Software
Free
Download
Audio
Graphics
Utilities
Internet
Screen Savers
Games
Development Tools
Business
Audio
Home/Hobby
Education
|
December 8 is the 342nd day (343rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 23 days remaining.
Events
1854 - Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogma of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was born free of original sin.
1886 - American Federation of Labor founded.
1888 - Bulgaria's National Assembly adopted an Act on establishing a higher school in Sofia.
1907 - King Gustav V of Sweden accedes to the Swedish throne
1914 - Battle of the Falkland Islands fought.
1941 - World War II: After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the previous day, the U.S. Congress passes a declaration of war against Japan, bringing the United States of America officially into World War 2; Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin casts the only "no" vote. In response, Hitler's Germany declares war on the United States.
1941 - Holocaust: First Nazi use of gas vans on Jews, at the Chelmno camp near Lodz.
1949 - Chinese Civil War: The capital of the Republic of China is moved from Nanjing to Taipei, Taiwan
1976 - The Eagles release one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, Hotel California
1980 - Mark David Chapman murders former Beatle John Lennon.
1987 - The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed.
1991 - Leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine met and signed an agreement ending the U.S.S.R. and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Nature Reserve in Belarus
1991 - First post-Communist Romanian Constitution is adopted in a referendum.
1993 - The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is signed into law by US President Bill Clinton.
1994 - US President Bill Clinton signs a bill enacting United States participation in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT was formally signed on April 15 1994, in Marrakesh, Morocco by 124 nations).
1998 - 81 people killed by armed groups in the Tadjena massacre in Algeria.
2003 - The Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada officially merge to create the new Conservative Party of Canada.
2004 - The Cuzco Declaration was signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations, a regional parliament, a common market and a common currency for South American nations.
Births
65 BC - Horace, poet (d. 8 BC)
AD 1542 - Mary Queen of Scots (d. 1587)
1626 - Queen Christina of Sweden (d. 1689)
1730 - Jan Ingenhousz, physiologist, botanist (d. 1799)
1765 - Eli Whitney, inventor (d. 1825)
1790 - Richard Carlille, reformer (d. 1843)
1813 - Adolf Kolping, theologian (d. 1865)
1815 - Adolph Menzel, painter and graphic artist (d. 1905)
1832 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian author
1848 - Joel Chandler Harris, author and folklorist (d. 1908)
1861 - Aristide Maillol, sculptor (d. 1944)
1861 - William C. Durant, automobile pioneer (d. 1947)
1862 - Georges Feydeau, French playwright (d. 1921)
1864 - Camille Claudel, graphic artist (d. 1943)
1865 - Jean Sibelius, composer (d. 1957)
1886 - Diego Rivera, painter (d. 1957)
1890 - Bohuslav Martinu, composer (d. 1959)
1894 - James Thurber, writer (d. 1961)
1911 - Lee J. Cobb, actor (d. 1976)
1918 - Gérard Souzay, French baritone (d. 2004)
1923 - Rudolph Pariser, chemist
1925 - Sammy Davis Jr., actor, singer (d. 1990)
1927 - Vladimir Shatalov, cosmonaut
1930 - Maximilian Schell, actor, film director, author
1933 - Flip Wilson, comedian (d. 1998)
1936 - David Carradine, actor
1937 - James MacArthur, actor
1937 - Arne Næss Jr., Norwegian mountaineer, businessman (d. 2004)
1939 - James Galway, Irish flutist
1943 - Jim Morrison, singer (The Doors) (d. 1971)
1946 - John Rubinstein, actor, composer
1947 - Gregg Allman, musician
1950 - Rick Baker, film makeup artist
1953 - Kim Basinger, actress
1956 - Warren Cuccurullo, musician
1957 - Phil Collen. Def Leppard guitarist
1961 - Ann Coulter, author, political commentator, attorney
1964 - Teri Hatcher, actress
1966 - Sinéad O'Connor, musician
1968 - Mike Mussina, baseball player
1976 - Dominic Monaghan, actor
1978 - Vernon Wells, baseball player
1986 - Amir Khan, boxer
Deaths
1638 - Ivan Gundulic, poet, Croatia
1722 - Elisabeth Charlotte von der Pfalz (Liselotte von der Pfalz), Charlotte Elizabeth, Duchesse d'Orléans and sister-in-law of Louis XIV
1859 - Thomas de Quincey, author
1864 - George Boole, mathematician
1907 - King Oscar II of Sweden (b. 1829)
1917 - Mendele Moykher Sforim, writer
1952 - Charles Lightoller 2nd officer of RMS Titanic, (b. 1874)
1958 - Tris Speaker, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1888)
1978 - Golda Meir, former prime minister of Israel
1980 - John Lennon, solo musician, formerly founding member of The Beatles (b. 1940)
1982 - Marty Robbins, country music singer
1983 - Slim Pickens, actor
1992 - William Shawn, American magazine editor (The New Yorker) (b. 1917)
1996 - Howard Rollins Jr., actor
1999 - Kuczka Péter, Hungarian writer, poet and Science Fiction editor (b. 1923)
2001 - Kurt Ruh, specialist in German studies
2001 - Don Tennant, American advertising executive (b. 1922)
2003 - Rubén González, Cuban pianist, member of the Buena Vista Social Club
2003 - Hans Hotter, German bass-baritone (b. 1909)
2004 - Darrell Abbott, lead guitarist for Damageplan, formerly for Pantera (b. 1966)
Holidays and observances
Afflux (50 Aftermath) (Discordianism)
Buddhism - The Enlightenment of Sakyamuni Buddha
Catholicism -Holy Day of Obligation The Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Bulgaria - Day of the Student (studentski praznik)
Romania - Constitution Day
----
December 7 - December 9 - November 8 - January 8 -- listing of all days
|