December 8 is the 342nd day of the year (343rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 23 days remaining until the end of the year. There are 17 days till Christmas!
Holidays
- Bodhi Day (Japan)
- CARICOM–Cuba Day (Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Cuba)
- Christian feast day:
- Clement of Ohrid (Julian Calendar), and its related observances:
- Eucharius
- Feast of the Immaculate Conception (public holiday in several countries, a holy day of obligation in others), and its related observances:
- Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Anglican Communion), lesser commemoration
- Christmas on Campus (University of Dayton)
- Festa da Conceição da Praia, celebrating Yemanjá, Queen of the Ocean in Umbanda (Salvador, Bahia)
- Festival of Lights (Lyon)
- Mother’s Day (Panama)
- Lady of Camarin Day (Guam)
- Richard Baxter (US Episcopal Church)
- Romaric
- December 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Festa da Conceição da Praia, celebrating Yemanjá, Queen of the Ocean (Salvador, Bahia)
- Festival of Lights (Lyon)
- Constitution Day (Romania)
- Constitution Day (Uzbekistan)
- Day of Finnish Music (Finland)
- Earliest day on which National Tree Planting Day can fall, while December 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Monday in December. (Malawi)
- Hari-Kuyō (Kansai region, Japan)
- National Youth Day (Albania)
- Student’s Day (Bulgaria)
- Afflux (Discordianism)
History
In 395, Later Yan is defeated by its former vassal Northern Wei at the Battle of Canhe Slope.
In 757, Du Fu returns to Chang’an as a member of Emperor Xuanzong‘s court, after having escaped the city during the An Lushan Rebellion.
In 877, Louis the Stammerer (son of Charles the Bald) is crowned king of the West Frankish Kingdom at Compiègne.
In 1432, The first battle between the forces of Švitrigaila and Sigismund Kęstutaitis is fought near the town of Oszmiana (Ashmyany), launching the most active phase of the Lithuanian Civil War.
In 1560, The city of Guarulhos is founded.
In 1596, Luis de Carabajal the younger, one of the first Jewish authors in the Americas, died in an auto-da-fé during the Spanish Inquisition in Mexico City. He was a Castilian by birth, and a resident of Mexico City. He had been “reconciled” at that city on February 24, 1590, being sentenced to perpetual imprisonment in the lunatic hospital of San Hipolito. On February 9, 1595, he was again arraigned as a “relapso,” subsequently testifying against his mother and sisters (if the records are to be believed). At one of the hearings (February 25) he was shown a manuscript book beginning with the words: “In the name of the Lord of Hosts” (a translation of the Hebrew invocation, “be shem Adonay Tzevaot”), which he acknowledged as his own book, and which contained his autobiography. On February 8, 1596, he was put on the rack from 9:30 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon, and then denounced no less than 121 persons, though he afterward repudiated his confession. He threw himself out of a window to escape further torture. He and his brother Baltasar composed hymns and dirges for the Jewish fasts: one of them, a kind of “viddui” (confession of sin) in sonnet form, is given in El Libro Rojo.
In 1660, A woman (either Margaret Hughes or Anne Marshall) appears on an English public stage for the first time, in the role of Desdemona in a production of Shakespeare’s play Othello.
In 1744, Marie Anne de Mailly, French mistress of Louis XV of France (b. 1717) dies. She was the youngest of the five famous de Nesle sisters, four of whom would become the mistress of King Louis XV of France.
Marie Anne was born the youngest daughter of Louis de Mailly, Marquis de Nesle et de Mailly, Prince d’Orange (1689 – 1767), and his wife, Armande Félice de La Porte Mazarin (1691 – 1729). Her parents had been married in 1709. Her mother was the daughter of Paul Jules de La Porte, duc Mazarin et de La Meilleraye (1666 – 1731), the son of the famous adventuress, Hortense Mancini, the niece of Cardinal Mazarin. Marie Anne had four older full sisters:
- Louise Julie de Mailly, Mademoiselle de Mailly, comtesse de Mailly (1710 – 1751),
- Pauline Félicité de Mailly, Mademoiselle de Nesle, marquise de Vintimille (1712 – 1741),
- Diane Adélaïde de Mailly, Mademoiselle de Montcavrel, duchesse de Lauraguais (1714 – 1769),
- Hortense Félicité de Mailly, Mademoiselle de Chalon, marquise de Flavacourt (1715 – 1763).
The only one of the de Nesle sisters not to become one of Louis XV’s mistresses was the Marquise de Flavacourt. Louise Julie was the first sister to attract the king followed by Pauline Félicité, but it was Marie Anne who was the most successful in manipulating him and becoming politically powerful.
Marie Anne also had a younger half-sister, Henriette de Bourbon (1725 – 1780), Mademoiselle de Verneuil, from her mother’s relationship with the duc de Bourbon, the chief minister of Louis XV from 1723 to 1726.
In her youth, Marie Anne was known as Mademoiselle de Monchy. On 19 June 1734, she married Jean Baptiste Louis, marquis de La Tournelle (born 1708). Her husband died on 23 November 1740.
In 1813, Premier of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. https://www.youtube.com/embed/-4788Tmz9ZoIn 1854, In his Apostolic constitutionIneffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogmatic definition of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was conceived free of original sin.
In 1864, Pope Pius IX promulgates the encylical Quanta cura and its appendix, the Syllabus of Errors, outlining the authority of the Catholic Church and condemning various liberal ideas.
In 1885, William Henry Vanderbilt, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1821) dies. He was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was the eldest son of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt and a prominent member of the Vanderbilt family. Vanderbilt was an active philanthropist, giving extensively to a number of philanthropic causes including the YMCA, funding to help establish the Metropolitan Opera and an endowment for the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1880, he provided the money for Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee to construct the Wesley Hall building for use as the Biblical Department and library and included 160 dormitory rooms for students and professors, lecture halls, as well as a cafeteria. The building was destroyed by fire in 1932 and his son Frederick made another donation to help cover the insurance shortfall and allow a new building to be constructed. Vanderbilt was an avid art enthusiast; his collection included some of the most valuable works of the Old Masters, and over his lifetime Vanderbilt acquired more than 200 paintings, which he housed in his lavish and palatial Fifth Avenue mansion.
In 1907, King Gustaf V of Sweden accedes to the Swedish throne.
In 1912, Leaders of the German Empire hold an Imperial War Council to discuss the possibility that war might break out.
In 1914, World War I: A squadron of Britain’s Royal Navy defeats an inferior squadron of the Imperial German High Seas Fleet in the Battle of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
In 1927, The Brookings Institution, one of the United States’ oldest think tanks, is founded through the merger of three organizations that had been created by philanthropist Robert S. Brookings.
In 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.
In 1941, World War II: Japanese forces simultaneously invade Malaya, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies. (See December 7 for the concurrent attack on Pearl Harbor in the Western Hemisphere.)
In 1949, The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is established to provide aid to Palestinian refugees who left their homes during the 1948 Palestinian exodus.
In 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.
In 1962, Workers at four New York City newspapers (this later increases to nine) go on strike for 114 days.
In 1963, Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707, is struck by lightning and crashes near Elkton, Maryland, killing all 81 people on board.
In 1966, The Greek ship SS Heraklion sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200.
In 1969, An Olympic Airways Douglas DC-6 strikes a mountain outside of Keratea, Greece, killing 90—the worst crash of a DC-6.
In 1971, Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Navy launches an attack on West Pakistan‘s port city of Karachi.
In 1972, United Airlines Flight 553, a Boeing 737, crashes after aborting its landing attempt at Chicago Midway International Airport, killing 45. The crash is the first-ever loss of a Boeing 737.
In 1974, A plebiscite results in the abolition of monarchy in Greece.
In 1980, John Lennon is murdered by a deranged fan in front of The Dakota in New York City.
In 1982, In Suriname, several opponents of the military government are killed.
In 1987, The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed.
In 1987, Frank Vitkovic shoots and kills eight people at the Australia Post building in Melbourne, before jumping to his death.
In 1987, The Alianza Lima air disaster occurs.
In 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, sparking the First Intifada.
In 1988, A United States Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II crashes into an apartment complex in Remscheid, Germany, killing 5 people and injuring 50 others.
In 1991, The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.
In 1991, The Romanian Constitution is adopted in a referendum.
In 1998, Eighty-one people are killed by armed groups in Algeria.
In 2004, The Cuzco Declaration is signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations.
In 2007, Three unidentified gunmen storm an office of Benazir Bhutto‘s Pakistan Peoples Party in Balochistan. Three PPP supporters are killed.
In 2009, Bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, kill 127 and injure 448.
In 2010, With the second launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 and the first launch of the SpaceX Dragon, SpaceX becomes the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.
In 2010, The Japanese solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS passes the planet Venus at a distance of about 80,800 km.
In 2013, Riots break out in Singapore after a fatal accident in Little India.
In 2013, Metallica performs a show in Antarctica, making them the first band to perform on all 7 continents.
In 2013, Johnson City, Tennessee Mayor Ralph Van Brocklin, Vice Mayor Clayton Stout and Commissioner Jenny Brock voted for the ordinance to have citizens mandatory spay and neuter within 30 days; Commissioners David Tomita and Banyas opposed the ordinance. Residents can obtain unaltered permits for $25 per animal. It is an election year and Vice Mayor Stout was running in the Republican primary in 2014, hoping to win a seat in the General Assembly. It didn’t go over well for the Vice Mayor.
In 2013, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra dissolved Parliament and said she would call elections to restore calm after mounting protests. The announcement came as 100,000 protesters — opponents of Yinluck’s brother Thaksin who was ousted in a 2006 coup — marched in Bangkok vowing to overthrow her. The protests demanding an end to the “Thaksin regime” continued despite Yingluck’s announcement. [Fox News, Bangkok Post]
In 2014, NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered evidence that Mars had a massive, 96-mile wide lake 3.5 billion years ago. Curiosity found sedimentary rocks in what is now called Gale Crater, suggesting that the crater was once filled with water, and that Mount Sharp, a 3.5-mile high mountain within the crater, was created by sediment deposits that built up over tens of millions of years. NASA scientists said revelations about Mount Sharp could help in the search for signs of Martian life. [CNET]
In 2014, Six people were killed when a private jet crashed into a Maryland home, igniting a fire. Three of the dead were passengers on the plane. The others were a woman who lived in the house and her two small children, identified as Marie Gemmell, 36, and her two sons, 3-year-old Cole Gemmell and Devon Gemmell, an infant. Their bodies were found together on the second floor. “She tried to save these kids,” Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger said. “She had nowhere to go.” [The Baltimore Sun]
In 2015, The Jackson (Tennessee) City Council approved changes Tuesday regarding the size of residential trash cans and added a requirement that trash must also be placed in bags. The council approved wording which allows individual pick-up cans to be 20 gallons to 50 gallons, but must not weigh more than 75 pounds. Up to two of these size cans can be left for back-door pick-up. The cans previously had been limited to 32 gallons. Containers larger than 50 gallons will need to be placed at the end of driveways. The council also approved wording requiring all garbage to be placed in bags.
In 2016, Syrian army starts final phase of the attack and progress has been made in the district of, “Sheikh Said” and preparing to storm the neighborhood “Sukkari” in East of Aleppo.
