December 8: What Happened on This Day in History (High_school Level)?

(Page last edited 10/12/2017)

1. 1660 - A woman (either Margaret Hughes orAnne Marshall) appears on an English public stage for the first time, in the role of Desdemonain a production of Shakespeare's play Othello.
2. 1854 - In his Apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogmatic definition of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was conceived free oforiginal sin.
3. 1912 - Leaders of the German Empire hold an Imperial War Council to discuss the possibility that war might break out.
4. 1927 - The Brookings Institution, one of the United States' oldest think tanks, is founded through the merger of three organizations that had been created by philanthropist Robert S. Brookings.
5. 1941 - United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares December 7 to be "a date which will live in infamy", after which the U.S. and the Republic of China declare war against Japan.
6. 1953 - United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his "Atoms for Peace" speech, and the U.S. launches its "Atoms for Peace" program that supplied equipment and information to schools, hospitals, and research institutions around the world.
7. 1987 - The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed.
8. 1993 - The North American Free Trade Agreement is signed into law by US President Bill Clinton.
9. 2010 - With the second launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 and the first launch of the SpaceX Dragon, SpaceX becomes the first privately held company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.
10. 2010 - The Japanese solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS passes the planet Venus at a distance of about 80,800 km.
11. Famous Birthdays: Mary Queen of Scots, Eli Whitney (American inventor, invented the cotton gin), William C. Durant (American businessman, founded General Motors and Chevrolet), Camille Claudel (French illustrator and sculptor), Thomas R. Cech (American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate)

For famous birthdays and other daily events in history, visit our Daily Dose Activities.

Click Here for Yesterday in History: December 7

Click Here for Tomorrow in History: December 9

For more history resources on Internet 4 Classrooms, visit our Social Studies and History index. For Pre K-8th Grade Level History and Social Studies Resources, visit our Grade Level Index.