IT HAPPENED TODAY

DECEMBER 8

65 BC: Horace, Roman poet, was born in Venusian Apulia.

1542: Mary, Queen of Scots (above) was born at Linlithgow Palace.

1733: A Dorset man reported seeing a polished silver disc in the sky — the first known sighting of an unidentified flying object, or UFO.

1854: Pope Pius IX settled an ancient controversy by declaring that Christ’s mother, the Virgin Mary, was preserved from all sin from the moment she was conceived.

1859: Thomas de Quincey, essayist and opium addict, died in Scotland.

1864: The Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon in Bristol was opened.

1894: James Thurber, American humorist and creator of Walter Mitty, was born in Columbus, Ohio.

1941: Britain and the United States declared war on Japan.

1980: John Lennon (above) was shot dead in New York by Mark David Chapman.

1991: Leaders of the three republics of Russia, Belorussia and Ukraine formed a “commonwealth of independent states’” and pronounced the Soviet Union dead.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: At the age of 73, Rolling Stones frontman Sir Mick Jagger became a father again.

BIRTHDAYS: James Galway, flautist, 78; Sir Geoff Hurst, former footballer, 76; Kim Basinger, actress, 64; Teri Hatcher, actress, 53; David Harewood, actor, 52; Sinead O’Connor (below), singer, 51; Dominic Monaghan, actor, 41; Nicki Minaj, singer, 35.