Today in History - Famous Events for Yesterday

🏰 On this day in History - Dec 8

1326 Daitokuji temple, Rinzai line, established in Kyoto by Daito Kokushi

1710 Battle at Brihuega: English Gen Stanhope captured

1776 George Washington's retreating army crosses Delaware River from NJ

1777 Capt Cook leaves Society Islands

1792 1st cremation in US, Henry Laurens

1794 1st issue of Herald of Rutland, VT published

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

1846 Hector Berlioz's "La Damnation de Faust," premieres

1849 Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Luisa Miller," premieres in Naples

1852 Gustav Freytag's "Die Journalisten," premieres in Breslau

1854 Pope Pius IX proclaims Immaculate Conception, makes Mary, free of Original Sin

1857 1st production of Dion Boucicaults "Poor of NY"

1863 2,500 reported killed at Church of La Compana, Santiago Chile

1863 Abraham Lincoln announces plan for Reconstruction of South

1863 Jesuit church in Chile catches fire, 2,500 die in panic

1863 Pres Lincoln offers amnesty for confederate deserters

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

1869 20th Roman Catholic ecumenical council, Vatican I, opens in Rome

1874 Jesse James gang takes train at Muncie Kansas

1875 Aleksandr Ostrovsky's "Volki i Ovsty," premieres in St Petersburg

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 fire, kills between 640-850

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

1895 Battle at Amba Alagi: Ethiopian emperor Menelik II drives Italian general Baratieri's out

1896 Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Missing 3 Quarter" (BG)

1899 Natal: British fall/burst out belegerd Ladysmith

1902 Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr became Associate Justice on Supreme Court

1909 Bird banding society found

1913 Construction starts on Palace of Fine Arts in SF

1914 British & German fleets battle at Falkland Island

1914 Connie Mack sells Eddie Collins to the White Sox

1914 Irving Berlin's musical "Watch your Step," premieres in NYC

1915 Jean Sibelius' 5th Symphony in E, premieres

1921 Eamon de Valera publicly repudiates Anglo-Irish Treaty

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

1930 Cole Porter's musical "NYCers," premieres in NYC

1931 Coaxial cable patented

1934 Friedrich Wolf's "Professor Mamlock," premieres in ZЃrich

1936 Anastasio Somoza elected pres 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

1938 LP Beria follows Nikolai Jezjov as head of Russian secret police

1940 1st NFL championship on national radio; Bears beat Redskins 73-0

1941 Destruction Camp Chelmo opens

1941 London: Dutch government declares Japan the war

1941 Russian 16th army recaptures Krijukovo

1941 SF 1st blackout, at 6:15 PM

1941 US & Britain declare war on Japan, US enters WW II

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

1943 John Van Druten's "Voice of the Turtle," premieres in NYC

1946 Army rocket plane XS-1 makes 1st powered flight

1947 "Caribbean Carnival" opens at International Theater NYC for 11 perfs

1948 "Marinka" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 168 performances

1948 14th Heisman Trophy Award: Doak Walker, SMU (HB)

1948 Jordan annexs Arabic Palestine

1949 "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for 740 perfs

1949 Chinese Nationalist govt moves from Chinese mainland to Formosa

1949 Jule Styne's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," premieres in NYC

1951 "Tree Grows in Brooklyn" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 267 perfs

1951 AL alters its restrictions on night games, adopting NL's suspended game rule & lifting its ban on lights for Sunday games

1952 1st TV acknowledgement of pregnancy (I Love Lucy)

1952 French troops shoot on demonstrators at Casablanca, 50 die

1952 Isaak Ben-Zwi elected pres of Israel

1953 19th Heisman Trophy Award: John Lattner, Notre Dame (HB)

1954 Maxwell Anderson's "Bad Seed," premieres in NYC

1954 WPTZ TV channel 5 in Plattsburgh, NY (NBC) begins broadcasting

1955 21st Heisman Trophy Award: Howard Cassady, Ohio State (HB)

1955 Brooklyn catcher Roy Campanella wins his 3rd MVP Award

1955 Turkish govt of Menderes forms

1956 16th Olympic games close at Melbourne, Australia

1956 1st test firing of Vanguard satellite program, TV-0

1956 Guy Mitchell's "Singing the Blues," single goes #1 for 10 weeks

1959 Dom Mintoff demands independence for Malta

1959 President Eisenhower watches Pakistan v Aust Test Cricket at Karachi

1960 Expansion LA Angels sign a 4 year lease to use Dodger Stadium

1961 Antwerp Belgium diocese forms

1961 Larry Costello scores 32 consecutive pts without a miss (NBA rec)

1961 S Africa v NZ, Durban debuts for Eddie Barlow & Peter Pollock

1961 Wilt Chamberlain scores the 2nd highest total in the NBA - 78

1962 "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" closes at Shubert NYC after 300 perfs

1962 114-day newspaper strike begins in NYC

1962 Failed coup in Brunei

1962 Funeral for Queen Wilhelmina of Holland (New Kerk, Delft)

1963 "Girl Who Came to Supper" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 112 perfs

1963 Mickey Wright/Dave Ragan Jr wins LPGA Haig & Haig Scotch Mixed Golf

1963 3 fuel tanks explodes when jetliner is struck by lightning crashing near Elkton, Maryland-Only case of lightning caused crash, 81 die

1965 Abe Burrows' "Cactus Flower," premieres in NYC

1965 Nikolai Podgorny succeeds Mikojan as president of USSR

1965 Pope Paul VI signs 2nd Vatican council

1966 A terrible Yankee trade, Roger Maris for Card's Charlie Smith

1966 US & USSR sign treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons in outer space

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

1967 NHL California Seals change name to Oakland Seals

1969 Greek DC-6B crashes in storm at Athens, 93 killed

1969 Police surprise attack on Black-Panthers in LA

1972 United Airlines crashes at Chicago's Midway Airport killing 45

1973 "Seesaw" closes at Uris Theater NYC after 296 performances

1973 39th Heisman Trophy Award: John Cappelletti, Penn State (RB)

1974 Greek monarchy rejected by referendum

1974 Irish Republican Socialist Party forms

1974 Sandra Post wins LPGA Colgate Far East Golf Open

1974 Soyuz 16 returns to Earth

1975 "Raisin" closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 847 performances

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)

1977 Portugal's premier Soares resigns

1978 Commencement of the 1st day/night WSC cricket supertest at VFL Park

1980 "Bravo" network premieres on cable TV

1981 France performs nuclear test

1982 "Herman Van Veen: All of Him" opens at Ambassador NYC for 6 perfs

1982 Clark Gilles fails in 7th Islander penalty shot

1982 Suriname army leader Bouterse murders 15 opponents

1982 Demanding an end to nuclear weapons, Norman Mayer, held Wash Monument hostage. After 10 hrs, police kill him he had no explosives

1983 9th Space Shuttle Mission-Columbia 6-lands at Edwards AFB

1983 Richard Baker, Zen teacher, steps down from abbotship of SF Zen Center

1984 73rd Australian Men Tennis: Mats Wilander beats K Curren (67 64 76 62)

1984 Europe & 64 developing countries sign Lom‚ III treaty

1984 Ringo appears on Saturday Night Live

1985 60th Australian Womens Tennis: M Navratilova beats C Evert (62 46 62)

1985 Ken O'Brien's 96 yard TD pass (NY Jet record) to Wesley Walker

1985 Laurie Rinker/Larry Rinker wins LPGA J C Penney Golf Classic

1986 House Dems select majority leader Jim Wright as 48th speaker

1987 Flyers' Ron Hextall becomes 1st goalie to actually score a goal

1987 Jack Sikma (Milwaukee) begins NBA free throw streak of 51 games

1987 Occupied Palestinians start "intefadeh" (uprising) against Israel

1987 President Reagan & Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev sign a treaty eliminating medium range nuclear missiles

1988 Knick's set NBA record of 11 3-pointers & sink Bucks, 113-109

1989 Great Britain performs nuclear test

1990 Galileo Earth-1 Flyby

1990 Indians agree to a lease new ballpark in Gateway (Jacobs Field)

1991 "Homecoming" closes at Criterion Theater NYC after 49 performances

1991 "Nick & Nora" opens at Marquis Theater NYC for 9 performances

1991 Kris Tschetter/Billy Andrade wins LPGA J C Penney Golf Classic

1991 Russia, Belorussia & Ukraine form Commonwealth of Ind States

1992 Galileo's nearest approach to Jupiter (303 km)

1992 NBC announces that "Cheers" will go off the air in May, 1993

1993 30 killed at religious rebellion in Algeria

1993 4th Billboard Music Awards

1993 Dow-Jones hits record 3734.53

1993 Storm hits West Europe, 11 killed in England

1994 "What's Wrong With this Picture?" opens at Circle in Sq NYC for 12 per

1994 Darryl Strawberry indicted on tax evasion charges

1994 Fire in cinema in Karamay China, 310 killed

1996 "God Said, Ha!" closes at Lyceum Theater NYC after 22 performances

1996 Donna Andrews & Mike Hulbert win LPGA J C Penney Golf Classic

1997 8th Billboard Music Awards: LeAnn Rimes & Spice Girls win

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