Click speaker to hear President Franklin D. Roosevelt ask Congress for a declaration of war.
In 1776, during the Revolutionary War, George Washington's retreating army crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey into Pennsylvania.
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. [Stupid like a Mormon. — Ed.]
In 1863, President Lincoln announced his plan for the Reconstruction of the South.
In 1907, Oscar II, the king of Sweden and former king of Norway, died in Stockholm at age 78.
In 1949, the Chinese Nationalist government moved from the Chinese mainland to Formosa as the Communists pressed their attacks.
In 1978, former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir died in Jerusalem at age 80.
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 1986, House Democrats selected majority leader Jim Wright to be the chamber's 48th speaker, succeeding Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill. U. S. Secretary of State George Shultz told the House Foreign Affairs Committee the transfer of Iran arms money to the Nicaraguan Contras was illegal.
In 1987, President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a treaty at the White House calling for destruction of intermediate-range nuclear missiles. Also: Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories began an intefadeh, or uprising.
In 1991, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine declared the Soviet national government dead, forging a new alliance, the Commonwealth of Independent States.
In 1992, Americans saw live TV coverage of U.S. troops landing on the beaches of Somalia as Operation Restore Hope began.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement.
In 1997, federal hearings opened in Baltimore into the TWA Flight 800 disaster which had claimed 230 lives. In a 25 billion-dollar deal, Swiss Bank and Union Bank of Switzerland announced they would merge. Jenny Shipley was sworn in as the first woman prime minister of New Zealand.
In 1999, a Memphis, Tenn. jury hearing a lawsuit filed by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s family found that the civil rights leader had been the victim of a vast murder conspiracy, not a lone assassin. A Russian diplomat was ordered to leave the US after he was allegedly caught gathering information from the State Department with an eavesdropping device.
In 2000, the Florida Supreme Court ordered an immediate hand count of about 45,000 disputed presidential ballots.
In 2002, Iraq's massive dossier detailing its chemical, biological and nuclear programs arrived in New York; the U.N. Security Council agreed to give full copies to the United States and the four other permanent council members: Britain, France, Russia and China.
In 2003, Rep. Bill Janklow, R-S.D., resigned after being convicted in the traffic death of a motorcyclist.
In 2004, the Senate completed congressional approval of the biggest overhaul of U.S. intelligence in a half-century, voting 89-2 to send the measure to President George W. Bush, who signed it nine days later. Disgruntled U.S. soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld during a question-and-answer session in Kuwait about long deployments and a lack of armored vehicles and other equipment. Treasury Secretary John Snow accepted President Bush's offer to remain in the Cabinet.
In 2006, a gunman went on a rampage inside a downtown Chicago law firm, killing three people before being shot dead himself by police. Laura Gainey, the daughter of hockey great Bob Gainey, was washed overboard in the North Atlantic during a storm while working on a sailing ship bound for the Caribbean; she remains lost at sea. The House ethics committee concluded that Republican lawmakers and aides failed for a decade to protect male pages from sexual overtures by former Representative Mark Foley, but that they broke no rules and should not be punished.
In 2008, in a startling about-face, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal he would confess to masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks; four other men also abandoned their defenses. (The Obama administration has since decided to try the defendants in federal civilian court.) A malfunctioning F/A-18D Hornet military jet trying to reach Marine Corps Air Station Miramar slammed into a densely populated San Diego neighborhood, killing four members of a family and incinerating two homes; the pilot ejected safely. Mystery writer Hillary Waugh died in Torrington, Conn. at age 88.
Today's Birthdays December 8: Actor-director Maximilian Schell is 79. Actor James MacArthur is 72. Flutist James Galway is 70. Singer Jerry Butler is 70. Pop musician Bobby Elliott (The Hollies) is 68. Actress Mary Woronov is 66. Actor John Rubinstein is 63. Rock singer-musician Gregg Allman is 62. Reggae singer Toots Hibbert (Toots and the Maytals) is 61. Actress Kim Basinger is 56. Rock musician Warren Cuccurullo is 53. Rock musician Phil Collen (Def Leppard) is 52. Country singer Marty Raybon is 50. Rock musician Marty Friedman is 47. Actor Wendell Pierce is 46. Actress Teri Hatcher is 45. Actor Matthew Laborteaux is 43. Rock musician Ryan Newell (Sister Hazel) is 37. Actor Dominic Monaghan is 33. Actor Ian Somerhalder is 31. Rock singer Ingrid Michaelson is 30.
And the Dead:
Mary, Queen of Scots, (1542); Christina, Queen of Sweden (1626) [Lived in her Parisian pied-à-terre, @ 1, rue Christine, in '69 & '70. — Ed.]; Eli Whitney, American inventor (1765); William C. Durant, founder of GM (1861); Aristide Maillol, sculptor (1861); Jean Sibelius, composer (1865); Diego Rivera, painter (1886); James Thurber, humorist (1894); Lee J. Cobb, actor (1911); Sammy Davis, Jr., singer, actor (1925); comedian Flip Wilson (1933); actor David Carradine (1936); Jim Morrison, rock musician (1943).
Show Bidness History:
In 1956, eleven-year-old Brenda Lee released her first single, "I'm Gonna Lasso Santa Claus."
In 1961, the Beach Boys' first single, "Surfin'," was released.
In 1969, a supreme court in Toronto found guitarist Jimi Hendrix not guilty of possession of heroin and hashish. Hendrix had testified he had previously used drugs but had given them up.
In 1976, The Eagles released their "Hotel California" album. [Yuck. — Ed.]
In 1980, John Lennon was shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by an apparently deranged fan. He and wife Yoko Ono were returning home from a recording session. He was 40.
In 1982, country singer Marty Robbins died of heart disease in Nashville at the age of 57.
In 1983, character actor Slim Pickens died in Modesto, California, at age 64.
Twenty-five years ago, in 1984, Motley Crue singer Vince Neil crashed a sports car on a California highway, killing his passenger, Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle Dingley.
In 1991, actor Gregory Peck and country legend Roy Acuff were honored at the Kennedy Center Honors. Acuff was the first country artist to receive the award.
In 1992, Paul McCartney signed a long-term recording contract with Capitol and EMI Records. The terms were not disclosed.
In 1995, surviving members of The Grateful Dead announced they were breaking up after 30 years of making music. The news came four months after the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia.
In 2003, Ozzy Osbourne was seriously injured while riding a quad bike around his English estate. He apparently hit something and the bike landed on top of him.
In 2004, guitarist Dimebag Darrell, formerly of Pantera, was shot and killed during a show with his new band, DamagePlan, in Columbus, Ohio. Three others also were killed before a police officer shot and killed the gunman, Nathan Gale. [That's show biz! — Ed.]
In 2008, character actor Robert Prosky died in Washington, D.C. five days short of his 78th birthday.
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