8 December 2025 (MIA)

883 – Saint Clement of Ohrid, scholar, writer and enlightener of the Slavs is born. He was one of the most prominent disciples of Saints Cyril and Methodius and is often associated with the creation of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic scripts, especially their popularization among Christianised Slavs.

1609 – Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan opens its reading room, second public library in Europe.

1854 – In his Apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogmatic definition of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived free of Original Sin.

1813 – Ludwig van Beethoven’s 7th Symphony in A, premieres in Vienna with Beethoven conducting.

1863 – Abraham Lincoln issues his Amnesty Proclamation and plan for Reconstruction of the South.

1907 – King Gustaf V of Sweden accedes to the Swedish throne.

1912 – Leaders of the German Empire hold an Imperial War Council to discuss the possibility that war might break out.

1914 – World War I: A squadron of Britain’s Royal Navy defeats the Imperial German East Asia Squadron in the Battle of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.

1922 – Northern Ireland ceases to be part of the Irish Free State.

1941 – US and Britain declare war on Japan, US enters World War II.

1941 – World War II: Japanese forces simultaneously invade Shanghai International Settlement, Malaya, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies. (See Dec. 7 for the concurrent attack on Pearl Harbor in the Western Hemisphere.)

1953 – U.S. 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.

1955 – The Flag of Europe is adopted by Council of Europe.

1963 – Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707, is struck by lightning and crashes near Elkton, Maryland, killing all 81 people on board.

1966 – The Greek ship SS Heraklion sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200.

1969 – Olympic Airways Flight 954 strikes a mountain outside of Keratea, Greece, killing 90 people in the worst crash of a Douglas DC-6 in history.

1971 – Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Navy launches an attack on West Pakistan’s port city of Karachi.

1972 – United Airlines Flight 553, a Boeing 737, crashes after aborting its landing attempt at Chicago Midway International Airport, killing 45. This is the first-ever loss of a Boeing 737.

1974 – A plebiscite results in the abolition of monarchy in Greece.

1980 – John Lennon is murdered by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota in New York City.

1982 – Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez receives the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1985 – South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union in South Asia is established.

1987 – The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed.

1987 – An Israeli army tank transporter kills four Palestinian refugees and injures seven others during a traffic accident at the Erez Crossing on the Israel–Gaza Strip border, which has been cited as one of the events which sparked the First Intifada.

1988 – A United States Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II crashes into an apartment complex in Remscheid, Germany, killing five people and injuring 50 others.

1991 – The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.

1998 – Eighty-one people are killed by armed groups in Algeria.

2004 – The Cusco Declaration is signed in Cusco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations.

2009 – Bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, kill 127 people and injure 448 others.

2010 – With the second launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 and the first launch of the SpaceX Dragon, SpaceX becomes the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.

2010 – The Japanese solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS passes the planet Venus at a distance of about 80,800 km.

2013 – Riots break out in Singapore after a fatal accident in Little India.

2019 – Vienna State Opera stages its first show by a female composer in 150 years – Olga Neuwirth’s opera, “Orlando.”

2020 – The UK begins vaccinating for COVID-19 using the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine.