Bad things do happen on December 8, not just in Little India, and some events of historical note include:
1941 - Surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan) led to the United States' entry into World War II.
1949 - Chiang Kai-shek and his remaining Chinese Nationalist Party (known as the Kuomintang or KMT) forces fled the Chinese mainland and moved to the island of Taiwan, where Chiang imposed martial law and persecuted people critical of his rule in a period known as the "White Terror".
1962 - Sheik A.M. Azahari of nationalist Partai Rakyat Brunei (PRB) mounted a failed coup in Brunei, after the Sultan of Brunei ignored the election results of August 1962 to press forward with his own pro-federation policy .
1963 - 3 fuel tanks exploded when Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707-121 registered as N709PA, was en route from Baltimore to Philadelphia, when it crashed near Elkton, Maryland after being hit by lightning, killing all 81 on board.
1980 - John Lennon was shot in the back four times by Mark David Chapman at the entrance of his New York apartment in the Dakota. Earlier that evening, Lennon had autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman.
1987 - Occupied Palestinians start First Palestinian Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation which lasted from December 1987 to 1993.
1994 - China's deadliest fire in 15 years at the Friendship Hall cinema in Karamay killed more than 310, most of them children performing and watching a cultural show, unable to escape because all but one of the doors were padlocked and the iron bars blocked the windows.
2012 - Philippine President Benigno Aquino, announced a state of national calamity after Typhoon Bopha claimed over 450 lives, the strongest tropical cyclone to ever hit Mindanao, making landfall as a Category 5 super typhoon with winds of 175 mph (280 km/h).
Depending on whether you find housing really affordable in Singapore, you may wish to add one more:
1952 - Minister Khaw Boon Wan was born in Penang, Malaysia. Best remembered as the guy who paid just $8 for a bypass surgery, all because he had signed up for the MediShield scheme. Also suggested that Singaporeans can consider sending their elderly parents to nursing homes in Johor Bahru in Malaysia, which are more affordable to lower-income Singaporeans. And defended National Parks Board's (NParks) purchase of Brompton foldable bikes for its officers because "the decision on the foldable bikes could be justified."
1941 - Surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan) led to the United States' entry into World War II.
1949 - Chiang Kai-shek and his remaining Chinese Nationalist Party (known as the Kuomintang or KMT) forces fled the Chinese mainland and moved to the island of Taiwan, where Chiang imposed martial law and persecuted people critical of his rule in a period known as the "White Terror".
1962 - Sheik A.M. Azahari of nationalist Partai Rakyat Brunei (PRB) mounted a failed coup in Brunei, after the Sultan of Brunei ignored the election results of August 1962 to press forward with his own pro-federation policy .
1963 - 3 fuel tanks exploded when Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707-121 registered as N709PA, was en route from Baltimore to Philadelphia, when it crashed near Elkton, Maryland after being hit by lightning, killing all 81 on board.
1980 - John Lennon was shot in the back four times by Mark David Chapman at the entrance of his New York apartment in the Dakota. Earlier that evening, Lennon had autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman.
1987 - Occupied Palestinians start First Palestinian Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation which lasted from December 1987 to 1993.
1994 - China's deadliest fire in 15 years at the Friendship Hall cinema in Karamay killed more than 310, most of them children performing and watching a cultural show, unable to escape because all but one of the doors were padlocked and the iron bars blocked the windows.
2012 - Philippine President Benigno Aquino, announced a state of national calamity after Typhoon Bopha claimed over 450 lives, the strongest tropical cyclone to ever hit Mindanao, making landfall as a Category 5 super typhoon with winds of 175 mph (280 km/h).
Depending on whether you find housing really affordable in Singapore, you may wish to add one more:
1952 - Minister Khaw Boon Wan was born in Penang, Malaysia. Best remembered as the guy who paid just $8 for a bypass surgery, all because he had signed up for the MediShield scheme. Also suggested that Singaporeans can consider sending their elderly parents to nursing homes in Johor Bahru in Malaysia, which are more affordable to lower-income Singaporeans. And defended National Parks Board's (NParks) purchase of Brompton foldable bikes for its officers because "the decision on the foldable bikes could be justified."