allied forces staged a full retreat from the shores of the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, ending a disastrous invasion of the Ottoman Empire that resulted in 250,000 Allied casualties. In 1973, the trial of the "Watergate Seven" began in Washington. The defendants were charged with breaking into Democratic Party national headquarters, a furor that eventually led to the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon. In 1976, Chinese Premier Chou En-lai died in Beijing. In 1987, Kay Orr was inaugurated in Lincoln, Neb., as the nation's first woman Republican governor. Also in 1987, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 2,000 for the first time. In 1991, one person was killed and 248 injured when a London commuter train crashed into the buffers at a station. Also in 1991, Pan American World Airways filed for bankruptcy. Advertisement In 1993, thousands gathered at Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tenn., to purchase the first issue of a stamp honoring the "King of Rock 'n' Roll" on what would have been his 58th birthday. In 1997, a report by University of Texas scientists concluded that exposure to a combination of chemicals was somehow linked to Gulf War Syndrome, responsible for the various ailments reported by veterans of the 1991 conflict. In 2001, former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of extorting money from applicants seeking riverboat casino licenses. In 2002, U.S. President George Bush signed a major education bill that, among other things, mandated annual testing for students in grades 3-8 and called for tutors for poor schools. In 2004, the U.S. Defense Department announced it had designated former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein a prisoner of war. In 2005, the U.S. military said an air strike in Mosul, Iraq, hit the wrong target, demolishing a civilian home and killing 14 people. In 2006, a fire swept through a one-story wooden orphanage in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and killed 13 disabled children. Seventy-one others were reported evacuated. Also in 2006, a reported 12 U.S. military personnel were killed when a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Iraq. Advertisement A thought for the day: William Feather said, "Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go."
