TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SATURDAY, DEC. 8, the 342nd day of 2018. There are 23 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1941, the United States entered World War II as Congress declared war against Imperial Japan, a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
In 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was free of original sin from the moment of her own conception.
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction for the South.
In 1972, a United Airlines Boeing 737 crashed while attempting to land at Chicago-Midway Airport, killing 43 of the 61 people on board, as well as two people on the ground.
In 1980, rock star John Lennon was shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by an apparently deranged fan.
In 1982, a man demanding an end to nuclear weapons held the Washington Monument hostage, threatening to blow it up with explosives he claimed were inside a van. (After a 10-hour standoff, Norman D. Mayer was shot dead by police; it turned out there were no explosives.)
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a treaty at the White House
calling for destruction of intermediaterange nuclear missiles.
In 1991, AIDS patient Kimberly Bergalis, who had contracted the disease from her dentist, died in Fort Pierce, Fla., at age 23.
In 1992, Americans got to see live television coverage of U.S. troops landing on the beaches of Somalia as Operation Restore Hope began (because of the time difference, it was early Dec. 9 in Somalia).
In 1998, struggling to stave off impeachment, President Bill Clinton’s defenders forcefully pleaded his case before the House Judiciary Committee.
In 2001, the U.S. Capitol was reopened to tourists after a two-month security shutdown.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Flutist James Galway and singer Jerry Butler are 79. Pop musician Bobby Elliott (The Hollies) is 77. Reggae singer Toots Hibbert (Toots and the Maytals) is 70. Actress Kim Basinger is 65. Rock musician Warren Cuccurullo is 62. Rock musician Phil Collen (Def Leppard) is 61. Political commentator Ann Coulter is 57. Rock musician Marty Friedman is 56. Actor Wendell Pierce is 55. Actress Teri Hatcher is 54. Actor Matthew Laborteaux is 52. Rock singer Ingrid Michaelson is 39. R&B singer Chrisette Michele and actress Hannah Ware are 36. Rock singer-actress Kate Voegele is 32. Actress Wallis Currie-Wood is 27. Actress AnnaSophia Robb is 25.