This is a list of selected December 8 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
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Staging area
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Portrait of Margaret Hughes by Peter Lely, 1672 -
Pope Pius IX -
Biblioteca Ambrosiana -
British officer looking at gravestones from the desecrated Jewish cemetery used to construct German defences, 1944 -
John Lennon -
Model of the IKAROS spacecraft -
Second movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| ; Constitution Day in Romania (1991) | refimprove section |
| 395 – The Chinese state of Later Yan was defeated by its former vassal Northern Wei at the Battle of Canhe Slope. | refimprove section |
| 1609 – Milan's Biblioteca Ambrosiana opened its reading room to the public, becoming the second public library in Europe. | refimprove section |
| 1813 – Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 premiered in Vienna, conducted by the composer himself. | Too much uncited |
| 1912 – Leaders of the German Empire held an Imperial War Council to discuss the possibility that war might break out. | unreferenced section |
| 1941 – World War II: Concurrent to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Malaya, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies. | HK: refimprove section; Philippines: unreferenced section |
| 1942 – The Holocaust in Greece: German occupiers began the destruction of the Jewish cemetery of Salonica, using the headstones as building materials around the city. | Date not mentioned in the article |
| 1971 – Indo-Pakistani War: Following their successful attack three days earlier, a small Indian Navy strike force again attacked the Port of Karachi, creating a de facto blockade. | primary sources |
| 1988 – In Chng Suan Tze, the Court of Appeal of Singapore held that preventive detention was subject to judicial review, prompting the government to amend the constitution and legislation to avoid judicial review. | Too much uncited |
| 1993 – Leaders of Canada, Mexico, and the United States signed the final agreements of the North American Free Trade Agreement, forming a regional trade bloc. | outdated, expansion |
| 2004 – Twelve South American countries signed the Cusco Declaration, announcing the foundation of what is now the Union of South American Nations, an intergovernmental union modelled after the European Union. | outdated, refimprove section |
| Yuliya Krevsun |b|1980| | Birthday not cited |
Eligible
- 1660 – Margaret Hughes appeared professionally on the English stage; she is thought to have been the first woman to do so.
- 1854 – Pope Pius IX (pictured) promulgated the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, proclaiming the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was conceived free of original sin.
- 1880 – At an assembly of 10,000 Boers, Paul Kruger announced the fulfilment of the decision to restore the government and volksraad of the South African Republic.
- 1941 – The Holocaust: The Chełmno extermination camp in occupied Poland, the first such Nazi camp to kill Jews, began operations.
- 1972 – During an aborted landing and go-around while approaching Chicago's Midway International Airport, United Airlines Flight 553 crashed into a residential neighborhood, destroying five houses and killing forty-five people.
- 1987 – A man shot and killed eight people at the Australia Post building in Melbourne, before jumping to his death.
- 1987 – Arab–Israeli conflict: An Israeli army tank transporter killed four Palestinian refugees and injured seven others during a traffic accident at the Erez Crossing on the Israel–Gaza Strip border, sparking the First Intifada.
- 1991 – Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian leaders signed the Belovezh Accords, agreeing to dissolve the Soviet Union and establish the Commonwealth of Independent States.
- 1998 – The Australian Cricket Board's cover-up of Shane Warne and Mark Waugh's involvement with bookmakers was revealed.
- 2013 – After a fatal car accident in the Little India region of Singapore, angry mobs of passers-by attacked the bus involved and emergency vehicles, the first riot in the country in over 40 years.
- 2023 – FDA approval of exagamglogene autotemcel, the first CRISPR gene editing therapy to be approved.
- Born/died this day: | John Peckham |d|1292| John Pym |d|1643| Antonio de Benavides |b|1678|Maria Josepha of Austria |b|1699| Georges Méliès |b|1861| Georges Feydeau |b|1862| George Boole |d|1864| Jean Sibelius |b|1865| John Banville |b|1945| Peig Sayers |d|1958| Betty Holberton |d|2001
Notes
- Operation Trident (1971) appears on December 4, so Operation Python should not appear in the same year
- Akatsuki appears on December 7, so IKAROS should not appear in the same year
December 8: Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Roman Rite Catholicism); Rōhatsu in Japan
Model of IKAROS
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British commander-in-chief Sir William Howe withdrew his troops from the Battle of White Marsh to Philadelphia.
- 1963 – After being struck by lightning while in a holding pattern, Pan Am Flight 214 crashed near Elkton, Maryland, U.S., killing all 81 people on board.
- 1980 – English musician John Lennon was murdered at the entrance of the Dakota, his residence in New York City.
- 2009 – Bombings in Baghdad carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq killed at least 127 people and injured at least 448 others.
- 2010 – The Japanese experimental spacecraft IKAROS (model pictured) flew by Venus at a distance of 80,800 km (50,200 mi), completing its planned mission to demonstrate solar-sail technology.
- Adolph Menzel (b. 1815)
- Father Mathew (d. 1856)
- Nicki Minaj (b. 1982)
- Ann T. Bowling (d. 2000)
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