Today’s highlight

On Dec. 8, 1941, the United States entered World War II as Congress declared war against Imperial Japan a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

On this date

1765: Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin, was born in Westborough, Massachusetts.

1886: The American Federation of Labor was founded in Columbus, Ohio.

1949: The Chinese Nationalist government moved from the Chinese mainland to Formosa as the Communists pressed their attacks.

1980: Rock star and former Beatle John Lennon was shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by Mark David Chapman.

1987: President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a treaty at the White House calling for destruction of intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

1991: AIDS patient Kimberly Bergalis, who had contracted the disease from her dentist, died in Fort Pierce, Florida, at age 23.

2001: The U.S. Capitol was reopened to tourists after a two-month security shutdown.

2014: The U.S. and NATO ceremonially ended their combat mission in Afghanistan, 13 years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks sparked their invasion of the country to topple the Taliban-led government.