Today in History - History - December 8th

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

1994Darryl Strawberry indicted on tax evasion charges

1902Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr became Associate Justice on Supreme Court

1984Ringo Starr appears on Saturday Night Live

1961Wilt Chamberlain scores the 2nd highest total in the NBA - 78

1955Brooklyn catcher Roy Campanella wins his 3rd MVP Award

1776George Washington's retreating army crosses Delaware River from NJ

1987US President Reagan & Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev sign a treaty eliminating medium range nuclear missiles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1953Prime Minister of Canada John Diefenbaker (58) weds second wife Olive Palmer (51) at Park Road Baptist Church in Toronto, Canada

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

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

1942Albert Kahn, architect of Detroit, dies at 73