On this day in History - Dec. 8

• 65 BC - Horace was born (d. BC). Roman poet.
• 0899 - Arnulf of Carinthia dies (b. 0850)
• 1541 - Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII.
• 1542 - Mary Queen of Scots was born (d. 1587). Six days later would become queen of Scotland.
• 1609 - Biblioteca Ambrosiana opens its reading room, the second public library of Europe.
• 1626 - Queen Christina of Sweden was born (d. 1689)
• 1626 - John Davies dies (b. 1569). English poet (b. 1569)
• 1632 - Philippe van Lansberge dies (b. 1561). Flemish astronomer
• 1638 - Ivan Gundulic dies (b. 1589). Croatian poet
• 1643 - John Pym dies (b. 1583). English statesman
• 1649 - Noël Chabanel dies (b. 1613). French Jesuit missionary.
• 1678 - Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton was born (d. 1757). English diplomat.
• 1680 - Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester dies (b. 1606). English politician.
• 1691 - Richard Baxter dies (b. 1615). English clergyman.
• 1695 - Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville dies (b. 1625). French orientalist.
• 1708 - Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor was born (d. 1765).
• 1709 - Thomas Corneille dies (b. 1625). French dramatist.
• 1720 - D. João V, Portuguese king, founded The Portuguese Academy of History.
• 1722 - Liselotte von der Pfalz dies (b. 1652). Duchess of Orléans and sister-in-law of King Louis XIV of France
• 1730 - Jan Ingenhousz was born (d. 1799). Dutch-born British physiologist and botanist.
• 1744 - Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle, Duchess de Châteauroux dies (b. 1717). French mistress of King Louis XV of France
• 1745 - Etienne Fourmont dies (b. 1683). French orientalist.
• 1746 - Charles Radclyffe dies (b. 1693). British politician.
• 1756 - William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington dies. British statesman and diplomat
• 1765 - Eli Whitney was born (d. 1825). American inventor ( cotton gin ).
• 1768 - Jean Denis Attiret dies (b. 1702). French Jesuit missionary and painter.
• 1792 - Começo da construção do Teatro de São Carlos, em Lisboa.
• 1795 - Peter Andreas Hansen was born (d. 1874). Danish astronomer.
• 1815 - Adolph Menzel was born (d. 1905). German painter and graphic artist.
• 1816 - August Belmont, Sr. was born (d. 1890). Prussian-born American financier.
• 1830 - Benjamin Constant dies (b. 1767). Swiss writer.
• 1832 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson was born (d. 1910). Norwegian author and Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1848 - Joel Chandler Harris was born (d. 1908). American author and folklorist.
• 1851 - Francisco de Paula Ramos de Azevedo was born (d. 1928). Brazilian architect.
• 1854 - Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception which holds that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was free of original sin from the moment of her own conception.
• 1859 - Thomas de Quincey dies (b. 1785). British author.
• 1861 - Aristide Maillol was born (d. 1944).French sculptor.
• 1861 - William C. Durant was born (d. 1947). American automobile pioneer.
• 1862 - Georges Feydeau was born (d. 1921). French playwright.
• 1864 - The Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon was officially opened.
• 1864 - Camille Claudel was born (d. 1943). French graphic artist.
• 1864 - George Boole dies (b. 1815). British mathematician and philosopher, inventor of Boolean algebra.
• 1865 - Jean Sibelius was born (d. 1957). Finnish composer.
• 1865 - Jacques Hadamard was born (d. 1963). French mathematician.
• 1869 - Timothy Eaton founds T. Eaton Co. Limited in Toronto, Canada.
• 1874 - Ernst Moro was born (d. 1951). Austrian physician.
• 1885 - William Henry Vanderbilt dies (b. 1821). Member of the Vanderbilt family
• 1886 - The American Federation of Labor was founded at a convention of union leaders in Columbus, Ohio.
• 1886 - Diego Rivera was born (d. 1957). Mexican painter and muralist.
• 1890 - Bohuslav Martinů was born (d. 1959). Czech composer.
• 1894 - James Thurber was born (d. 1961). American writer (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty ).
• 1894 - Florbela Espanca was born in Vila Viçosa (d. 1930). Portuguese poetess - one of the greatest Portuguese poets - who commited suicide on the day of her 36th birthday. ~
• 1894 - E.C. Segar was born (d. 1938). American cartoonist (Popeye).
• 1894 - Pafnuty Chebyshev dies (b. 1821). Russian mathematician.
• 1903 - Herbert Spencer dies (b. 27 Apr 1820). British writer and philosopher (The Synthetic Philosophy)
• 1904 - Konservativ Ungdom (Young Conservatives) in Denmark is founded by Carl F. Herman von Rosen. Still existing today, it is the oldest youth political organisation in Denmark and believed to be one of the oldest remaining in the world.
• 1906 - Britain announces intention to intervene in the Congo Free State if Belgian and German atrocities against natives continues
• 1907 - King Oscar II of Sweden dies (b. 1829)
• 1907 - King Gustav V of Sweden accedes to the Swedish throne.
• 1909 - Gratien Gélinas was born (d. 1999). Quebec playwright, actor, director and producer.
• 1911 - Lee J. Cobb was born (d. 1976). American actor.
• 1913 - Delmore Schwartz was born (d. 1966). American Poet.
• 1914 - World War I - Battle of the Falkland Islands. The Kaiserliche Marine under the command of Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee is engaged by the Royal Navy.
• 1914 - Maximilian von Spee dies (b. 1861). German naval officer.
• 1915 - Ernest Lehman was born (d. 2005). American screenwriter.
• 1916 - Richard Fleischer was born (d. 2006). American film director.
• 1917 - Mendele Moykher Sforim dies (b. 1836). Russian writer.
• 1918 - Gérard Souzay was born (d. 2004). French baritone.
• 1919 - Peter Tali Coleman was born (d. 1997). American politician.
• 1921 - Leonor Maia was born. Portuguese actress.
• 1923 - Rudolph Pariser was born. Chinese-born American chemist.
• 1925 - Foi posto à venda na Alemanha o livro de Adolf Hitler «Mein Kampf» (A Minha Luta), escrito no pequeno período de tempo em que esteve na prisão
• 1925 - Sammy Davis Jr. was born (d. 1990). American actor and singer.
• 1925 - Jimmy Smith was born (d. 2005). American jazz musician.
• 1927 - Vladimir Shatalov was born. Soviet Union-born cosmonaut.
• 1930 - Florbela Espanca dies (suicide) (b. 08 Dec 1894). Portuguese poetess - one of the greatest Portuguese poets.
• 1930 - Maximilian Schell was born. Austrian-born Swiss actor, film director, and author.
• 1933 - Flip Wilson was born (d. 1998). American comedian.
• 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.
• 1935 - Dharmendra was born. Indian actor.
• 1936 - David Carradine was born. American actor.
• 1937 - James MacArthur was born. American actor .
• 1937 - Arne Næss Jr. was born (d. 2004). Norwegian mountain climber and businessman.
• 1938 - Friedrich Glauser dies (b. 1896). German-language Swiss writer.
• 1939 - Sir James Galway was born. Northern Irish flautist.
• 1939 - Jerry Butler was born. American soul singer
• 1939 - Red Berenson was born. National Hockey League player
• 1940 - Brant Alyea was born. Baseball player
• 1941 - Congress declared war on Japan and the U.S. entered World War II one day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.
• 1941 - World War II: Battle of Hong Kong - The Japanese invade the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong less than 8 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbour.
• 1941 - Holocaust: First Nazi use of gas vans on Jews, at the Chelmno camp near Lodz.
• 1941 - World War II: Pacific War - The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in China issues a proclamation which declared war against Japan and Germany on behalf of Korean people, who were under Japanese occupation since 1910.
• 1941 - Sir Geoff Hurst was born. English football player
• 1941 - Ed Brinkman was born. Baseball player
• 1941 - Bob Brown was born. National Football League player
• 1942 - Holocaust: in Ternopil, western Ukraine, German SS organise the last deportation of Ternopil Jews to death camp in Belzec, when 1,400 Jews were sent there. The chief of the Gestapo, SS-Sturmbannführer Hermann Müller, bore overall responsibility for the mass murder of the Jews of Ternopil and Berezhany county.
• 1942 - Botafogo Futebol Clube funde-se com o Clube de Regatas Botafogo, dando origem ao atual Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas.
• 1943 - Jim Morrison was born (d. 1971). American singer (The Doors)
• 1943 - Mary Woronov was born. American actress.
• 1946 - John Rubinstein was born. Actor, composer.
• 1947 - Gregg Allman was born. American musician.
• 1947 - Thomas R. Cech was born. American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1947 - Ângela Leal was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1949 - Communist attacks forced the Chinese Nationalist government to flee to the island of Formosa (Taiwan).
• 1949 - Chinese Civil War: The capital of the Republic of China is moved from Nanjing to Taipei, Taiwan.
• 1949 - Robert Sternberg was born. Proposed the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
• 1950 - Tim Foli was born. Major League Baseball player
• 1950 - Richard Baker was born. American film makeup artist.
• 1951 - Jan Eggum was born. Norwegian singer-songwriter.
• 1951 - Bill Bryson was born. American author
• 1952 - Charles Lightoller dies (b. 1874). British second officer on the Titanic.
• 1953 - Kim Basinger was born. American actress.
• 1956 - Warren Cuccurullo was born. American musician.
• 1957 - Phil Collen was born. British guitarist (Def Leppard)
• 1958 - Tris Speaker dies (b. 1888). American baseball player.
• 1959 - President of the United States, Eisenhower watches Pakistan vs Australia cricket test match at Karachi.
• 1960 - José Castelo Branco was born. Portuguese mediatic jet-set figure.
• 1961 - Ann Coulter was born. American author, political commentator, and attorney
• 1962 - Marty Friedman was born. American guitarist.
• 1963 - Field Marshal Sarit Dhanarajata dies (b. 1908). Prime Minister of Thailand.
• 1964 - Sandy Burnett was born. British record producer
• 1964 - Teri Hatcher was born. American actress.
• 1965 - Carina Lau was born. Hong Kong actress
• 1966 - The Greek ferry Heraklion sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200.
• 1966 - Michael Cole was born. American professional wrestling commentator
• 1966 - Sinéad O'Connor was born. Irish singer (Nothing compares 2 U)
• 1967 - Jeff George was born. American football player.
• 1967 - Kotono Mitsuishi was born. Japanese seiyu (voice actress)
• 1968 - NLS (a system for which hypertext and the computer mouse were developed) is publicly demonstrated for the first time in San Francisco.
• 1968 - Mike Mussina was born. American baseball player
• 1969 - An Olympic Airways DC-6B crashes near Athens during a storm, killing 93 people.
• 1972 - United Airlines Flight 533 crashes near Chicago Midway Airport, killing 45 people.
• 1972 - Marco Abreu was born. Angolan football player.
• 1972 - Frank Shamrock was born. American MMA-Fighter and younger brother of MMA-Fighter Ken Shamrock
• 1973 - Corey Taylor was born. American singer (Slipknot, Stone Sour)
• 1974 - A população da Grécia, via um referendo, vota contra a restauração da monarquia no país.
• 1975 - Kevin Harvick was born. American NASCAR driver.
• 1975 - Gary Thain dies (b. 1948). New Zealand bassist (Uriah Heep).
• 1976 - Dominic Monaghan was born. German-born British actor
• 1976 - Naimee Coleman was born. Irish singer and songwriter
• 1976 - Reed Johnson was born. American baseball player
• 1976 - The Eagles release one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, Hotel California
• 1977 - Ryan Newman was born. American NASCAR driver.
• 1977 - Elsa Benítez was born. Mexican supermodel
• 1978 - Ian Somerhalder was born. American actor.
• 1978 - Vernon Wells was born. American baseball player.
• 1978 - Golda Meir dies in Jerusalem(b. 1898). Russian-born Prime Minister of Israel
• 1980 - Darby Crash dies (b. 1958). American singer and songwriter (The Germs)
• 1980 - John Lennon dies (b. 1940). Former member of the Beatles he was shot and killed in New York City by a deranged fan.
• 1981 - No. 21 Mine explosion in Whitwell, Tennessee kills 13.
• 1981 - Jeremy Accardo was born. American baseball player.
• 1981 - Philip Rivers was born. American football player.
• 1982 - James Guffey was born. American professional wrestler.
• 1982 - Michael Essien was born. Ghanaian international football player.
• 1982 - Marty Robbins dies (b. 1925). American singer
• 1982 - Bram Behr dies (b. 1951). Surinamese journalist.
• 1983 - Neel Jani was born. Swiss racing driver
• 1983 - Slim Pickens dies (b. 1919). American actor.
• 1984 - Luther Adler dies (b. 1903). American actor.
• 1984 - Robert Jay Mathews dies (b. 1953). White Nationalist.
• 1985 - Dwight Howard was born. American basketball player.
• 1986 - Amir Khan was born. British boxer
• 1987 - President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the first treaty - The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty - to reduce the nyclear arsenals of the two superpowers.
• 1987 - the "intefadeh" (Arabic for uprising) by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories began.
• 1987 - The Queen Street Massacre: Frank Vitkovic shoots and kills 8 people at the offices of Australia Post in Melbourne, Australia before being killed himself.
• 1991 - The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.
• 1991 - The Romanian Constitution is adopted in a referendum.
• 1991 - Buck Clayton dies (b. 1911). American jazz trumpet player.
• 1992 - William Shawn dies (b. 1917). American magazine editor.
• 1993 - President Bill Clinton signed The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into law.
• 1993 - AnnaSophia Robb was born. American child actress
• 1994 - Bosnian Serbs released dozens of hostage peacekeepers, but continued to detain about 300 others.
• 1994 - Antônio Carlos Jobim dies (b. 1917). Brazilian composer and musician.
• 1995 - Macau International Airport is inaugurated.
• 1995 - O estado báltico da Lituânia faz um pedido oficial para se tornar membro da União Européia.
• 1995 - Jean-Dominique Bauby suffers a stroke
• 1996 - Howard Rollins dies (b. 1950). American actor.
• 1998 - Tadjena massacre: 81 people are killed by armed groups in Algeria.
• 1999 - Péter Kuczka dies (b. 1923). Hungarian writer, poet, and science fiction editor.
• 2001 - Don Tennant dies (b. 1992). American advertising executive
• 2003 - Hans Hotter dies (b. 1909). German bass-baritone.
• 2003 - Rubén González dies. Cuban pianist, member of the Buena Vista Social Club
• 2004 - The Cuzco Declaration is signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations.
• 2004 - Former Pantera guitarist Darrell Abbott is shot and killed on stage by Nathan Gale at the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio.
• 2004 - Dimebag Darrell (Darrell Abbott) dies (b. 1966). American guitarist.
• 2004 - Mia Hamm, a leading figure in U.S. women's football (soccer), retired from the sport.
• 2004 - The population of the Australian state of Victoria reaches 5 million for the first time.
• 2005 - Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 slides off the runway at Chicago Midway Airport, killing a 6-year-old boy and injuring 11 other people.
• 2005 - Ante Gotovina, Croatian army general accused of war crimes, is captured in the Playa de las Américas, Tenerife by the Spanish police
• 2005 - Georgiy Zhzhonov dies (b. 1915). Russian actor and author.
• 2006 - Jeane Kirkpatrick dies (b. 1926). American diplomat.
• R.C. Saints - The solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary: a Holy Day of Obligation
• Buddhism - The Enlightenment of Gautama Buddha
• Romania - Constitution Day
• Public Holiday in Austria and in Malta.
• Bulgaria - Day of the Student (studentski praznik)
• Panama - Mother's Day
• Kazakhstan - Day of the Green Pea