This Day In History
December 8

Year Month Start Date Event
1805 December 8 Born - December 8 - Amand Landry, farmer and politician (d.1877)
1846 December 8 Born - December 8 - Antoine Audet, politician (died 1915)
1852 December 8 December 8 - Laval's Seminaire du Quebec founds Université Laval, North America's oldest French Language university.
1873 December 8 Born - December 8 - John Duncan MacLean, teacher, physician, politician and Premier of British Columbia (d.1948)
1878 December 8 Born - December 8 - Henry Herbert Stevens, politician and businessman (d.1973)
1880 December 8 Died - December 8 - Charles Fisher, politician and 1st Premier of the Colony of New Brunswick (b.1808)
1893 December 8 Born - December 8 - J. Arthur Ross, politician (d.1958)
1903 December 8 Born - December 8 - Louis-Marie Régis, philosopher, theologian, scholar and member of the Dominican Order (d.1988)
1919 December 8 A statue of Timothy Eaton is unveiled on Queen Street West.
1941 December 8 December 8–December 25: A large number of ill-trained Canadian troops, members of the Royal Rifles of Canada and the Winnipeg Grenadiers, are killed or taken prisoner in the Battle of Hong Kong
1941 December 8 December 8: The day after the Battle of Hong Kong all fishing boats owned by Japanese Canadians are impounded by the government. Japanese-language schools and newspapers are shut down.
1961 December 8 Born - December 8 – André Bachand, politician
1962 December 8 Died - December 8 – Allison Dysart, politician, lawyer, judge and 21st Premier of New Brunswick (born 1880)
1986 December 8 December 8 - The University of Toronto's John C. Polanyi shares the Nobel Prize for chemistry for the development of the chemical laser.
1998 December 8 Born - December 8 - Anastasia Rizikov, pianist
1999 December 8 December 8 - Air Canada takes over Canadian Airlines
2003 December 8 December 8 - In Edmonton, the United States awards Bronze Stars to 26 Canadian soldiers of 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Battle Group who distinguished themselves serving alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2002.
2008 December 8 December 8 - Quebec general election, 2008
2008 December 8 December 8 - Marc Mayer is appointed director of the National Gallery of Canada