17 Azar 1397

Events

• 1941 (85 years ago) 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.
• 1980 (46 years ago) John Lennon is murdered by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota in New York City.
• 1987 (39 years ago) Cold War: The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the White House.
• 1991 (35 years ago) The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.
• 1998 (28 years ago) Eighty-one people are killed by armed groups in Algeria.
• 2013 (13 years ago) Riots break out in Singapore, after a fatal accident in Little India.
• 2013 (13 years ago) Metallica performs a show in Antarctica, making them the first musical act to perform on all seven continents.
• 2025 (a year ago) Singapore, under the government's approval, published its now-declassified Albatross file, comprising information relating to the Proclamation of Singapore dating back six decades ago.

Births

• 65 BC Horace, Roman poet (died 8 BC)
• 1542 (484 years ago) Mary, Queen of Scots, daughter of James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise (died 1587)
• 1832 (194 years ago) Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian-French author and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1910)
• 1865 (161 years ago) Jean Sibelius, Finnish violinist and composer (died 1957)
• 1943 (83 years ago) Jim Morrison, American singer-songwriter and poet (died 1971)
• 1953 (73 years ago) Kim Basinger, American actress
• 1966 (60 years ago) Sinéad O'Connor, Irish singer-songwriter (died 2023)
• 1982 (44 years ago) Nicki Minaj, Trinidadian-American rapper and actress

Deaths

• 1830 (196 years ago) Benjamin Constant, Swiss-French philosopher and author (born 1767)
• 1864 (162 years ago) George Boole, English mathematician and philosopher (born 1815)
• 1903 (123 years ago) Herbert Spencer, English biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and philosopher (born 1820)
• 1907 (119 years ago) King Oscar II of Sweden,
• 1978 (48 years ago) Golda Meir, Ukrainian-Israeli educator and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Israel (born 1898)
• 1980 (46 years ago) John Lennon, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1940)
• 1994 (32 years ago) Antônio Carlos Jobim, Brazilian singer-songwriter and pianist (born 1927)
• 2016 (10 years ago) John Glenn, American astronaut and senator, first American to go into orbit (born 1921)

All 440 events, births and deaths of December 8