Chicago Daily Tribune

ON DECEMBER 8 ...

In 1765 Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin, was born in Westboro, Massachusetts.

In 1776 George Washington’s retreating army crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey to Pennsylvania during the American Revolution.

In 1854 Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Roman Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was free of original sin from the moment she was conceived.

In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln announced his plan for the reconstruction of the South.

In 1886 the American Federation of Labor was founded in Columbus, Ohio. Also in 1886 painter Diego Rivera was born in Guanajuato, Mexico.

In 1894 writer and cartoonist James Thurber was born in Columbus, Ohio. Also in 1894 cartoonist Elzie Segar, creator of “Popeye,” was born in Chester, Illinois.

In 1925 singer, dancer and actor Sammy Davis Jr. was born in New York.

In 1941 the United States entered World War II as Congress declared war against Japan, a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In 1949 the Chinese Nationalist government moved from the Chinese mainland to Formosa as the Communists pressed their attacks.

In 1978 former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, 80, died in Jerusalem.

In 1980 former Beatles guitarist and songwriter John Lennon, 40, was shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by a deranged fan.

In 1986 House Democrats selected Jim Wright to be the chamber’s 48th speaker, succeeding Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill.

In 1987 Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories began an intifada, or uprising. Also in 1987 President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty calling for destruction of intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

In 1991 Russia, Belarus and Ukraine declared the Soviet national government dead, forging a new alliance, the Commonwealth of Independent States.

In 1992 Americans saw live television coverage of U.S. troops landing on the beaches of Somalia as Operation Restore Hope began.

In 1993 President Bill Clinton signed into U.S. law the North American Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect at the start of 1994.

In 1995 the Grateful Dead announced it was breaking up after 30 years of making music; the news came four months after the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia.

In 1996 the Serbian Supreme Court ruled against opposition parties who said Slobodan Milosevic had robbed them of an election victory in Belgrade.

In 1999 a Memphis jury hearing a lawsuit filed by Martin Luther King Jr.’s family found that the civil rights leader had been the victim of a vast murder conspiracy, not a lone assassin.

In 2000 a divided Florida Supreme Court, in a 4-3 ruling, ordered an immediate hand count of about 45,000 disputed presidential ballots and put Democrat Al Gore within 154 votes of George W. Bush.

In 2003 President George W. Bush signed a $400 billion Medicare overhaul bill that included a prescription drug plan for the elderly. Also in 2003 Congress approved legislation to stem the flood of unwanted junk e-mail known as spam.

In 2004 the Senate completed congressional approval of the biggest overhaul of U.S. intelligence in a half century, voting 89-2 to send the measure to President George W. Bush. Also in 2004 “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, 38, an influential heavy metal guitarist, was fatally shot with three other people during a performance in Columbus, Ohio; the gunman was then shot dead by a police officer.

In 2005 a Southwest Airlines jet slid off a Midway Airport runway and onto a busy street during a snowstorm, killing a boy in a car.

In 2008 Tribune Co., the parent company of the Chicago Tribune, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

In 2017 Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool resigned after the district inspector general accused him of orchestrating a “full-blown cover-up.”