Today in History - History - December 8th

1914Irving Berlin's musical "Watch your Step" premieres in NYC

19934th Billboard Music Awards: Whitney Houston, The Bodyguard Soundtrack win

1987Flyers' Ron Hextall becomes 1st goalie to actually score a goal

1949"On the Town", the film adaptation of the Broadway musical, starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Ann Miller and Vera-Ellen, is released

1984Ringo Starr appears on Saturday Night Live

1966A terrible Yankee trade, Roger Maris for Card's Charlie Smith

198473rd Australian Men Tennis: Mats Wilander beats K Curren (67 64 76 62)

1886American Federation of Labor (AFL) formed by 26 craft unions Samuel Gompers elected AFL president

1915John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields" appears anonymously in "Punch" magazine

1863Abraham Lincoln's Amnesty Proclamation and plan for Reconstruction of South

1542Mary Stuart, Linlithgow Palace, Linlithgow, Queen of Scotland (1560-1587), (d. 1587)

1953Sam Kinison, Yakima, Washington, screaming comedian and actor (Back to School, Charlie Hoover)

1943Jim Morrison, American poet, singer (The Doors) (d. 1971)

65 BCHorace, Venusia, Lucania, Roman Republian poet (Odes), (d. 8 BC)

1982Nicki Minaj, Saint James, Port of Spain, Trinidadian-born American rapper and singer (Super Bass, Starships)

1962Steve Elkington, Inverell New South Wales, Australian golfer (1995 PGA Championship)

1886Diego Rivera, [Lenin of Mexico], Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Mexico, painter/wife of Frida Kahlo (En el Arsenal ), (d. 1957)

1765Eli Whitney, Westborough Massachusetts, inventor (Cotton Gin)

1950NBA player Bob Cousy (22) weds his college sweetheart Missie Ritterbusch

1872Religious leader Brigham Young (71) weds his fifty-fifth wife Hannah Tapfield in Salt Lake City, Utah

1942Albert Kahn, architect of Detroit, dies at 73

1980John Lennon, shot and killed in NY by Mark David Chapman at 40