TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

Dec. 8, 1941

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

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1813

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92, was first performed in Vienna, with Beethoven himself conducting.

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.