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This Day In History

By Lyn Leahz on December 8, 2012 • ( 1 )

December 8th What Happened on the day you were born on This day in History For Those With Birthdays 8th December or looking for specific year these years are Included on this date 1902, 1923, 1934, 1941, 1952, 1965, 1966, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, Born This Day,

U.S. 1941 U.S.A. US Enters World War II December 8th, 1941 : Following the unprovoked Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor yesterday the United States entered World War II as Congress declared war against Japan

Somalia 1992 Somalia Operation Restore Hope December 8th, 1992 : The United Nations intervention in Somalia OPERATION RESTORE HOPE a UN sanctioned US military operation begins. The operation was planned to avert the growing humanitarian disaster of severe famine and general chaos.

U.S. 1902 U.S.A. Suffragette Movement December 8th, 1902 : In Washington a leading suffragette, Mrs. France, an outstanding woman of the Coeur d’Alene area, spoke on women getting the vote to an appreciative audience of females. The enormous crowd listened and heartily approved of her political success in Idaho.

Italy 1923 Italy Homeless December 8th, 1923 : Many Italians in Rome were rendered homeless and had to run for the hills as a result of severe flooding. The Tiber River is at a record high.

Canada 1934 Canada Hungarian Children’s’ Club December 8th, 1934 : The Hungarian Children’s’ Club had 50 members and joined with the global Junior Red Cross movement. Their slogan is “I serve”. In the club children are taught cleanliness and play games and sports to develop their social skills. The Canadian group communicates with the Red Cross in Budapest.

China 1941 China At War with Germany, Japan and Italy December 8th, 1941 : In Chungking, Quo Tai-Chi, China’s foreign minister confirmed that China was now at war with Germany, Japan, and Italy. The minister declared that the Chinese would back the allies, the U.S., and Great Britain one hundred percent.

Germany 1952 Germany Saar Region December 8th, 1952 : On the boundary between France and Germany is a small region called the Saar which has created many years of conflict between the two countries because the region is rich in coal and steel. The Nazis seized control of it during the war, but a French plebiscite indicated that the people of the Saar preferred to be French. The Edwardsville Intelligencer commented, “It is no exaggeration to say, however, that failure to resolve this dilemma could put in jeopardy the whole project for European unity – political, economic, and military.”

UK 1965 England Race Relations Act December 8th, 1965 : A new Race Relations Act comes into force forbidding discrimination on the “grounds of colour, race, or ethnic or national origins” in public places and covers both British residents and overseas visitors.

Greece 1966 Greece Ship Sinks December 8th, 1966 : Two hundred and eighty-two individuals perished in the Aegean Sea during a raging storm on this day. Only 20 survived. The ship called “The Heraklin” weighing some 8,900 tons went down to its doom halfway between the Island of Crete and Greece.

Portugal 1977 Portugal Economic Problems December 8th, 1977 : Portugal’s government under Prime Minister Mario fell after a vote of non-confidence. The country had been experiencing severe economic problems and the International Monetary Fund would not loan Portugal any more money unless extreme measures were taken.

U.S. 1980 U.S.A. John Lennon Shot December 8th, 1980 : Former Beatle John Lennon was shot dead by an unknown gunman who opened fire outside the musician’s New York apartment. The gunman is later identified as Mark David Chapman

U.S. 1982 U.S.A. Norman David Mayer December 8th, 1982 : Norman David Mayer an American anti-nuclear weapons activist is shot and killed by the United States Park Police after threatening to use 1,000 pounds of TNT loaded in his van to blow up the Washington Monument. When he drives off to carry out his threat the police are forced to shoot him, Afterwards police realize he did not have the TNT to carry out his threat.

UK 1983 England House of Lords December 8th, 1983 : The House of Lords votes in favour of allowing cameras to broadcast live discussions from its chamber.

Palestine 1987 Palestine Intifada December 8th, 1987 : The First Intifada (1987 – 1993) a mass uprising against Israeli military occupation, begins in Jabalia refugee camp and spread to Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Intifada included civil disobedience, general strikes, boycotts on Israeli products, graffiti, barricades, throwing Molotov cocktails grenades and stones at the occupying Israeli soldiers and vehicles.

U.S. 1987 U.S.A. Nuclear War Head Reductions December 8th, 1987 : The first ever treaty is signed between the Soviet Union and the United States to reduce the number of ground based nuclear arsenals reversing 30 years of nuclear weapons build up during the cold war years.

Australia 1987 Australia Queen Street Post Office Massacre December 8th, 1987 : Frank Vitkovic enters Melbourne’s Queen Street Post Office and opens fire on customers and staff with a sawn-off shotgun killing 8 before taking his own life.

Vietnam 1989 Vietnam Soviet Pull Out December 8th, 1989 : There was a mysterious pulling out of Soviet MiG-23 war jets from Ranh Bay in Vietnam. The cause of the exit was not clear, but a couple of possibilities were put forth. One reason was the Soviet Union’s economic problems. However, another reason was that President Gorbacjev had wanted the U.S. to abandon six military bases in the Philippines in return for the Soviet’s leaving their second most important military site in Ranh Bay.

U.S. 1993 U.S.A. NAFTA December 8th, 1993 : The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) ( United States, Canada, and Mexico ) is signed into law by US President Bill Clinton. In terms of gross domestic product (GDP) it is the largest trading bloc and trade agreement in the world

UK 1995 England Gang Violence Schools December 8th, 1995: As gang violence in schools in inner cities continues to be a problem a head teacher ( Philip Lawrence ) is stabbed to death in an inner city London School while protecting a pupil who was being assaulted

U.S. 1995 U.S.A. Grateful Dead December 8th, 1995: The American rock band Grateful Dead announce they are breaking up after 30 years of making music. The news came four months after the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia

New Zealand 1999 New Zealand Cricket December 8th, 1999: In cricket, the West Indies challenged New Zealand and the teams tied. The Gleaner reported, “On Monday, the West Indies declared at 450 for five after number three batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul hit an unbeaten 216 from 397 balls.”

U.S. 2000 U.S.A. 2000 Presidential Elections December 8th, 2000: The Florida Supreme Court ordered an immediate hand count of about 45,000 disputed presidential ballots. Republican Candidate George W Bush won the most electoral votes Democratic candidate Al Gore, received more popular votes In the American system of presidential elections, the electoral vote system determines the winner and George W Bush went onto becoming the President of the United States. Florida was still performing recounts on December 12 when the United States Supreme Court decision ended the Florida recounts and allowed Florida to certify its vote giving the result to Bush.

Iraq 2004 Iraq State Of Emergency December 8th, 2004 : A two month state of emergency was declared by the Iraq government as rebels stepped up their attacks and the American military fought back. U.S. forces stormed the city of Fallujah and pummelled it with an AC-130 gun ship shooting 40 mm cannon fire. This Day In History For Tomorrow December 9th Day After December 10th Or You Can Use Our Calendar at the top of the page to find the day or month you are looking for

U.S.A. 2007 U.S.A. Democratic presidential Campagn December 8th, 2007 : U.S. chat show host Oprah Winfrey has appeared at a campaign rally in Iowa for the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Over eighteen thousand people have attended the event in the state capital, Des Moines. The Clinton campaign has come up with a counter-programming move to drag press attention away from the Obama/Oprah rallies in Iowa by finally bringing Chelsea Clinton onto the stump..

Cuba 2008 Cuba The Declaration of Santiago de Cuba December 8th, 2008 : The leaders of the Caribbean states have called Barack Obama to lift the decades-old American trade embargo against Cuba. The call comes during the one-day summit between Cuba and the Caribbean regional trade bloc, Caricom. The serving president of Caricom, Antigua’s Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, asks for the U.S. embargo to be “relegated to history.”

United States 2009 United States The reparation of royalties to Native Americans December 8th, 2009 : The Obama administration has announced that it would pay Native Americans $3.4 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit that claims the federal government cheated them for more than a century of royalties for oil, mineral and other leases. This settlement will be ending a thirteen-year legal battle that has led to 3,600 filings, millions of pages of discovery documents and eleven separate appellate decisions. It is the largest settlement Native Americans have ever received from the federal government, and eclipses the sum of all previous settlements. The dispute stems from a 19th century decision to grant parcels of land to individual Indians and place the properties in trust accounts.

United States 2009 United States General McChrystal tells Congress how important finding bin Laden is December 8th, 2009 : Finding al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and rolling back the resurgent Taliban are necessary steps toward winning the war in Afghanistan, General McChrystal has told a Senate Committee. Bin Laden has remained at large for eight years since the September 11th, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. General McChrystal, who is the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said that the world’s most wanted terrorist is ‘an iconic figure’ whose survival ‘emboldens al-Qaeda as a franchising organization across the world.’ ‘It would not defeat al-Qaeda to have him captured or killed, but I don’t think we can finally defeat al-Qaeda until he is finally captured or killed.’ He continued by saying that if bin Laden is hiding across the border, ‘It is outside of my mandate.’

United States 2011 United States Dover Air Base Military Mortuary Dumped 274 US Troops Remains at Landfill 8th December, 2011 : In November 2011, The Washington Post revealed that the Dover Air Base had been disposing of military remains in a Virginia landfill but did not know how many remains were involved. The newspaper discovered that data from the US Air Force revealed that between 2004 and 2008 274 military personnel’s remains had been taken to a landfill after cremation. The newspaper also stated that another 1,762 remains had been disposed of in the same manner but could not be identified because they were too damaged. The US Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta ordered a special review after news of this was released.

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