8 January 1956

Jared Lee Loughner opened fire at a public meeting held by U.S. representative Gabby Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, killing six people and injuring twelve others.

Gunmen from an offshoot of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda attacked the bus transporting the Togo national football team to the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, killing three people.

Jeremy Wade Delle committed suicide in his high-school class in Richardson, Texas, an event that inspired the Pearl Jam song "Jeremy".

In Trans-en-Provence, France, a local farmer reported a UFO sighting claimed to be "perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time".

Three bombs attributed to Armenian nationalists exploded across Moscow, killing seven people and injuring 37 people.

Following Pakistan's defeat in the Bangladesh Liberation War, President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto released Bangladeshi politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (pictured) from prison in response to international pressure.

Reza Shah issued the Kashf-e hijab decree, ordering Iranian police to remove hijabs from any women in public.

U.S. president Woodrow Wilson announced his Fourteen Points for a moral cause and for post–World War I peace in Europe.

Blackstone Library (pictured), the first branch of the Chicago Public Library system, was dedicated.

American statistician Herman Hollerith received a patent for his electromechanical tabulating machine for punched-card data.

George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address in New York City, then the provisional capital of the United States.

George Frideric Handel's opera Ariodante premiered at the Covent Garden Theatre (pictured) in London.

Lotario dei Conti was elected as Pope Innocent III; he later worked to restore papal power in Rome.

Supporters of former Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro storm the Brazilian Congress.

Twenty-three people are killed in what is described as a police ″massacre″ in La Vega, Caracas, Venezuela.

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 crashes immediately after takeoff at Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport; all 176 on board are killed. The plane was shot down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile.

Joaquín Guzmán, widely regarded as the world's most powerful drug trafficker, is recaptured following his escape from a maximum security prison in Mexico.

West Air Sweden Flight 294 crashes near the Swedish reservoir of Akkajaure; both pilots, the only people on board, are killed.

Sitting US Congresswoman Gabby Giffords is shot in the head along with 18 others in a mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona. Giffords survived the assassination attempt, but six others died, including John Roll, a federal judge.

Gunmen from an offshoot of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda attack a bus carrying the Togo national football team on its way to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, killing three people and injuring another nine.

The nuclear sub USS San Francisco collides at full speed with an undersea mountain south of Guam. One man is killed, but the sub surfaces and is repaired.

The RMS Queen Mary 2, then the largest ocean liner ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.

Turkish Airlines Flight 634 crashes near Diyarbakır Airport, Turkey, killing the entire crew and 70 of the 75 passengers.

Air Midwest Flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte-Douglas Airport, in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing all 21 people on board.