On this day: 8 December
Events, births and deaths on 8 December. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths · Masato Harada
10 years ago2016
- Deaths · John Glenn
100 years ago1926
- Births · Ralph Puckett
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 1021 · Births · Wang Anshi
Events · 33
- 395(Julian date)Battle of Canhe Slope — 395 battle in China
- 1851Battle of Loncomilla — part of the 1851 Chilean Revolution
- 1863Church of the Company Fire — conflagration
- 1864Quanta cura — Papal encyclical promulgated in 1864
- 1914Battle of the Falkland Islands — 1914 naval battle of World War I
- 1933Anarchist insurrection of December 1933 — attempted Political Revolution
- 1941Malayan campaign — 1941–1942 World War II military campaign
- 1941Battle of Hong Kong — 1941 battle, one of the first of the Pacific campaign of World War II
- 1941Battle of Guam — 1941 World War II battle
- 1941Infamy Speech — December 8, 1941 speech by FDR on the bombing of Pearl Harbor
- 1953Atoms for Peace — speech by Dwight D. Eisenhower to the UN General Assembly in New York City on December 8, 1953
- 1955flag of Europe — flag design created by the Council of Europe, then adopted as one of the official symbols of the European Communities and later of the European Union (EU); use Q98055852 for the "flag of EU" and Q105339315 for the "flag of the Council of Europe"
- 1963Pan Am Flight 214 — aviation accident
- 1969Olympic Airways Flight 954 — 1969 airplane crash
- 1971Operation Python — offensive operation launched by the Indian Navy during 1971 Indo-Pakistani War
- 1972United Air Lines Flight 553 — aviation accident
- 1974Greek republic referendum, 1974 — 1974 referendum to establish a Greek republic following the end of military rule
- 1980murder of John Lennon — murder taking place on 8 December 1980
- 1985South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation — economical, political and military Alliance of South Asian Nations in Nepal
- 1987First Intifada — 1987–1993 Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation
- 1987Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty — arms control agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union
- 19881988 Remscheid A-10 crash — aviation accident
- 1991Commonwealth of Independent States — regional organisation whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics
- 1991Belovezh Accords — agreement that declared dissolution of the USSR by its founder states (denunciation of 1922 Treaty on the Creation of the USSR) and established the CIS
- 19941994 Karamay fire — deadly fire in a Karamay theater, Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region, western China
- 1998Tadjena massacre — 1998 terrorist attacks in Algeria
- 2004Cusco Declaration — 2004 declaration of intent to form a South American Union
- 2004Columbus nightclub shooting — 2004 mass shooting in Columbus, Ohio, United States
- 2009December 2009 Baghdad bombings — terrorist attacks in Iraq
- 20132013 Little India riot — 2013 civil unrest in Singapore
- 2013Dismantling of Lenin's monument in Kyiv — 2013 event
- 2013Freeze 'em all: Live in Antarctica — concert of Metallica on 8 December 2013 on Antarctica
- 2024Fall of the Assad regime — End of Assadist rule in Syria
Births · 60
- 65 BCE(Julian date)Horace — Roman lyric poet (65 BC – 8 BC)
- 1021(Julian date)Wang Anshi — Song Dynasty chancellor and poet (1021-1086)
- 1542(Julian date)Mary, Queen of Scots — Queen of Scotland from 1542 to 1567 (1542–1587)
- 1699Maria Josepha of Austria — archduchess of Austria, princess of Hungary, queen of Poland (born 1699 - died 1757)
- 1708Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor — Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany (1708-1765).
- 1730Jan Ingenhousz — Dutch physiologist (1730–1799)
- 1765Eli Whitney — American inventor (1765-1825)
- 1815Adolph von Menzel — German artist (1815–1905)
- 1832Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson — Norwegian writer (1832–1910)
- 1861Georges Méliès — French filmmaker and illusionist (1861–1938)
- 1861Aristide Maillol — sculptor from France (1861–1944)
- 1862Georges Feydeau — French writer (1862–1921)
- 1864Camille Claudel — French sculptor (1864–1943)
- 1865Jean Sibelius — Finnish composer (1865–1957)
- 1865Jacques Hadamard — French mathematician (1865–1963)
- 1880Johannes Aavik — Estonian philologist and Fennophile (1880–1973)
- 1886Diego Rivera — Mexican muralist (1886–1957)
- 1890Bohuslav Martinů — Czech composer (1890–1959)
- 1894James Thurber — American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright (1894–1961)
- 1911Lee J. Cobb — American actor (1911–1976)
- 1919Julia Hall Bowman Robinson — American mathematician (1919–1985)
- 1922Lucian Freud — British painter and agravar (1922-2011)
- 1925Sammy Davis Jr. — American entertainer (1925–1990)
- 1927Niklas Luhmann — German sociologist, administration expert, and social systems theorist (1927-1998)
- 1927Vladimir Shatalov — Soviet cosmonaut
Deaths · 60
- 899(Julian date)Arnulf of Carinthia — king of East Francia
- 1186(Julian date)Berthold IV, Duke of Zähringen — Duke of Zähringen and Rector of Burgundy
- 1292(Julian date)John Peckham — Archbishop of Canterbury
- 1550(Julian date)Gian Giorgio Trissino — Italian Renaissance humanist
- 1632Philippe van Lansberge — Dutch astronomer
- 1638Ivan Gundulić — Croatian baroque poet from the Republic of Ragusa
- 1643John Pym — politician (1584-1643)
- 1691Richard Baxter — English Puritan church leader, poet, and hymn-writer
- 1695Barthélemy d'Herbelot — French orientalist (1625–1695)
- 1709Thomas Corneille — French dramatist (1625-1709)
- 1721Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, Duchess of Orléans — German princess; wife of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans
- 1744Marie Anne de Mailly — French noblewoman (1717-1744)
- 1830Benjamin Constant — French-Swiss politician, writer on politics and religion (1767-2011)
- 1859Thomas De Quincey — British author (1785–1859)
- 1864
- 1885William Henry Vanderbilt — American businessman and philanthropist (1821–1885)
- 1903Herbert Spencer — English philosopher and political theorist (1820–1903)
- 1907Oscar II of Sweden — King of Sweden from 1872 to 1907 and Norway from 1872 to 1905 (1829–1907)
- 1914Maximilian von Spee — German admiral (1861–1914)
- 1917Mendele Mocher Sforim — Yiddish-Hebrew writer (1836-1917)
- 1919J. Alden Weir — American artist (1852-1919)
- 1932Gertrude Jekyll — Garden designer, artist, editor (1843-1932)
- 1933John Joly — Irish scientist (1857–1933)
- 1942Albert Kahn — American architect (1869–1942)
- 1952Charles Lightoller — British sailor (1874–1952)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.