December 8

The immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary

The enlightenment of Gautama Buddha

65 BC - Birth of Horace, Roman poet (d. 8 BC)

1542 - Birth of Mary Queen of Scots (d. 1587)

1765 - Birth of Eli Whitney, American inventor (d. 1825)

1776 - George Washington's retreating army crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey to Pennsylvania during the American Revolution

1792 - First cremation in the United States, Henry Laurens

1793 - Death of Madame du Barry, last royal mistress of France, guillotined (b. 1743)

1811 - Death of Eliza Poe, English-born American actress and the mother of the American author Edgar Allan Poe (b. 1787)

1813 - Ludwig von Beethoven's 7th Symphony in A, premieres

1854 - Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Catholic 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

1863 - President Abraham Lincoln announced his plan for the Reconstruction of the South. Lincoln offers amnesty for confederate deserters

1874 - Jesse James gang takes train at Muncie Kansas

1894 - Birth of E.C. Segar, American cartoonist (Popeye) (d. 1938)

1894 - Birth of James Thurber, American humorist and cartoonist (d. 1961)

1925 - Birth of Sammy Davis Jr., American actor and singer (d. 1990)

1931 - Coaxial cable patented

1933 - Birth of Flip Wilson, American comedian (d. 1998)

1936 - NAACP files suit to equalize the salaries of black & white teachers

1936 - Birth of David Carradine, American actor

1940 - The Chicago Bears shut out the Washington Redskins. The final score: Chicago 73, Washington 0

1941 - World War II: Pacific War - After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the U.S. Congress passes a declaration of war against Japan

1941 - World War II: Pacific War - the Republic of China officially declares war against Japan

1941 - World War II: First Japanese attack on Wake Island

1941 - Holocaust: Gas vans are first used as a means of execution, at the Chelmno extermination camp near Łódź in Poland

1942 - Holocaust: in Ternopil, Ukraine, the German SS organizes the deportation of the last 1,400 Ternopil Jews to the death camp in Belzec. The chief of the Gestapo, SS-Sturmbannführer Heinrich Müller, bore overall responsibility for the mass murder of the Jews of Ternopil and Berezhany county

1943 - Birth of Jim Morrison, American singer (The Doors) (d. 1971)

1947 - Birth of Gregg Allman, American musician

1949 - Communist attacks forced the Chinese Nationalist government to flee to the island of Formosa (Taiwan)

1949 - One of America’s classic Broadway plays, and later, a major motion picture, debuted. "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" began its long run at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City. Carol Channing starred in the musical and charmed audiences with the show’s songs such as her trademark signature, "Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend"

1953 - Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the Atoms for Peace speech

1952 - First television acknowledgment of pregnancy on "I Love Lucy"

1953 - Birth of Kim Basinger, American actress

1953 - Birth of Sam Kinison, American comedian (d. 1992)

1955 - Birth of Tony O'Connor, American Blogger (Bonez)

1956 - Birth of Warren Cuccurullo, American musician (Duran Duran)

1957 - Birth of Phil Collen, English guitarist (Def Leppard)

1961 - "Surfin’", The Beach Boys first record, was released on Candix Records. It became a local hit in Los Angeles but only made it to #75 nationally. The surfin’ music craze didn’t take hold across America for another year. By the time "Surfin’ Safari" entered the Top 40 (September 1962), though, The Beach Boys were ridin’ a wave of popularity that continues today even though The Beach Boys have become The Beach Men

1961 - Birth of Ann Coulter, American political commentator

1962 - Birth of Marty Friedman, American guitarist (Megadeth)

1963 - Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. He was set free three days later after his father paid a $240,000 ransom with no questions asked. Three men were eventually caught, convicted and imprisoned for the crime

1963 - Pan Am Flight 214 crashes outside Elkton, Maryland with a loss of 81 people.

1964 - Birth of Teri Hatcher, American actress

1966 - The Greek SS Heraklion sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200

1966 - Birth of Sinéad O'Connor, Irish musician

1967 - Beatles "Magical Mystery Tour" album is released in UK

1969 - An Olympic Airways Douglas DC-6 crashes in Keratea during a storm, killing 93 people

1972 - United Airlines Flight 553 crashes near Chicago Midway Airport, killing 45 people

1978 - Death of Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir

1979 - Styx "Babe" hit #1 in the U.S. It stayed there for two weeks, before being knocked out of the coveted spot by Rupert Holmes’ "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)"

1980 - John Lennon was shot and killed on this day in 1980 as he stood outside of his New York City apartment house, the Dakota. The deranged, obsessed ‘fan’ was quickly apprehended by others gathered at the scene. A several-days vigil by hundreds of mourning fans is remembered as candles flickered and the song "Give Peace a Chance" was heard -- a continuing tribute to the musician and songwriter of a generation. John Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, together with New York’s officials, set up a permanent memorial to her husband: a section of Central Park, opposite The Dakota, named Strawberry Fields.

1982 - a man demanding an end to nuclear weapons held the Washington Monument hostage, threatening to blow it up with explosives he claimed were inside a van. After a 10-hour standoff, Norman D. Mayer was shot dead by police; it turned out there were no explosives

1983 - Death of Slim Pickens, American actor (b. 1919)

1987 - President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a treaty calling for destruction of intermediate-range nuclear missiles

1987 - The Alianza Lima air disaster

1991 - The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States

1992 - Americans saw live TV coverage of U.S. troops landing on the beaches of Somalia as Operation Restore Hope began

1993 - The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is signed into law by US President Bill Clinton

1995 - The Grateful Dead announced they were breaking up after 30 years of making music. The news came four months after the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia