Today in History - December 8th

1765 - Today in history, Eli Whitney was born. Whitney invented the cotton gin.
1776 - George Washington's retreating army in the American Revolution crossed the Delaware River from NJ to PA.
1777- On this day in history, Captain Cook left the Society Islands on his exploration of the Pacific.
1863 - Abraham Lincoln's Amnesty Proclamation and plan for Reconstruction of South happened, on this day in history.
1886 - At a convention of union leaders in Columbus, OH, the American Federation of Labor was founded.
1936 - Today in history, the NAACP filed suit to equalize salaries of black & white teachers
1941 - The US entered World War II when it declared war against Japan. The act came one day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
1941 - On this day in history, President Roosevelt delivered "Day of Infamy" speech to US Congress, a day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
1953 - Los Angeles became the third largest city in America.

1969 - Today in history, police made a surprise attack on The Black Panthers in LA.
1984 - In Roanoke, Virginia, a jury found Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt innocent of libeling Reverend Jerry Falwell with a parody advertisement.
1987 - On this day in history, President Regan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a treaty agreeing to destroy their nations' arsenals of intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
1993 - President Clinton signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement. (NAFTA).
1998 - Today in history, The Supreme Court ruled that police could not search a person or their cars after ticketing for a routine traffic violation.
1999 - In Memphis, TN, a jury found that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been the victim of a vast murder conspiracy, not a lone assassin.
2012 - On this day in history, the UN Climate Conference agreed to extend the Kyoto Protocol to 2020.

MUSIC HISTORY - Today in History, December 8th

1813 - Ludwig von Beethoven's 7th Symphony in A premiered.
1961 - Today in history, "Surfin'," the Beach Boys first recording, was released.
1963 - Frank Sinatra, Jr. was kidnapped.
1968 - On this day in history, Graham Nash announced the formation of Crosby, Stills and Nash three days after he quit the Hollies.
1969 - Testifying at his trial for possession of hashish and heroin in the Toronto Supreme Court, Jimi Hendrix claimed that he had now "outgrown" drugs. The jury found him not guilty after eight hours of deliberations.
1980 - Today in history, In New York City, Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon to death.
1995 - Courtney Love was interviewed by Barbara Walters for ABC's "10 Most Fascinating People of 1995." During the interview Love told Walters that she wished she had done "eight thousand million things" differently to prevent husband Kurt Cobain's death.
1995 - On this day in history, the surviving members of the Grateful Dead announced they were disbanding. Jerry Garcia's, the founder of the group, had died the previous August.
1998 - The FBI opened its files on Frank Sinatra to the public. The file contained over 1,300 pages.
2000 - Today in history, Sting received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - On this day in history, the first female ice-hockey game in Olympic history was played. Finland beat Sweden 6-0.