On this day in history - January 8

What Happened On This Day – January 8

• 1994 Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov begins his record spaceflight

  Polyakov stayed aboard the Mir space station for a record-breaking 437 days and 18 hours.

• 1959 Charles de Gaulle becomes president of France

  His right-wing political ideology, Gaullism, still influences French politics today.

• 1912 The African National Congress (ANC) is founded

  The ANC, whose most famous member is Nelson Mandela, played an important role in the fight against the South African apartheid regime and it is now the country's governing political party.

• 1889 Computer pioneer Herman Hollerith patents his punched card calculator

  His invention paved the way for modern automatic computation.

• 1790 George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address

  The U.S. president typically uses this annual speech to outline his political agenda.