Dec 8 in History
65BC — Quintus “Horace” Horatius Flaccus, Roman poet and satirist best known for his three books “Odes”, is born in Venusia, Italy. (“Whatever advice you give, be brief.”)
1542 — Mary Stuart is born in Linlithgow Palace, 24km west of Edinburgh. Her father, James V, 30, dies on the 14th and she becomes the six-day-old Mary, Queen of Scots (Mary I of Scotland).
1626 — Kristina, queen of Sweden (1644-1654), is born in Stockholm. She plays a major role in the Peace of Westphalia (1648), ending the Thirty Years’ War. (“Fools are more to be feared than the wicked.”)
1660 — Margaret Hughes, 15, makes theatre history as the first professional actress on an English stage in a Shakespeare play, as Desdemona in “Othello”.
1881 — Vienna’s Ring Theatre is destroyed by fire and 384 people are killed.
1930 — Maximilian Schell, Austrian actor and director, is born in Vienna. His family is forced to flee to Switzerland after the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany on March 12 1938. He wins the Oscar for best actor for the American film “Judgment at Nuremberg” in 1961.
1944 — Olivia de Havilland scores a Court of Appeal victory against Warner Bros, using a California law which limits the right of an employer to enforce a contract against an employee for more than seven years. After fulfilling her seven-year Warner Bros contract in 1943, De Havilland was told that six months had been added for the times that she had been suspended ... claiming California law “allowed” them to suspend contract players for rejecting a role and add the period to the contract period. The Superior Court ruled in her favour In November 1943. Warner Bros appealed. The appeal court decision reduces the power of the studios over performers. The resulting “seven-year rule” (Labor Code Section 2855) is known as the De Havilland Law.
1955 — The Flag of Europe is adopted by the Council of Europe.
1980 — John Lennon, 40, musician and one of the Beatles, is shot and killed by Mark David Chapman outside his New York City apartment building.
1990 — In Albania, Tirana University students demonstrate in the streets, calling for the dictatorship to end. Leader of the country Ramiz Alia meets with the students four days later. A multiparty system is introduced; the Democratic Party, the first opposition party, is established; and the regime authorises political pluralism. The People’s Socialist Republic of Albania (since January 11 1946) becomes the Republic of Albania on April 29 1991.