December 8
Events
Pre-1600
- 395 - Later Yan is defeated by its former vassal Northern Wei at the Battle of Canhe Slope.
- 757 - The poet Du Fu returns to Chang'an as a member of Emperor Xuanzong's court, after having escaped the city during the An Lushan Rebellion.
- 877 - Louis the Stammerer is crowned king of the West Frankish Kingdom at Compiègne.
- 1504 - Ahmad ibn Abi Jum'ah writes his Oran fatwa, arguing for the relaxation of Islamic law requirements for the forcibly converted Muslims in Spain.
1601–1900
- 1660 - A woman appears on an English public stage for the first time, in the role of Desdemona in a production of Shakespeare's play Othello.
- 1851 - Conservative Santiago-based government troops defeat rebels at the Battle of Loncomilla, signaling the end of the 1851 Chilean Revolution.
- 1854 - In his Apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogmatic definition of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived free of Original Sin.
- 1863 - Between two and three thousand churchgoers die in the Church of the Company Fire, possibly the largest single building fire by number of victims in modern history.
- 1864 - Pope Pius IX promulgates the encyclical Quanta cura and its appendix, the Syllabus of Errors, outlining the authority of the Catholic Church and condemning various liberal ideas.
1901–present
- 1907 - King Gustaf V of Sweden accedes to the Swedish throne.
- 1912 - Leaders of the German Empire hold an Imperial War Council to discuss the possibility that war might break out.
- 1914 - World War I: A squadron of Britain's Royal Navy defeats the Imperial German East Asia Squadron in the Battle of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
- 1922 - Two days after coming into existence, the Irish Free State executes four leaders of the Irish Republican Army: Dick Barrett, Joe McKelvey, Liam Mellows and Rory O'Connor.
- 1933 - Anarchist insurrection breaks out in Zaragoza, Spain.
- 1941 - World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares December 7 to be "a date which will live in infamy", after which the U.S. declares war on Japan.
- 1941 - World War II: Japanese forces simultaneously invade Shanghai International Settlement, Malaya, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies.
- 1943 - World War II: The German 117th Jäger Division destroys the monastery of Mega Spilaio in Greece and executes 22 monks and visitors as part of reprisals that culminated a few days later with the Massacre of Kalavryta.
- 1953 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his "Atoms for Peace" speech, which leads to an American program to supply equipment and information on nuclear power to schools, hospitals, and research institutions around the world.
- 1955 - The Flag of Europe is adopted by Council of Europe.
- 1962 - Workers at four New York City newspapers go on strike for 114 days.
- 1963 - Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707, is struck by lightning and crashes near Elkton, Maryland, killing all 81 people on board.
- 1966 - The Greek ship sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200.
- 1969 - Olympic Airways Flight 954 strikes a mountain outside of Keratea, Greece, killing 90 people in the worst crash of a Douglas DC-6 in history.
- 1971 - Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Navy launches an attack on West Pakistan's port city of Karachi.
- 1972 - United Airlines Flight 553, a Boeing 737, crashes after aborting its landing attempt at Chicago Midway International Airport, killing 45. This is the first-ever loss of a Boeing 737.
- 1974 - A plebiscite results in the abolition of monarchy in Greece.
- 1980 - John Lennon is murdered by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota in New York City.
- 1985 - The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union in South Asia, is established.
- 1987 - Cold War: The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the White House.
- 1987 - An Israeli army tank transporter kills four Palestinian refugees and injures seven others during a traffic accident at the Erez Crossing on the Israel–Gaza Strip border, which has been cited as one of the events which sparked the First Intifada.
- 1988 - A United States Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II crashes into an apartment complex in Remscheid, Germany, killing five people and injuring 50 others.
- 1991 - The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.
- 1998 - Eighty-one people are killed by armed groups in Algeria.
- 2001 - A raid conducted by the Internal Security Department of Singapore foils a Jemaah Islamiyah plot to bomb foreign embassies in Singapore.
- 2004 - The Cusco Declaration is signed in Cusco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations.
- 2004 - Columbus nightclub shooting: Nathan Gale opens fire at the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio, killing former Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell and three others before being shot dead by a police officer.
- 2009 - Bombings in Baghdad, Iraq kill 127 people and injure 448 others.
- 2010 - With the second launch of the Falcon 9, and the first launch of the Dragon, SpaceX becomes the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.
- 2010 - The Japanese solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS passes the planet Venus at a distance of about.
- 2013 - Riots break out in Singapore, after a fatal accident in Little India.
- 2013 - Metallica performs a show in Antarctica, making them the first musical act to perform on all seven continents.
- 2019 - First confirmed case of COVID-19 in China.
- 2024 - Damascus falls to rebels after Syrian troops withdraw and president Bashar al-Assad leaves the country as his government collapses. Israel as a result invaded into the buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Births
Pre-1600
- 65 BC - Horace, Roman poet
- 1021 - Wang Anshi, Chinese economist and chancellor
- 1412 - Astorre II Manfredi, Italian lord
- 1418 - Queen Jeonghui, Queen consort of Korea
- 1424 - Anselm Adornes, Belgian merchant, politician and diplomat
- 1538 - Miklós Istvánffy, Hungarian politician
- 1542 - Mary, Queen of Scots, daughter of James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise
- 1558 - François de La Rochefoucauld, Catholic cardinal
1601–1900
- 1678 - Antonio de Benavides, colonial governor of Florida
- 1678 - Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole, English politician and diplomat, British Ambassador to France
- 1699 - Maria Josepha of Austria, Queen Consort of Poland
- 1708 - Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
- 1724 - Claude Balbastre, French organist and composer
- 1730 - Jan Ingenhousz, Dutch physician, physiologist, and botanist
- 1731 - František Xaver Dušek, Czech pianist and composer
- 1756 - Archduke Maximilian Francis of Austria
- 1765 - Eli Whitney, American engineer, invented the cotton gin
- 1795 - Peter Andreas Hansen, Danish astronomer and mathematician
- 1807 - Friedrich Traugott Kützing, German pharmacist, botanist and phycologist
- 1813 - August Belmont, Prussian-American financier and diplomat, 16th United States Ambassador to the Netherlands
- 1815 - Adolph Menzel, German painter and illustrator
- 1817 - Christian Emil Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs, Danish lawyer and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Denmark
- 1818 - Charles III, Prince of Monaco
- 1822 - Jakov Ignjatović, Hungarian-Serbian author
- 1832 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian-French author and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1860 - Amanda McKittrick Ros, Irish author and poet
- 1861 - William C. Durant, American businessman, founded General Motors and Chevrolet
- 1861 - Aristide Maillol, French sculptor and painter
- 1861 - Georges Méliès, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1862 - Georges Feydeau, French playwright
- 1863 - Charles Lincoln Edwards, American zoologist
- 1864 - Camille Claudel, French illustrator and sculptor
- 1865 - Rüdiger von der Goltz, German general
- 1865 - Jacques Hadamard, French mathematician and academic
- 1865 - Jean Sibelius, Finnish violinist and composer
- 1874 - Ernst Moro, Austrian physician and pediatrician
- 1875 - Frederik Buch, Danish actor and screenwriter
- 1877 - Paul Ladmirault, French pianist, violinist, and composer
- 1880 - Johannes Aavik, Estonian linguist and philologist
- 1881 - Tuomas Bryggari, Finnish politician
- 1881 - Albert Gleizes, French painter
- 1884 - Francis Balfour, English colonel and politician
- 1886 - Diego Rivera, Mexican painter and educator
- 1887 - Elizabeth Daryush, English poet
- 1890 - Bohuslav Martinů, Czech-American pianist and composer
- 1892 - Marcus Lee Hansen, American historian, author, and academic
- 1894 - E. C. Segar, American cartoonist, created Popeye
- 1894 - James Thurber, American humorist and cartoonist
- 1899 - Arthur Leslie, English-Welsh actor and playwright
- 1899 - John Qualen, Canadian-American actor
- 1900 - Sun Li-jen, Chinese general and politician
- 1900 - Ants Oras, Estonian-American author and academic