Today is Thursday, Jan. 8, the eighth day of 2015. There are 357 days left in the year. 
Today’s Highlight in History: 
On Jan. 8, 1815, the last major engagement of the War of 1812 came to an end as U.S. forces led by Maj.
Gen. Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans. (Given the slowness of
communications at the time, the battle took place even though the United States and Britain had already
signed a peace treaty.) 
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 1863, America’s First Transcontinental Railroad had its beginnings as California Gov. Leland Stanford
broke ground for the Central Pacific Railroad in Sacramento. (The transcontinental railroad was
completed in Promontory, Utah, in May 1869.)
In 1912, the African National Congress was founded in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
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 1965, the Star of India and other gems stolen from the American Museum of Natural History in New York
the previous October were recovered from a bus depot locker in Miami.
In 1975, Judge John J. Sirica ordered the early release from prison of Watergate figures John W. Dean
III, Herbert W. Kalmbach and Jeb Stuart Magruder. 
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 1998, Ramzi Yousef the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was sentenced in New York
to life imprisonment.
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 other people were killed, 12 others also
injured. (Gunman Jared Lee Loughner was sentenced in Nov. 2012 to seven consecutive life sentences, plus
140 years.)