History for December 8

History for December 8 - On-This-Day.com
Horace 65 B.C., Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots) 1542, Eli Whitney 1765


James Thurber 1894, Sammy Davis, Jr. 1925, Jim Morrison (Doors) 1943


1854 - Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The theory holds that Mary, mother of Jesus, was free of original sin from the moment she was conceived.


1863 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln announced his plan for the Reconstruction of the South.


1941 - The United States entered World War II when it declared war against Japan. The act came one day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Britain and Canada also declared war on Japan.


1949 - The Chinese Nationalist government moved from the Chinese mainland to Formosa due to Communists pressure.


1952 - On the show "I Love Lucy," a pregnancy was acknowledged in a TV show for the first time.


1991 - Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine declared the Soviet national government to be dead. They forged a new alliance to be known as the Commonwealth of Independent States. The act was denounced by Russian President Gorbachev as unconstitutional.


1993 - U.S. President Clinton signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement.


1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police could not search a person or their cars after ticketing for a routine traffic violation.