Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 8
- 1198 - Lotario de Conti became Pope Innocent III. His first act was the restoration of the papal power in Rome.
- 1889 - Herman Hollerith received a patent for his electric tabulating machine.
- 1926 - Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud became the King of Hejaz, a region in present-day Saudi Arabia.
- 1989 - Kegworth Air Disaster: British Midland Flight 92 crashed onto the embankment of the M1 motorway, short of the runway of East Midlands airport, Leicestershire.
- 2004 - RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, was christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.