On Dec. 8, 1776, George Washington’s retreating army crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey to Pennsylvania during the American Revolution.
In 1854 Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Roman Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was free of original sin from the moment she was conceived.
In 1886 painter Diego Rivera was born in Guanajuato, Mexico.
In 1894 cartoonist Elzie Segar, creator of “Popeye,” was born in Chester, Ill.
In 1925 entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. was born in New York.
In 1941 the U.S. entered World War II as Congress declared war against Japan, a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
In 1980 former Beatle John Lennon, 40, was shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by a fan.
In 1986 House Democrats selected Jim Wright to be the chamber’s 48th speaker, succeeding Thomas “Tip” O’Neill.
In 1987 Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories began an intifada, or uprising. Also in 1987 President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty calling for destruction of intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
In 1991 Russia, Belarus and Ukraine declared the Soviet 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 U.S. law the North American Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect at the start of 1994.
In 1995 the Grateful Dead announced it was breaking up after 30 years of making music; the news came four months after the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia.
In 2003 President George W. Bush signed a $400 billion Medicare overhaul bill that included a prescription drug plan.
In 2004 ”Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, 38, an influential heavy metal guitarist, was fatally shot with three other people during a performance in Columbus, Ohio; the gunman was then shot dead by a police officer.
In 2005 a Southwest Airlines jet slid off a Midway Airport runway and onto a busy street during a snowstorm, killing a boy in a car.
