This Day in History – December 8
Today is the 342th day of 2023. There are 23 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
1995: The World Health Organization announces that a new case of the Ebola virus has been confirmed in the Ivory Coast. Ebola killed 250 in Zaire earlier in 1995.
OTHER EVENTS
1776: George Washington’s retreating army crosses the Delaware River from New Jersey to Pennsylvania during the American Revolution.
1794: Girondists who survived the guillotine in French Revolution are admitted to the French National Convention.
1863: US President Abraham Lincoln announces his plan for the Reconstruction of the South.
1874: James-Younger gang, led by Jesse James, robs a train at Muncie, Kansas stealing $30,000.
1914: British destroy German naval squadron off Falkland Islands.
1925: Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf is published.
1936: Anastasio Somoza García elected president of Nicaragua. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) files suit to equalise salaries of black and white teachers.
1941: The United States and Britain declare war on Japan; Japan invades Thailand.
1949: UN General Assembly asks world powers to recognise political independence of China, as the Nationalist government moves from the mainland to Formosa and the Communists continue to press their attacks.
1953: United States proposes in UN General Assembly to have international control of atomic energy.
1956: Call for general strike in Hungary leads to martial law and mass arrests. XVI Summer Olympic Games close 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
1957: CBS broadcasts The Sound of Jazz live from NYC: An all-star programme featuring the swing era and contemporary jazz artistes, including Count Basie, Red Allen, and Ben Webster.
1962: Brunei rebellion collapses after British intervention. A 114-day newspaper strike begins in NYC.
1963: Frank Sinatra, Jr is kidnapped at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe (Nevada). Pan Am Flight 214 crashes outside Elkton, Maryland with 81 killed
1966: Greek ferry sinks near Island of Melos, killing 234.
1974: Greece votes decisively to become a republic and eliminate monarchy, dating to 1832.
1980: Rock musician John Lennon is shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by a fan.
1987: The first Palestinian “Intifada”, or uprising against the Israeli occupation, begins in the Israeli-occupied territories.
1989: Israeli army confines more than one million Arabs to their homes and deploys extra troops as Palestinians mark second anniversary of uprising in Israeli-occupied territories.
1992: An avalanche of mud buries a gold mining camp in the remote foothills of the Andes in Bolivia, killing at least 50 miners; Americans watch live television coverage of US troops landing on the beaches of Somalia as Operation Restore Hope begins.
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.
2003: In an avalanche of verdicts against terrorists who once taunted Greek authorities, a special tribunal convicts the mastermind, chief gunman, and 13 other members of the European militant group November 17 for killings and attacks spanning a generation.
2004: Congress replaces a US intelligence network geared to the cold war fight against communism with a new structure requiring military and civilian spy agencies to join forces against the newest US enemy — networks of terrorists intent on waging a holy war against America.
2005: UK prosecutors drop all charges against three men who were accused of spying on behalf of the Irish Republican Army, a 2002 scandal that destroyed power-sharing, the central accomplishment of Northern Ireland’s peace accord.
2007: Gunmen kill three people in an attack on a party office of Pakistan’s opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
2010: Hackers rush to the defence of WikiLeaks, launching attacks on Mastercard, Visa, Swedish prosecutors, a Swiss bank and others who have acted against the site and its jailed founder Julian Assange.
2012: Premier Mario Monti, an unelected economist who pulled Italy back from the brink of financial disaster, tells the country’s president he is resigning soon, saying he can no longer govern after Silvio Berlusconi withdrew crucial support.
2013: North Korea acknowledges the purge of leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful uncle on allegations of corruption, drug use and a long list of other “anti-state” acts.
2020: The UK begins vaccinating for COVID-19 using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
2022: Documentary series Harry & Meghan about Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex begins streaming on Netflix
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Horace, Roman poet (65 BC – 8 BC); Christina, queen of Sweden and patroness of European art (1626-1689); Eli Whitney, US inventor of cotton gin (1765-1825); Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer (1865-1957); James Galway, Irish flutist and conductor (1939- ); Kim Basinger, US actress (1953- ); Frederick Nathaniel “Toots” Hibbert, ska and reggae pioneer, band leader of Toots & the Maytals (1942-2020)
— AP/Jamaica Observer
