TODAY IN HISTORY

In 1941, Japanese planes began their attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor (Hawaii). Over 300 Japanese planes from aircraft carriers attacked in waves. Eight battleships were sunk or disabled, and almost 200 planes were destroyed before they could get off the ground. About 2,500 soldiers and civilians were killed. Hours later, Canada declared war on Japan -the first of the Western allies to do so. The United States, Britain and other allied countries followed the next day. The United States declared war on Japan's allies Germany and Italy on Dec. 11.

In 1982, Charles Brooks Jr., a prisoner on death row at a Huntsville, Texas, prison, became the first person in the U.S. to be executed by lethal injection.

In 1982, Canadian sprinter Harry Jerome died at age 42. He was the first man to hold both the world 100-yard and 100-metre records, and won the 100-metre bronze medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

In 1983, in Madrid, Spain, an Aviaco DC9 collided on a runway with an Iberia Air Lines Boeing 727 that was accelerating for takeoff, killing all 42 people aboard the DC9 and 51 aboard the Iberia jet.

In 1985, Robert Graves, the English poet and novelist who wrote more than 135 novels and books of poetry and criticism, including the historical novels "I, Claudius" and "Claudius the God," died in Spain at age 90.

In 1987, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev set foot on U.S. soil for the first time, arriving for a Washington summit with President Ronald Reagan.

In 1987, 43 people were killed after a gunman aboard a Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner in California apparently opened fire on a fellow passenger, the two pilots and himself, causing the plane to crash.

In 1988, a major earthquake devastated northern Armenia. Official estimates put the death toll at 25,000.

In 1989, East Germany's Communist party agreed to co-operate with the opposition in paving the way for free elections and a revised constitution.

In 1995, British Columbia's NDP government became the first in Canada to order automakers to produce lesspolluting vehicles.