From Historynet: Today in History January 8

1681          The Treaty of Radzin ends a five year war between the Turks and the allied countries of Russia and Poland.

1745          England, Austria, Saxony and the Netherlands form an alliance against Russia.

1815          A rag-tag army under Andrew Jackson  defeats the British on the fields of Chalmette in the Battle of New Orleans.

1871          Prussian troops begin to bombard Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.

1892          A coal mine explosion kills 100 in McAlister, Oklahoma.

1900          The Boers attack the British in Ladysmith, South Africa, but are turned back.

1908          A subway line opens linking the New York boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan.

1940          Great Britain begins rationing sugar, meat and butter.

1946          President Harry S. Truman  vows to stand by the Yalta accord on self-determination for the Balkans.

1954          President Dwight Eisenhower  proposes stripping convicted Communists of their U.S. citizenship.

1963          President John F. Kennedy  attends the unveiling of the Mona Lisa.

1975          Ella T. Grasso  becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first female governor in the US who did not come into office by succeeding her husband.

1979          The United States advises the Shah  to leave Iran.

1982          AT&T agrees to divest 22 subdivisions as part of an antitrust agreement.

1994          Valeri Polyakov, a Russian cosmonaut leaves earth, bound for the Mir space station; he will spend a record 437 days in space.

2002          US President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act, intended to improve America's educational system.

2004          The largest passenger ship in history, the RMS Queen Mary 2, is christened by Queen Elizabeth II, granddaughter of Queen Mary.

2011          An attempted assassination of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords is part of a shooting spree in which Jared Lee Loughner kills 6 and wounds 13.