Today's 8 December Major Events in History

Photo for the article Today's 8 December Major Events

1326 Daitokuji temple, Rinzai line, established in Kyoto by Daito Kokushi
1609 Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan opens its reading room, second public library in Europe
1659 Mexican border town Ciudad Juárez is founded by Fray García de San Francisco.

1710 Battle of Brihuega in the War of the Spanish Succession: British General James Stanhope captured by French & Spanish forces

Washington's Army Crosses the Delaware

1776 American Revolutionary War: George Washington's retreating army crosses the Delaware River from New Jersey to Pennsylvania

Cooks Leaves Society Islands

1777 Captain James Cook leaves the Society Islands

1794 1st issue of Herald of Rutland, VT published

1852 Gustav Freytag's comedy play "The Journalists" premieres in Breslau
1854 Pope Pius IX proclaims Immaculate Conception, makes Mary, free of Original Sin

The Poor of New York

1857 Dion Boucicault's stage drama "The Poor of New York" opens at Wallack's Lyceum Theatre, NYC

1863 2,500 reported killed as result of fire at Jesuit Church of La Compana, Santiago, Chile

Lincoln's Amnesty Proclamation

1863 Abraham Lincoln issues his Amnesty Proclamation and plan for Reconstruction of the South

A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field

1864 James Clerk Maxwell's paper "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" is 1st read by the Royal Society in London (published by the Royal Society 1865)

1864 Pope Pius IX publishes encyclical Quanta cura ("Syllabus errorum")

Clifton Suspension Bridge

1864 The Clifton Suspension Bridge opens in Bristol, England, 5 years after the death of and as a memorial to its designer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel

1869 20th Roman Catholic ecumenical council, Vatican I, opens in Rome
1869 Timothy Eaton founds T. Eaton Co. Limited in Toronto, Canada.

Jesse James Robs Train

1874 James-Younger gang led by Jesse James robs a train at Muncie, Kansas stealing $30,000

1875 Aleksandr Ostrovsky's play "Volki i Ovsty" (Wolves and Sheep) premieres at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, Russia
1876 Suriname begins compulsory education for 7-12 years
1880 5,000 armed Boers gather in Paardekraal, South Africa
1881 Vienna's Ring Theater destroyed by gaslight fire, killing an estimated 384-1000 people

American Federation of Labor

1886 American Federation of Labor (AFL) formed by 26 craft unions Samuel Gompers elected AFL president

Battle at Amba Alagi

1895 Battle at Amba Alagi: Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II drives Italian General Baratieri out

1907 Gustaf V of Sweden becomes King of Sweden (1907-50)
1909 Bird banding society found

1913 Construction starts on Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco
1914 Battle of the Falkland Island: British Royal Navy destroys a German battle squadron
1914 Boers rebelling against the British in South Africa suffer several defeats, with one of their leaders, General Beyers, accidentally drowning
1914 Irving Berlin's musical "Watch your Step" premieres in NYC

Sibelius' 5th Symphony

1915 Jean Sibelius' Symphony No. 5 in E premieres in Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland

In Flanders Fields

1915 John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields" appears anonymously in "Punch" magazine

1921 Éamon de Valera publicly repudiates the Anglo-Irish Treaty just two days after it was signed by his Republican colleagues, Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins

1923 German-US friendship treaty signed
1923 Labour/Liberals win British parliament
1923 Salary & price freeze in Germany
1930 Broadway Theater opens at 1681 Broadway NYC
1931 Coaxial cable patented
1933 French nun Bernadette Soubirous, who saw the vision of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, is canonized by the Catholic Church
1934 Friedrich Wolf's "Professor Mamlock" premieres in Zurich
1935 The Japanese military police launches a violent suppression of the religious sect Oomoto, beginning with a crackdown on the sect's operational bases of Ayabe and Kameoka in Kyoto Prefecture and the arrest of its leader Onisaburo Deguchi.
1936 Anastasio Somoza García elected President of Nicaragua
1936 NAACP files suit to equalize salaries of black & white teachers
1938 Highest temperature for December in US recorded in La Mesa Calif
1941 Chełmno extermination camp opens, 50 kilometres from Łódź, Poland
1941 London: Dutch government-in-exile declares war on Japan
1941 Russian 16th army recaptures Krijukovo
1941 San Francisco 1st blackout, at 6:15 PM
1941 US and Britain declare war on Japan, US enters World War II

1941 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his famous "Day of Infamy" speech to a joint session of Congress a day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor

1942 8th Heisman Trophy Award: Frank Sinkwich, Georgia (HB)

Voice of the Turtle

1943 John Van Druten's controversial comedic play about the challenges of single life in New York City during World War II, "Voice of the Turtle," premieres in NYC

1946 US Army rocket plane XS-1 makes its first powered flight
1948 14th Heisman Trophy Award for US college football awarded to halfback Doak Walker of SMU
1948 Jordan annexs Arabic Palestine

1949 Chinese Nationalist government moves from Chinese mainland to Formosa
1951 AL alters its restrictions on night games, adopting NL's suspended game rule & lifting its ban on lights for Sunday games
1952 First TV acknowledgment of a pregnancy in the "I Love Lucy" episode "Lucy is Enceinte," which incorporates Lucy's real-life pregnancy into the storyline
1952 French troops shoot at anti-colonial demonstrators in Casablanca, Morocco, killing 50
1952 Isaak Ben-Zwi elected President of Israel
1953 19th Heisman Trophy Award: Johnny Lattner, Notre Dame (HB)

1954 Maxwell Anderson's play "Bad Seed", based on the book by William March, premieres in NYC
1954 WPTZ TV channel 5 in Plattsburgh, NY (NBC) begins broadcasting
1955 21st Heisman Trophy Award: Howard Cassady, Ohio State (HB)

The Ladykillers

1955 Black Ealing comedy crime film "The Ladykillers", directed by Alexander Mackendrick and starring Alec Guinness is released in the UK

1955 Brooklyn catcher Roy Campanella wins his 3rd MVP Award
1955 Turkish government of Menderes forms
1956 1st test firing of Vanguard satellite program, TV-0
1956 Guy Mitchell's "Singing the Blues" single goes #1 for 10 weeks
1956 XVI Summer Olympic Games close at the MCG in Melbourne, Australia; start of an Olympic tradition - amidst international tensions, athletes mingle together, parade into and around MCG arena for final appearance to close the Games

The Sound of Jazz

1957 CBS broadcasts "The Sound of Jazz", live from NYC: an all-star program featuring swing era and contemporary jazz artists, including Count Basie, Red Allen, Ben Webster;, Thelonious Monk, and Gerry Mulligan; highlight is the final collaboration of Billie Holiday and Lester Young on "Fine and Mellow"

1959 Baseball's new Continental League awards its 6th franchise to Atlanta, Georgia
1959 Dom Mintoff demands independence for Malta
1960 MLB expansion team Los Angeles Angels sign a 4 year lease to use Dodger Stadium

Peter Pan

1960 Musical "Peter Pan," starring Mary Martin, is broadcast for the third time on NBC as a special event, the first full-length production videotaped in color

1961 Antwerp Belgium diocese forms
1961 Construction workers top off the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington, less 8 months after work began
1961 Larry Costello scores 32 consecutive points without a miss for the Syracuse Nationals, setting an NBA record

Third-Highest Single-Game Score

1961 Philadelphia Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain scores 78 points in a 151-147 triple-overtime defeat to the LA Lakers at Philadelphia Civic Center, the third-highest individual game total in NBA history

1961 South Africa v NZ, Durban debuts for Eddie Barlow & Peter Pollock
1962 114-day newspaper strike begins in NYC
1962 Attempted coup in British-controlled Brunei

1963 Frank Sinatra, Jr is kidnapped at Harrah's Lake Tahoe (Nevada)
1963 Pan Am Flight 214 crashes outside Elkton, Maryland with 81 killed
1965 Abe Burrows' play "Cactus Flower" premieres in NYC
1965 Nikolai Podgorny succeeds Mikojan as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet

Second Vatican Council Ends

1965 Pope Paul VI closes the final session of the Second Vatican Council, an influential ecumenical council that significantly modernizes church practices

1966 New York Yankee trade, outfielder Roger Maris to St' Louis Cardinals for Charlie Smith
1966 US and USSR sign treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons in outer space
1967 NHL California Seals change name to Oakland Seals
1967 The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" EP is released in UK; issued in US as an album, including additional singles from 1967
1969 Greek DC-6B crashes in storm at Athens, 93 killed
1969 Police surprise attack on Black-Panthers in LA
1970 Head of the Catholic Church in Ireland Cardinal William Conway publishes a pamphlet on the topic of segregation in education in Northern Ireland
1972 United Airlines crashes at Chicago's Midway Airport killing 45
1973 39th Heisman Trophy Award: John Cappelletti, Penn State (RB)
1974 Greek monarchy rejected by referendum
1974 Irish Republican Socialist Party forms
1974 Soyuz 16 returns to Earth
1975 Radio station 4ZZZ begins transmitting in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia at 105.7 FM; frequency changes to 102.1 FM in 1978
1976 Asylum Records releases The Eagles fifth studio album "Hotel California"; it spawns two #1 singles and sells over 30 million copies

Waldheim Re-elected Secretary-General

1976 UN General Assembly re-elects Kurt Waldheim Secretary-General

1976 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1977 43rd Heisman Trophy Award: Earl Campbell, Texas (RB)

1978 Commencement of the 1st day/night World Series Cricket supertest at VFL Park, Melbourne
1980 "Bravo" network premieres on cable TV

Lennon's Last Photo-shoot

1980 Annie Leibovitz has a photo-shoot with John Lennon, the last person to professionally photograph him before he is murdered on the same day

1981 France performs nuclear test

Sophie's Choice

1982 "Sophie's Choice", directed by Alan J. Pakula and based on William Styton's 1979 novel of the same name, starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, is released (Academy Awards Best Actress 1983)

1982 Norman Mayer holds Washington Monument hostage, demanding an end to nuclear weapons, and is killed by police after 10 hours (he had no explosives)
1982 Suriname army leader Desi Bouterse orders the murders 15 opponents to his military regime
1983 9th NASA Space Shuttle Mission: Columbia 6 lands at Edwards AFB
1983 Richard Baker, Zen teacher, steps down from abbotship of San Francisco Zen Center
1984 Europe & 64 developing countries sign Lome III treaty
1984 Ringo Starr hosts "Saturday Night Live"; Herbie Hancock is the musical guest
1985 Ken O'Brien's 96 yard TD pass (NY Jet record) to Wesley Walker
1985 NBC premiere of thriller "Final Jeopardy", starring Richard Thomas and Mary Crosby
1986 NBC premiere of miniseries "Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna" (Part 2)
1986 US House of Representative Democrats select majority leader Jim Wright as 48th Speaker of the House

1st NHL Goalie to Score

1987 Flyers' Ron Hextall becomes the first NHL goalie to score a goal, shooting the puck into Boston Bruins empty net in 5-2 win at The Spectrum in Philadelphia

1987 Occupied Palestinians start "intefadeh" (uprising) against Israel
1987 Peruvian Navy Fokker F27-400M chartered by Alianza Lima FC crashes into Pacific Ocean 7 miles from Jorge Chávez International Airport near Callao; 43 killed, only pilot survives

1988 Knick's set NBA record of 11 3-pointers & sink Bucks, 113-109
1989 Great Britain performs nuclear test
1990 Indians agree to a lease new ballpark in Gateway (Jacobs Field)
1990 NASA discovers life on Earth - in famous control experiment looking for alien life, using spacecraft Galileo's gravity assist fly-by Earth at close altitude of 597 miles (960 km) on its way to Jupiter [1] [2]
1991 Russia, Belorussia & Ukraine form Commonwealth of Ind States
1991 The Romanian Constitution is adopted in a referendum.
1992 NBC announces that "Cheers" will go off the air in May 1993
1992 Spacecraft Galileo makes its second and closest flyby of Earth at a minimum distance of 305 km for a gravity assist on its way to Jupiter [1]
1993 30 killed at religious rebellion in Algeria
1993 Dow Jones Industrial Average hits record 3734.53
1993 Storm hits western Europe, 11 killed in England
1994 Darryl Strawberry indicted on tax evasion charges
1994 Fire in cinema in Karamay China, 310 killed
1995 Krzysztof Penderecki conducts the Munich Philharmonic in premiere of his Symphony No. 3
1998 Tadjena massacre: 81 people are killed by armed groups in Algeria.
2002 The Caribbean Community Heads of Government meet with the Government of Cuba and declare the date to be "CARICOM-Cuba Day" - To celebrate diplomatic ties between the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Cuba.
2004 Cuzco Declaration is signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the Union of South American Nations
2005 Ante Gotovina, Croatian army general accused of war crimes, is captured in the Playa de las Américas, Tenerife by the Spanish police.
2007 73rd Heisman Trophy Award: Tim Tebow, Florida (QB)
2008 Kirsty Williams elected as Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats. The first female leader of a political party in Wales.
2009 Bombings in Baghdad, Iraq kill 127 and injure 448.

SpaceX Achieves First

2010 With the second launch of the SpaceX Dragon, SpaceX becomes the first privately held company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft

2011 The NBA and players union reach financial agreement to end a 161-day lockout, shortening the season by 16 games
2012 UN climate conference agrees to extend the Kyoto Protocol to 2020
2018 84th Heisman Trophy Award: Kyler Murray, Oklahoma (QB)
2018 Brian Ortega fights Max Holloway at UFC 231 and loses by doctor stoppage, earning Fight of the Night

John Kelly Steps Down

2018 US President Donald Trump announces John Kelly will be stepping down as White House Chief of Staff at the end of the year

2019 Fire in an illegal bag factory in Delhi, India, kills 43
2019 Polar explorers Mike Horn and Børge Ousland complete an 1,800 km (1,118 miles) journey on drifting ice in darkness in the Arctic
2019 Sanna Marin becomes Finland's youngest-ever Prime Minister at the age of 34
2019 Vienna State Opera stages its first show by a female composer in 150 years: Olga Neuwirth’s opera “Orlando”
2020 Former Israeli space security chief Haim Eshed says Aliens and a Galactic Federation exist and Donald Trump knows about it, in article published in the Jerusalem Post
2020 The UK begins vaccinating for COVID-19 using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine

2022 American basketball star Brittany Griner is released by Russian authorities in a prisoner exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout; Griner detained on drug smuggling charges since February 2022
2022 Canadian pop singer Celine Dion reveals via Instagram that she has been diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS), a rare neurological disorder

2022 Iran announces first known execution of a protester from recent anti-government unrest, after convicting a man in a revolutionary court of "moharebeh" (enmity against God) [1]

Trevor Noah's Final Show

2022 Trevor Noah hosts his final episode of late-night talk and satirical news television program "The Daily Show"

2022 UN investigation in DR Congo finds 131 people were massacred in November by M23 rebel group in Kishishe and Bambo villages, in east of the country [1]
2023 Exhibition "The Art of Zen" featuring ink painting "Persimmons" the 'Zen Mona Lisa' by 13th century Chinese monk Muqi opens In San Francisco [1]
2023 Kawhi Leonard scores a season-high 41 points in a win over the Utah Jazz

Zelensky Releases Battlefield Losses

2024 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died in the country's war with Russia, with 370,000 injured, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky [1]

The Eras Tour Finale

2024 American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift concludes "The Eras Tour" with her 149th show, at BC Place in Vancouver, Canada; the 21 month international concert tour is the highest-grossing of all time, with box office gross just over $2 billion [1]

2024 Classic Baseball Era Committee of National Baseball Hall elects Philadelphia Phillies/Chicago White Sox Dick Allen and Pittsburgh Pirates/Oakland Athletics Dave Parker for inclusion
2024 Dutch driver Max Verstappen finishes 6th in the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP to claim his 4th consecutive World F1 title; Lando Norris wins the race as McLaren takes Constructors C'ship for first time in 26 years

Kennedy Center Honors

2024 Kennedy Center Honors ceremony held for filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, jazz musician Arturo Sandoval, singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt, rock band The Grateful Dead, and Harlem's Apollo Theater, in Washington D.C.

Assad Flees to Moscow

2024 Syrian President Bashar al-Assad resigns and flees to Moscow after rebel forces sweep into the capital city of Damascus [1]