Today In History. What Happened This Day In History
A Timeline Of Events That Occurred On This Day In History
A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.
Today in History
December 8
| 1660 | The first Shakespearian actress to appear on an English stage (she is believed to be a Ms. Norris) makes her debut as Desdemona. | |
| 1861 | CSS Sumter captures the whaler Eben Dodge in the Atlantic. The American Civil War is now affecting the Northern whaling industry. | |
| 1863 | Union General William Averell's cavalry destroys railroads in the southwestern part of West Virginia. | |
| 1914 | The German cruisers Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Nurnberg, and Liepzig are sunk by a British force in the Battle of the Falkland Islands. | |
| 1920 | President Woodrow Wilson declines to send a representative to the League of Nations in Geneva. | |
| 1932 | Japan tells the League of Nations that it has no control over her designs in China. | |
| 1941 | Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita begins his attack against the British army at Singapore. | |
| 1943 | U.S. carrier-based planes sink two cruisers and down 72 planes in the Marshall Islands. | |
| 1944 | The United States conducts the longest, most effective air raid on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. | |
| 1948 | The United Nations approves the recognition of South Korea. | |
| 1967 | In the biggest battle yet in the Mekong Delta, 365 Viet Cong are killed. | |
| 1968 | South Vietnam's Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky arrives in Paris for peace talks. | |
| 1980 | John Lennon is shot to death outside his Manhattan apartment building. | |
| 1982 | The Washington, D.C., police shoot and kill a man threatening to blow up the Washington Monument. | |
| Born on December 8 | ||
| 65 BC | Quintus "Horance" Horatius Flaccus, Roman poet and satirist best known for his three books Odes. | |
| 1542 | Mary, Queen of Scotland (1542-67). | |
| 1626 | Christina, Queen of Sweden (1644-54). | |
| 1765 | Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin. | |
| 1894 | James Thurber, American writer, cartoonist and editor (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty). | |
| 1906 | Richard Llewellyn, author (How Green Was My Valley). | |
| 1913 | Delmore Schwartz, poet and writer. | |
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