Today is Saturday, Jan. 8, the eighth day of 2011. There are 357 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Jan. 8, 1811, Charles Deslondes, some say “Deslandes,” led an uprising by hundreds of slaves in the Territory of Orleans in present-day Louisiana. (The revolt, which claimed the lives of two whites, failed on its third day, and Deslondes and many of his followers were killed by soldiers.)
On this date:
In 1798, the 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was declared in effect by President John Adams nearly three years after its ratification by the states; it prohibited a citizen of one state from suing another state in federal court.
In 1815, U.S. forces led by Gen. Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans — the closing engagement of the War of 1812.
In 1918, Mississippi became the first state to ratify the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which established Prohibition.
In 1935, rock-and-roll legend Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Miss.
In 1959, Fidel Castro and his army arrived in Havana in triumph after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.
In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared a “War on Poverty” in his State of the Union address.
In 1973, the Paris peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam resumed.
In 1989, 47 people were killed when a British Midland Boeing 737-400 carrying 126 people crashed in central England.
In 2003, a US Airways Express commuter plane crashed at the Charlotte, N.C., airport, killing all 21 people on board. A Turkish Airlines jet crashed in Turkey, killing 75 people.
Associated Press
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