Today in History: Iskenderun Port Opened to Service

January 8 is the 8nd day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. There are 357 days left until the end of the year (358 in leap years).

Events

• 1297 - Monaco gained its independence.
• 1499 – XII. Louis married Anne de Bretagne.
• 1610 - Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei detects two of Jupiter's moons (Io and Europa).
• 1784 – The Ottoman Empire officially recognized Russia's annexation of Crimea with a "deed".
• 1835 - US national debt reaches 0 (zero) for the first and last time.
• 1916 – The Entente Powers could not break the Ottoman Army's resistance to Çanakkale. Having been defeated, they began to withdraw from the Gallipoli Peninsula. Due to his failure, Admiral Winston Churchill resigned from the post of Commander of the British Navy.
• 1918 – United States President Woodrow Wilson, in a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and the Senate, put forward the 14 principles that will go by his name for the establishment of lasting peace in Europe.
• 1920 – Yahya Kaptan, one of the commanders of the Kuva-yi Milliye, was killed in Gebze by the men of the Istanbul Government.
• 1933 – The First Five-Year Development Plan was accepted.
• 1940 – Turkey signed a chrome sales agreement with England and France for 2 years.
• 1941 – It was announced that 401 teachers and 1846 students were studying in 74.488 primary schools in Istanbul.
• 1943 - Decree on giving cheap bread to the poor was published.
• 1945 – Iskenderun Port was put into service.
• 1946 – Celâl Bayar became the Chairman of the Democrat Party (DP).
• 1958 – 14-year-old Bobby Fischer became the United States chess champion.
• 1959 - Charles de Gaulle inaugurated as the first President of the French Fifth Republic.
• 1960 – Hirfanlı Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant on Kızılırmak was opened.
• 1962 – Train accident in the Netherlands: 93 people died.
• 1965 – DSI put the Keban Dam Hydroelectric Power Plant construction out to tender.
• 1973 – The amount of the housing loan given to the workers was increased from 60 thousand liras to 75 thousand liras.
• 1976 – Highway fees are started to be collected from TIR trucks passing through Turkey.
• 1977 – The leader of the Republican People's Party, Bülent Ecevit, reacted to the hikes made to the Deputies; He announced that he would not accept the salary increase.
• 1979 - The first children's news program "Rainbow Colours” began to be published.
• 1980 – 80% of the factories stopped production due to lack of fuel.
• 1982 – Yılmaz Güney was sentenced to 7,5 years in absentia for “making communist propaganda”.
• 1983 – The Ministry of Culture and Tourism put into effect the “Games of Fortune Regulation”.
• 1984 – Prime Minister Turgut Özal said that the Law on the Protection of the Turkish Currency is a problem for everyone.
• 1986 – 8 artists were given the title of "professor" by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK). Among the titled artists were Yıldız Kenter, Hikmet Şimşek and Nevit Kodallı.
• 1986 – The Hacker manifesto is announced in the USA.
• 1986 – Henry Miller's Tropic of Capricorn His novel was confiscated for being obscene.
• 1987 – President Kenan Evren's advice to students at Çukurova University: “The reactionaries and communists are uniting, so be careful."
• 1988 – Bülent Ersoy's ban on performing was lifted. For 7 years, the General Directorate of Security did not allow Bülent Ersoy, who changed gender with the operation, to appear on the stage.
• 1988 – Turkey Real Estate Bank was established.
• 1989 – A Boeing 737 passenger plane crashed on the highway near East Midlands Airport in the United Kingdom: 46 people were killed, 80 people were injured.
• 1991 – The miners who made an agreement with the government put an end to their actions and returned to Zonguldak.
• 1992 – “Forbidden” books locked in a warehouse in Ankara began to be exhibited at the Ministry of Culture. The books will be placed in the Democracy and Human Rights Museum to be established in the future.
• 1993 – Aziz Nesin, “On September 12, 5 crazy people threw a stone into a well, 60 million people can't get it out." said.
• 1993 – Bosnia and Herzegovina Deputy Prime Minister Hakija Turajlić, who was going towards the city from Sarajevo Airport after meeting with State Minister Orhan Kilercioğlu, was killed by the Republika Srpska Army, accompanied by French UN soldiers and in a UN armored vehicle.
• 1996 – An Antonov An-32 cargo plane crashes in a market place in Kinshasa (Zaire): 350 people are killed.
• 1996 - Universal newspaper reporter Metin Göktepe was found dead in the park next to Eyüp Sports Hall after he was detained by the police.
• 1997 – The stolen body of Vehbi Koç was found in an empty tomb in Zincirlikuyu Cemetery and the thieves were caught. Koç's body was buried for the second time on January 10.
• 1998 - Karşıyaka Mufti Nadir Kuru's, Dr. While leading Tibet Kızılcan's funeral prayer; “Women who want can come to prayer.Upon these words, for the first time, women sided with men and performed the funeral prayer.
• 2001 – Dean of Marmara University Faculty of Theology Prof. Dr. Zekeriya Beyaz was stabbed in the confusion that broke out while the headscarf issue was being discussed at the meeting he attended at the faculty.
• 2002 – President Ahmet Necdet Sezer approved the “Tobacco Law”.
• 2003 – The United States begins establishing military bases in Afghanistan.
• 2003 – THY's RC-100 type plane, which made the Istanbul-Diyarbakır expedition, crashed during its landing in Diyarbakir: 74 people were killed, 3 people were injured and survived.
• 2004 – The new regulation, which was prepared after the law that removed the secrecy of the Regulation on the Secretariat General of the National Security Council, entered into force. The General Secretariat of the NSC was defined in the regulation as an organization affiliated to the Prime Minister.
• 2008 – Orhan Alkaya was appointed as the General Artistic Director of Istanbul City Theatres.
• 2010 – The passenger train between Aleppo and Gaziantep made its first flight.
• 2011 – Prime Minister Erdogan, at the opening ceremony held in Kars Cumhuriyet Square, described the "Monument of Humanity" in the city as a "monster". The monument was demolished by the decision taken later.
• 2016 – The circular by the Prime Ministry, allowing the use of Friday prayers and lunch breaks in a way that does not hinder the freedom of worship, was published in the Official Gazette.
• 2020 – The passenger plane of Ukraine International Airlines crashed in Iran, 176 people died.^[1]
• 2021 – Türksat 5A was launched into space.

Births

• 1037 – Su Shi, Chinese poet, painter, academic, and statesman (d. 1101)
• 1345 – Kadı Burhaneddin, Turkish statesman, scholar and poet of Azerbaijani Literature and Divan Literature (d. 1398)
• 1556 – Uesugi Kagekatsu, Japanese samurai (d. 1623)
• 1583 – Simon Episcopius, Dutch theologian (d. 1643)
• 1601 – Baltasar Gracián, Spanish Jesuit priest and writer (d. 1658)
• 1632 – Samuel von Pufendorf, German philosopher (d. 1694)
• 1763 Edmond-Charles Genêt, French diplomat (d. 1834)
• 1793 – Ludwig Reichenbach, German botanist and ornithologist (d. 1879)
• 1822 – Carlo Alfredo Piatti, Italian cellist and composer (d. 1901)
• 1823 – Alfred Russel Wallace, English naturalist, anthropologist, and biologist (d. 1913)
• 1836 Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Dutch painter (d. 1912)
• 1849 – Stepan Makarov, Russian vice-admiral and oceanographer (d. 1904)
• 1862 – Frank Nelson Doubleday, American publisher (d. 1934)
• 1863 – Ellen Churchill Semple, American geographer (d. 1932)
• 1864 – Albert Victor, Prince of Wales (d. 1892)
• 1867 – Emily Greene Balch, American economist and author (d. 1961)
• 1881 – Claud Buchanan Ticehurst, English ornithologist (d. 1941)
• 1885 – Archibald Cochrane, Scottish politician and naval officer (d. 1958)
• 1885 – John Curtin, Australian politician (d. 1945)
• 1889 – Erhard Raus, German soldier (d. 1956)
• 1891 – Walther Bothe, German mathematician, chemist, physicist, and Nobel Prize laureate in Physics (d. 1957)
• 1894 – Vilmos Tkálecz, Hungarian-Slovenian educator and politician (d. 1950)
• 1896 – Manuel Rojas Sepúlveda, Chilean novelist and short story writer (d. 1973)
• 1899 – Mabel Strickland, Maltese journalist, newspaper proprietor and politician (d. 1988)
• 1899 – Solomon Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (d. 1959)
• 1902 Carl Rogers, American psychologist (d. 1987)
• 1902 – Georgi Malenkov, Soviet statesman (close colleague of Joseph Stalin and posthumous Prime Minister of the USSR) (d. 1988)
• 1904 – Karl Brandt, German physician and Nazi war criminal (d. 1948)
• 1905 Carl Gustav Hempel, German philosopher (d. 1997)
• 1908 - William Hartnell, English actor and Doctor Who first doctor in the series (d. 1975)
• 1909 – José Ferrer, Puerto Rican actor and director (d. 1992)
• 1916 – Emin Bilgiç, Turkish academic and sumerologist (d. 1996)
• 1917 – Peter Taylor, American novelist, short story, and playwright (d. 1994)
• 1919 – Edward Robert Harrison, British astronomer and cosmologist (d. 2007)
• 1921 – Leonardo Sciascia, Italian writer and politician (d. 1989)
• 1922 – Artemio Franchi, Italian football player (d. 1983)
• 1923 Larry Storch, American actor
• 1924 – Ron Moody, English actor (d. 2015)
• 1927 – André Manaranche, French priest, theologian, and author (d. 2020)
• 1927 – Gabriel Gascon, Canadian stage and film actor (d. 2018)
• 1928 – Bab Christensen, Norwegian actress (d. 2017)
• 1928 – Slade Gorton, American politician and lawyer (d. 2020)
• 1929 – James Ferguson-Lees, British ornithologist (d. 2017)
• 1932 – Michel Gentot, French lawyer
• 1933 – Juan Marsé, Spanish novelist, screenwriter, and journalist (d. 2020)
• 1933 – Meryem Fahreddin, Egyptian actress (d. 2014)
• 1934 – Jacques Anquetil, French cyclist (d. 1987)
• 1934 – Jan Kirsznik, Polish saxophonist (d. 2018)
• 1934 – Phạm Văn Rạng, South Vietnamese national football player (d. 2008)
• 1935 – Elvis Presley, American singer, musician, and actor (d. 1977)
• 1936 – Robert May, Australian scientist and academic (d. 2020)
• 1937 – Louis Le Pensec, French politician
• 1937 – Meral Niron, Turkish theater, cinema and TV series actress (d. 2020)
• 1937 - Shirley Bassey, Welsh singer
• 1939 – Nanda, Indian actress (d. 2014)
• 1940 – Sid Ganis, American filmmaker
• 1941 – Graham Chapman, English comedian and actor (d. 1989)
• 1942 – Gülcan Tunççekiç, Turkish ballerina (d. 1992)
• 1942 – Junichirō Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan
• 1942 – Stephen Hawking, British theoretical physicist (breakthrough in the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics with his theory of exploding black holes) (d. 2018)
• 1943 - Jacques Huntzinger, French diplomat
• 1943 – Norodom Buppha Devi, Cambodian princess, politician, activist, and ballerina (d. 2019)
• 1944 – Terry Brooks, American fantasy novelist
• 1945 – Francisco Villar y Ortiz de Urbina, Spanish diplomat
• 1945 – Kadir Topbaş, Turkish architect and Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (d. 2021)
• 1946 – Félix Gallardo, Mexican drug lord
• 1946 – Fritz Künzli, Swiss national football player (d. 2019)
• 1946 – Robby Krieger, American rock guitarist and songwriter
• 1947 – Ashura Hara, Japanese professional wrestler and rugby player (d. 2015)
• 1947 – David Bowie, English singer and actor (d. 2016)
• 1947 – Samuel Schmid, Swiss politician
• 1947 – Şansal Büyüka, Turkish journalist and sports writer
• 1947 – William Bonin, American serial killer (d. 1996)
• 1948 – Friend Zekai Özger, Turkish poet (d. 1973)
• 1949 - Anne Schedeen, American actress
• 1949 – Aykut Işıklar, Turkish journalist (d. 2019)
• 1949 Kozo Kinomoto, Japanese football player (d. 2017)
• 1949 – Nuri Kurtcebe, Turkish comics and cartoonist
• 1953 – Gulistan Okan, Turkish voice artist
• 1958 - Rey Mysterio, Sr., American wrestler and actor
• 1961 – Jérôme Bonnafont, French bureaucrat and diplomat
• 1966 – Gökhan Gedikali, Turkish football player
• 1967 – R Kelly, American R&B singer
• 1969 – Jeremy Davies, American actor
• 1969 – Laura Novoa, Argentine actress
• 1971 – Pascal Zuberbühler, Swiss national goalkeeper
• 1972 – Burak Aydos, Turkish singer
• 1972 – Giuseppe Favalli, Italian football player
• 1972 – Paul Clement, English footballer, football coach and manager
• 1975 – Elena Grushina, Ukrainian figure skater
• 1975 – Vatan Şaşmaz, Turkish actress, presenter and writer (d. 2017)
• 1976 – Bora Sancar, Turkish basketball player
• 1977 – Amber Benson, American actress
• 1977 – Erdal Bibo, Turkish basketball player
• 1977 - Manuela Arcuri, Italian model and actress
• 1978 – Marco Fu, Hong Kong snooker player
• 1979 – Adrian Mutu, Romanian football player
• 1979 – Seol Ki-hyeon, South Korean football player and manager
• 1979 – Stipe Pletikosa, Croatian national goalkeeper
• 1983 - Chris Masters, American professional wrestler
• 1983 – Felipe Colombo, Mexican television actor
• 1983 - Kim Jong-un, President of North Korea
• 1985 – Karina Ocasio, Puerto Rican volleyball player
• 1986 – David Silva, Spanish football player
• 1988 – Adrián López Álvarez, Spanish football player
• 1988 – Alex Tyus, US-Israeli national professional basketball player
• 1988 – Michael Mancienne, English football player
• 1990 – Sara Vulovic, Serbian model and director
• 1991 – Stefan Johansen, Norwegian football player
• 1991 – Stefan Savić, Montenegrin football player
• 1992 – Koke, Spanish football player
• 1999 – Damiano David, Italian singer-songwriter
• 2000 – Noah Cyrus, American actor and singer

Deaths

• 307 – Hui, second emperor of the Jin Dynasty in China (b. 259)
• 1198 – III. Celestine was Pope from 21 March 1191 until her death (b. 1106)
• 1324 – Marco Polo, Italian traveler (b. 1254)
• 1337 – Giotto di Bondone, Italian painter and architect (b. 1267)
• 1642 – Galileo Galilei, Italian physicist, mathematician, and astronomer (b. 1564)
• 1704 – Lorenzo Bellini, Italian physician and anatomist (b. 1643)
• 1713 – Arcangelo Corelli, Italian composer (b. 1653)
• 1825 – Eli Whitney, American inventor and industrialist (b. 1765)
• 1854 – William Beresford, Anglo-Irish soldier and politician (b. 1768)
• 1878 – Nikolay Nekrasov, Russian poet and journalist (b. 1821)
• 1896 – Paul Verlaine, French poet (b. 1844)
• 1916 – Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (b. 1884)
• 1920 – Yahya Kaptan, one of the Turkish Kuva-yi Milliye commanders (b. ?)
• 1921 – Leonid Pozen, Russian-Ukrainian sculptor and lawyer (b. 1849)
• 1925 – ‎George Bellows‎‎, American painter‎ (b. 1882)
• 1935 – Rauf Yekta, Turkish musician, musicologist and composer (b. 1871)
• 1937 – Felix Körling, Swedish composer (b. 1864)
• 1939 – Charles Eastman, Native American physician, physicist, and social reformer (b. 1858)
• 1941 – Robert Baden-Powell, British soldier, Scout leader and founder of Scouting (b. 1857)
• 1946 – Dion Fortune, English occultist and author (b. 1890)
• 1948 – Ahmet Sungur, Turkish politician (b. 1894)
• 1948 – Kurt Schwitters, German painter and sculptor (b. 1887)
• 1949 – Yoshijirō Umezu, Japanese soldier (b. 1882)
• 1950 – Abdullah Sabri Aytaç, Turkish professor and politician (b. 1870)
• 1950 – Joseph Alois Schumpeter, Austrian economist and political scientist (b. 1883)
• 1953 – Charles Edward Merriam, American political scientist (b. 1874)
• 1961 – Yaşar Doğu, Turkish world champion wrestler (b. 1913)
• 1963 – Kay Sage, American poet and painter (b. 1898)
• 1963 – Temel Karamahmut, Turkish film director, screenwriter and actor (b. 1916)
• 1964 – Julius Raab, Austrian politician (b. 1891)
• 1964 – Karekin Deveciyan, Turkish-Armenian zoologist and writer (b. 1868)
• 1967 – İlhan Tarus, Turkish prosecutor, judge and writer of stories, plays and novels (b. 1907)
• 1967 – Walter Bruno Henning, East Prussian-born German linguist (b. 1908)
• 1975 – Richard Tucker, American tenor (b. 1913)
• 1976 – Zhou Enlai, Prime Minister of China (b. 1898)
• 1982 – Reta Shaw, American actress (b. 1912)
• 1983 – Gerhard Barkhorn, German pilot soldier (b. 1919)
• 1983 – Hüseyin Alp, Turkish basketball player (b. 1935)
• 1985 – Vladimir Maneyev, Russian wrestler (b. 1932)
• 1986 – Mehmet İzmen, Turkish politician and bureaucrat (b. 1909)
• 1986 – Pierre Fournier, French cellist (b. 1906)
• 1988 – Duygu Aykal, Turkish ballerina and choreographer (b. 1943)
• 1990 – Georgie Auld, American saxophone and clarinetist (b. 1919)
• 1990 – Kasım Emre, Turkish politician (b. 1934)
• 1990 – Terry-Thomas, English actor and comedian (b. 1911)
• 1991 – Steve Clark, English guitarist (b. 1960)
• 1992 – Nicolas Schöffer, French artist (b. 1912)
• 1994 – Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi, Indian religious leader and saint (b. 1894)
• 1996 – François Mitterrand, French socialist politician and President of France (b. 1916)
• 1996 – John Hargreaves, Australian actor (b. 1945)
• 1996 – Metin Göktepe, Turkish journalist (b. 1968)
• 1997 – Melvin Calvin, American biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry (b. 1911)
• 1998 – Marie-Madeleine Dienesch, French politician and diplomat (b. 1914)
• 1998 – Michael Tippett, British opera and classical composer (b. 1925)
• 2000 – Sohban Koloğlu, Turkish cinema decorator, director and actor (b. 1918)
• 2002 – Alexander Prokhorov, Soviet physicist (b. 1916)
• 2005 – Jacqueline Joubert, French television producer, director and presenter (b. 1921)
• 2005 – Raif Aybar, Turkish politician (b. 1915)
• 2006 – Özdemir Birsel, Turkish film director, screenwriter and producer (b. 1929)
• 2007 – Yvonne De Carlo, Canadian-American actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1922)
• 2011 – Oleg Grabar, French-American art historian and archaeologist (b. 1929)
• 2012 – Françoise Christophe, French actress and comedian (b. 1923)
• 2014 – Armen Mazmanyan, Armenian director and actor (b. 1960)
• 2014 – Madeline Gins, American painter, architect, and poet (b. 1941)
• 2014 – Selçuk Uluergüven, Turkish cinema, theater and TV series actor (b. 1941)
• 2015 – Andraé Crouch, American gospel singer, composer, and songwriter (b. 1942)
• 2015 – Kep Enderby, Australian politician and judge (b. 1926)
• 2016 – German Moreno, Filipino TV host, actor and manager (b. 1933)
• 2016 – Hamdi Ahmed, Egyptian actor, journalist and politician (b. 1933)
• 2016 – Maria Teresa de Filippis, Italian speedway driver (b. 1926)
• 2016 – Oscar Fritschi, Swiss politician and diplomat (b. 1939)
• 2016 – Otis Clay, American blues, gospel and soul musician and singer (b. 1942)
• 2017 – Buddy Bregman, American music producer, film director, musician, and composer (b. 1930)
• 2017 – Dominique Appia, Swiss painter (b. 1926)
• 2017 – Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iranian statesman and 4th President of Iran (b. 1934)
• 2017 – James Mancham, Seychelles journalist, lawyer, author and politician (b. 1939)
• 2017 – Jovanka Nikolić, Serbian writer and poet (b. 1952)
• 2017 – Miriam Goldberg, American reporter (b. 1916)
• 2017 – Peter Sarstedt, English pop-folk singer (b. 1941)
• 2017 – Svennik Høyer, Norwegian political scientist, academic and researcher (b. 1931)
• 2017 – Zacharie Noah, Cameroonian football player (b. 1937)
• 2018 – Denise LaSalle, American blues singer and songwriter (b. 1939)
• 2018 – Donnelly Rhodes, Canadian actor (b. 1937)
• 2018 – Hans Aabech, Danish international football player (b. 1948)
• 2018 – George Maxwell Richards, 4th President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (b. 1931)
• 2018 – Juan Carlos García, Honduran national football player (b. 1988)
• 2018 – Vojtěch Lindaur, Czech journalist, educator and music producer (b. 1957)
• 2018 – Yvonne Englich, German female wrestler (b. 1979)
• 2019 – Armando Bortolaso, Italian Roman Catholic bishop (b. 1926)
• 2019 – Arturo Rojas de la Cámara, Spanish comics artist and cartoonist (b. 1930)
• 2019 – Larry Langford, American politician (b. 1946)
• 2019 – Khosro Harandi, Iranian chess player (b. 1950)
• 2019 – Susanne Humphrey, American librarian and author (b. 1944)
• 2020 – Buck Henry, American actor, screenwriter, film director (b. 1930)
• 2020 – Edd Byrnes, American actor and singer (b. 1932)
• 2020 – Pilar, Spanish Dynasty (sister to King Juan Carlos I of Spain) (b. 1936)
• 2020 – Zhu Yuli, Chinese politician and businessman (b. 1934)
• 2021 – Afolabi Olumide, Nigerian academic and surgeon (b. 1939)
• 2021 – Cástor Oswaldo Azuaje Pérez, Venezuelan Roman Catholic bishop (b. 1951)
• 2021 – Diana Millay, American actress (b. 1935)
• 2021 – Ed Bruce, American country music singer, songwriter, and actor (b. 1939)
• 2021 – Eve Branson, English dancer, philanthropist and children's rights activist (b. 1924)
• 2021 – Květa Eretová, Czech chess player (b. 1926)
• 2021 – Michael Shaw, Baron Shaw of Northstead, British politician (b. 1920)
• 2021 – Steve Carver, American filmmaker, director, and photographer (b. 1945)
• 2021 – Steve Lightle, American comics artist (b. 1959)
• 2021 – Vladimir Tretyakov, Russian mathematician and academic (b. 1936)
• 2022 – Nina Rocheva, Soviet-Russian cross-country runner (b. 1948)

Holidays and special occasions

• The liberation of Hatay's Erzin district from the French occupation (1922)
• Storm: Beginning of Zemheri Storm