December 8

1660 – A woman (either Margaret Hughes or Anne Marshall) appears on an English public stage for the first time, in the role of Desdemona in a production of Shakespeare’s play Othello.
1813 – Premiere of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.
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.
1941 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares December 7 to be “a date which will live in infamy”, after which the U.S. declares war on Japan.
1941 – World War II: Japanese forces simultaneously invade Shanghai International Settlement, Malaya, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies.
1953 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his “Atoms for Peace” speech, which leads to an American program to supply equipment and information on nuclear power to schools, hospitals, and research institutions around the world.
1962 – Workers at four New York City newspapers (this later increases to nine) go on strike for 114 days.
1980 – John Lennon is murdered by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota on 72nd Street and Central Park West.
1991 – The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Births
65 BC – Horace, Roman soldier and poet (d. 8 BC)
1542 – Mary, Queen of Scots (d. 1587)
1756 – Archduke Maximilian Francis of Austria (d. 1801)
1765 – Eli Whitney, American engineer, invented the cotton gin (d. 1825)
1816 – August Belmont, Prussian-American financier and diplomat, 16th United States Ambassador to the Netherlands (d. 1890)
1861 – William C. Durant, American businessman, founded General Motors and Chevrolet (d. 1947)
1865 – Jean Sibelius, Finnish violinist and composer (d. 1957)
1894 – James Thurber, American author and illustrator (d. 1961)
1922 – Lucian Freud, German-English painter and illustrator (d. 2011)
1925 – Sammy Davis, Jr., American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1990)
1939 – James Galway, Irish flute player
1961 – Ann Coulter, American lawyer, journalist, and author
Deaths
1643 – John Pym, English politician (b. 1583)
1885 – William Henry Vanderbilt, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1821)