Historical Events on 8 Dec

Historical Events on 8 Dec

1609 - Biblioteca Ambrosiana opens its reading room, the second public library of Europe.
1659 - Mexican border town Ciudad Juárez is founded by Fray García de San Francisco.
1854 - Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogma of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was born free of original sin.
1864 - The Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon is officially opened.
1869 - Timothy Eaton founds T. Eaton Co. Limited in Toronto, Canada.
1886 - The American Federation of Labor is founded in Columbus, Ohio.
1904 - Konservativ Ungdom (Young Conservatives) in Denmark is founded by Carl F. Herman von Rosen. Still existing today, it is the oldest political youth organization in Denmark and believed to be one of the oldest in the world.
1907 - King Gustaf V of Sweden accedes to the Swedish throne.
1912 - First Balkan War: The Greek army captures Korçë that had been under Ottoman rule.
1914 - World War I: Battle of the Falkland Islands - The Kaiserliche Marine under the command of Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee is engaged by the Royal Navy.
1926 - Disappearance of Agatha Christie
1935 - The Japanese military police launches a violent suppression of the religious sect Oomoto, beginning with a crackdown on the sect's operational bases of Ayabe and Kameoka in Kyoto Prefecture and the arrest of its leader Onisaburo Deguchi.
1941 - World War II: The Japanese invade the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. They also invade the portions of Shanghai administered by European powers and bomb American bases in the Philippines. Because of the time difference
1941 - World War II: Pacific War - After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the U.S. Congress passes a declaration of war against Japan.
1941 - World War II: Pacific War - the Republic of China officially declares war against Japan.
1941 - World War II: Pacific War - The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in China issues a proclamation which declared war against Japan and Germany on behalf of Korean people, who were under Japanese occupation since 1910.
1941 - World War II: First Japanese attack on Wake Island.
1941 - Holocaust: Gas vans are first used as a means of execution, at the Chelmno extermination camp near Łódź in Poland.
1942 - Holocaust: in Ternopil, Ukraine, the German SS organizes the deportation of the last 1,400 Ternopil Jews to the death camp in Belzec. The chief of the Gestapo, SS-Sturmbannführer Hermann Müller, bore overall responsibility for the mass murder of the Jew
1949 - Chinese Civil War: The capital of the Republic of China is moved from Nanjing to Taipei, Taiwan.
1953 - Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the Atoms for Peace speech.
1966 - The Greek SS Heraklion sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200.
1969 - An Olympic Airways Douglas DC-6 crashes in Keratea during a storm, killing 93 people.
1972 - United Airlines Flight 553 crashes near Chicago Midway Airport, killing 45 people.
1974 - A plebiscite results in the abolition of monarchy in Greece.
1980 - Mark David Chapman shoots and kills John Lennon in front of The Dakota apartment building.
1982 - Activist Norman Mayer threatens to blow up the Washington Monument, before being killed by United States Park Police.
1982 - In Suriname several opponents of the military government are killed.
1987 - The Alianza Lima air disaster.
1987 - The Queen Street Massacre: Frank Vitkovic shoots and kills 8 people at the offices of Australia Post in Melbourne, Australia before being killed himself.
1987 - The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed.
1991 - The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.
1991 - The Romanian Constitution is adopted in a referendum.
1993 - The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is signed into law by US President Bill Clinton.
1998 - Tadjena massacre: 81 people are killed by armed groups in Algeria.
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.
2004 - The Cuzco Declaration is signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations.
2005 - Ante Gotovina, Croatian army general accused of war crimes, is captured in the Playa de las Américas, Tenerife by the Spanish police.