Shimla, Dec. 8 Keekli Bureau
2016
American astronaut and politician John Glenn—who was the first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth, for which he was regarded as a national hero—died at age 95.
2010
The American aerospace venture SpaceX became the first commercial company to release a spacecraft—the Dragon capsule—into orbit and successfully return it to Earth.
2004
Mia Hamm, a leading figure in U.S. women’s football (soccer), retired from the sport.
1991
Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus signed an agreement to form the Commonwealth of Independent States in the wake of the demise of the Soviet Union.
1987
The intifāḍah, an uprising of Palestinians in the territories occupied by Israel, began this week.
1987
U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signed a nuclear weapons reduction treaty.
1978
The American classic film The Deer Hunter—starring Robert De Niro and Christoper Walken, among others—had its world premiere; an emotionally shattering look at the effects of the Vietnam War on the young American men sent to fight in it, the movie later won an Oscar for best picture.
1903
English thinker and scholar Herbert Spencer, best known for his work The Synthetic Philosophy, died in Brighton, Sussex, England.
1886
Mexican painter Diego Rivera, whose bold large-scale murals stimulated a revival of fresco painting in Latin America, was born.
1854
Pope Pius IX proclaimed the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, asserting that Mary, Jesus’ mother, was preserved free from the effects of “original sin” from the first instant of her conception.
1542
Mary, Queen of Scots, was born, and six days later she became queen of Scotland.
