Daily Archives: January 8, 2013

Kennedy welcomes da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’ to Washington 50 years ago this hour (1963)


Video: 'President John F. Kennedy - January 1963'

(Tuesday, January 8, 1963, 9:30 p.m. EST) — Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa on loan to the United States from the Louvre Museum in Paris, went on display today at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., with President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, in attendance. Continue reading Kennedy welcomes da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’ to Washington 50 years ago this hour (1963)

Watergate jury selection begins 40 years ago today (1973)


Video: Jan. 8, 1973 (at 13:11)

(Monday, January 8, 1973; during the Watergate scandal) — U.S. District Judge John J. Sirica began selecting jurors today in Washington for the long-awaited trial of seven men charged in the June 1972 Watergate burglary, for which several past and present White House aides were named as prospective government witnesses.

Soviets offer terms of surrender to Germans at Stalingrad 70 years ago today (1943)


Video: Jan. 8, 1943 (at 42:33)

(Friday, January 8, 1943; during the Battle of Stalingrad on the Eastern Front of World War II) — Gen. Konstantin Rokossovsky, commander of the Red Army on the Don front, called a cease fire today and offered German Gen. Friedrich Paulus terms of surrender. However, when Paulus asked Adolf Hitler, Führer of Germany, for permission to surrender, Hitler rejected this request almost out of hand and ordered him to hold Stalingrad to the last man.