Tuesday 8th of December 1542

Queen of Scots Mary Stuart is born in Linlithgow Palace, Linlithgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Thursday 8th of December 1859

Writer Thomas Penson De Quincey dies of unknown causes at the age of 74 in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Sunday 8th of December 1861

Illusionist and film pioneer Georges Marie Jean Méliès is born in 29 Boulevard Saint-Martin, Paris, IIIe, Île-de-France, France.

Thursday 8th of December 1864

Mathematician, philosopher and logician George Boole dies of fever-induced pleural effusion at the age of 49 in Ballintemple, Munster, Ireland.

One day in 1864, Boole walked two miles in the drenching rain and lectured wearing his wet clothes. He soon became ill, developing a severe cold and high fever. As his wife believed that remedies should resemble their cause, she put Boole to bed and poured buckets of water over him - the wet having brought on his illness. With neither spouse distinguishing good idea from bad, Boole's condition worsened and he died.

Thursday 8th of December 1864

Sculptor Camille Claudel is born in Fère-en-Tardenois, Aisne, France.

Friday 8th of December 1865

Composer Jean Johan Julius Christian Sibelius is born in Hämeenlinna, Tavastia Proper, Finland.

Wednesday 8th of December 1909

Murderer Abel Atherton is executed by hanging by Henry Pierrepoint at the age of 29 in Durham Gaol, Durham, Elvet, North East, United Kingdom.

Monday 8th of December 1913

Poet Delmore Schwartz aka The European Son is born in New York, Brooklyn, New York, United States.

Tuesday 8th of December 1914

Camp doctor in Auschwitz and Mauthausen Friedrich Karl Entress is born in Poznań, Wielkopolska, Poland.

Wednesday 8th of December 1915

55-year-old Berthe-Anna Héon is murdered by serial killer Henri Désiré Landru aka Le Barbe-Bleue de Gambais in l'Ermitage, Allée des Tilleuls et la Roserale, Gambais, Île-de-France, France.

"Un aller-retour, un aller simple pour Gambais."

Wednesday 8th of December 1915

Black Cordella Stevenson is hung from the limb of a tree without any clothing in Mobile and Ohio Railroad Station, Columbus, Mississippi, United States.

Stevenson was dragged from her house, raped and lynched because her son was suspected of the arson of Gabe Frank’s barn. The gruesomely scene was witnessed by thousands and thousands of passengers who traveled in and out of the city the next morning. Stevenson's body was left hanging until Friday morning.

Friday 8th of December 1916

Film director Richard O. Fleischer is born in New York, Brooklyn, New York, United States.

Tuesday 8th of December 1925

Actor, singer and entertainer Sammy Samuel George Davis Jr. is born in New York, Harlem, New York, United States.

Wednesday 8th of December 1926

Historian and journalist Joachim Clemens Fest known for his biography of Adolf Hilter is born in Berlin, Karlshorst, Berlin, Germany.

Monday 8th of December 1930

Actor Maximilian Schell is born in Wien, Wien, Austria.

Tuesday 8th of December 1936

Actor David Carradine aka The Barefoot Legend known for his role as warrior monk Kwai Chang Caine is born as John Arthur Carradine in Hollywood, California, United States.

Wednesday 8th of December 1937

29-year-old Kidnapper and multiple murderer Eugen Weidmann aka The Handsome Devil is arrested in Villa La Voulzie, Avenue Pigault-Lebrun, La Celle-Saint-Cloud, Île-de-France, France.

Arriving at his home Weidmann found two officers waiting for him. Inviting them in he then turned and fired three times at them with a pistol. Although they were unarmed, the wounded Sûreté men managed to wrestle Weidmann down, knocking him unconscious with a hammer that happened to be nearby.

Wednesday 8th of December 1943

Singer-songwriter and poet Jim James Douglas Morrison aka The Lizard King aka Mr. Mojo Risin' known from The Doors is born in Melbourne, Florida, United States.

Friday 8th of December 1944

Murderer Richard Layton is executed by the gas chamber at the age of 36 in Oregon State Penitentiary, Salem, Oregon, United States.

Tuesday 8th of December 1953

Actress Kim Kimila Ann Basinger is born in Athens, Georgia, United States.

Wednesday 8th of December 1954

54-year-old Mary Hogan is shot dead by murderer and body snatcher Ed Gein aka America’s Most Bizarre Murderer in Plainfield, Wisconsin, United States.

During a search of Gein's house, Hogan's face mask was found in a paper bag and her skull in a box among other artefacts made of human body parts.

Thursday 8th of December 1966

217 die in SS Heraklion ferry capsizing in Falkonera, Saronic Islands, the Aegean Sea.

Thursday 8th of December 1966

Singer-songwriter Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is born in Glenageary, Leinster, Ireland.

Monday 8th of December 1969

90 die in Olympic Airways Douglas DC-6 Flight 954 crash in Keratea, Attica, Greece.

Monday 8th of December 1969

31-year-old Wiener Aktionist Hermann Nitsch performs his 31. Aktion 'Maria Empfängnis' with Hanel Köck in Atelier Zimmer in München, Bayern, Germany.

Nitsch and Köck's 31. Aktion 'Maria Empfängnis' lasted ten hours.

Saturday 8th of December 1973

Bar owner Betty Satlow dies of carbon monoxide poisoning in Hoquiam, Washington, United States.

After the autopsy Satlow’s body was taken to the Coleman Funeral Home where she was embalmed. On the next evening the Satlow family and their friends gathered at Coleman’s to conduct Catholic Rosary services over her body. After the services the funeral director closed and sealed the lower half of the casket before going home for the night. Around 1:00 a.m., a tenant living in an apartment above the chapel woke up smelling smoke and called the fire department. When the firemen arrived, they entered the chapel and found that Satlow’s coffin was at the center of a tremendously hot fire. Once they put the flames out they examined the metal coffin which seemed to have acted like an oven. They found that Satlow’s upper body was reduced to ashes and a few bone fragments. Her lower body was more or less intact below the hips.

Sunday 8th of December 1974

47-year-old Moses Yakanac is stabbed to death by serial killer Vaughn Greenwood aka The Skid Row Slasher in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Wednesday 8th of December 1976

Triple murderess Patty Bolin commits suicide by a shot in the head at the age of 40 in Columbus, Ohio, United States.

Earlier that day Bolin shot her 43-year-old husband Ronald, her 12-year-old daughter Tamela Jean and her 9‐year‐old son Todd Matthew in the head.

Friday 8th of December 1978

Teacher, kibbutznik and politician Golda Meyerson Meir dies of lymphatic cancer at the age of 80 in Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.

Monday 8th of December 1980

40-year-old John Winston Lennon known from The Beatles is shot dead by murderer Mark David Chapman aka The Man Who Shot John Lennon in The Dakota, 72nd Street and Central Park West, New York, Manhattan, New York, United States.

Tuesday 8th of December 1981

34-year-old Serial killer William George Bonin aka The Freeway Killer is beaten up by Hillside Strangler Angelo Buono and murderer John W. Stinson in a holding cell during his trial in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Tuesday 8th of December 1987

Mass murderer Frank Vitkovic commits suicide by jumping from a window at the age of 22 in Australia Post Offices, 191 Queen Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Before jumping to his death Vitkovic shot dead 19-year-old Judith Anne Morris, 20-year-old Julie Faye McBean,18-year-old Annunziata "Nancy" Avignone, 29-year-old Warren David Spencer, 38-year-old Michael Francis McGuire, 38-year-old Marianne Jacoba Van Ewyk, 28-year-old Catherine Mary Dowling and 32-year-old Rodney Gerard Brown with a sawn-off  M1 carbine in about five minutes time on several floors of the building. In a note addressed to his parents and dated the day of the massacre he wrote "Today is going to be the day. The anger in my head has got too much for me. I've got to get rid of my violent impulses. The time has come to die. There is no other way out."

Saturday 8th of December 1990

Theatre director, painter, sculptor and set designer Tadeusz Kantor known for his piece Dead Class dies of unknown causes at the age of 75 in Kraków, Województwo Małopolskie, Poland.

Thursday 8th of December 1994

325 schoolchildren die in Friendship Theatre fire in Karamay, Xinjiang Uyghur, China.

During the fire, the students and teachers were ordered to remain seated to allow Communist Party officials to walk out first.

Tuesday 8th of December 1998

Murderer Jeff J. Emery is executed by lethal injection at the age of 39 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Wednesday 8th of December 1999

Multiple murderer David Martin Long is executed by lethal injection at the age of 46 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Two days before Long was scheduled to be executed he took an overdose of prescription drugs and was hospitalized in Galveston, Texas. Officials in Texas refused to delay the execution. Initially placed on a ventilator, Long improved significantly by the next day. He was placed on a medically supervised flight back to Huntsville on the day of his scheduled execution so that he could be executed as scheduled.

Wednesday 8th of December 1999

Waiting for the bus with some monks in Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Central Thailand, Thailand.

Friday 8th of December 2000

Murderer Claude Howard Jones is executed by lethal injection at the age of 60 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Jones' execution was delayed by about a half an hour because prison staff were unable to find suitable veins in his hands and arms. Executions are usually performed with an IV in each arm. In Jones' case only one IV was used and it was inserted in his left thigh. 

Wednesday 8th of December 2004

Guitarist and songwriter Darrell Lance Abbott aka Dimebag Darrell known from the heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan is shot dead during a Damageplan performance by 25-year-old paranoid schizophrenic Nathan Gale at the age of 38 in Alrosa Villa, 5055 Sinclair Road, Columbus, Ohio, United States.

As Damageplan played the first song of its setlist, 'Breathing New Life', Gale rushed onto the stage and drew his Beretta 92FS 9mm semi-automatic pistol. He moved directly towards Abbott and shot him four times at point-blank range: once in the right cheek, left ear, back of the head, and right hand. Damageplan's head of security Jeffrey 'Mayhem' Thompson, tackled Gale and was fatally shot in the ensuing struggle. Damageplan fan Nathan Bray, who attempted to aid Abbott and Thompson, was also shot dead, as was Alrose Villa employee Erin Halk who tried to disarm Gale as he was reloading. Damageplan's drum technician John 'Kat' Brooks then attempted to subdue Gale. He was shot twice in the leg and taken as a hostage. Responding within three minutes to a dispatch call, police officer James Niggemeyer entered the club through a door behind the stage and shot Gale once in the head with a 12-gauge Remington Model 870, killing him.

Wednesday 8th of December 2010

81 die in San Miguel Prison fire in San Miguel Prison, Santiago, Región Metropolitana, Chile.