ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY Part 1 December 8, 1941 President Franklin Roosevelt asks Congress to declare war on Japan in perhaps the most memorable speech of his career. The day before, Japanese pilots had bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, decimating the majority of U.S. warships in the Pacific Fleet along with most of the Air Corps and Navy aircraft stationed on the island of Oahu. FDRs speech, in which he called Japans act a deliberate deception, received thunderous applause from Congress and, soon after, the United States officially entered the Second World War. ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY Part 2 December 8, 1980 John Lennon, a former member of the Beatles, the rock group that transformed popular music in the 1960s, is shot and killed by an obsessed fan in New York City. The 40-year-old artist was entering his luxury Manhattan apartment building when Mark David Chapman shot him four times at close range with a .38-caliber revolver. Lennon was rushed to the hospital but died en route. Psychiatrists deemed Chapman a borderline psychotic. He was instructed to plead insanity, but instead he pleaded guilty to murder. He was sentenced to 20 years to life. In 2000, New York State prison officials denied Chapman a parole hearing, telling him that his vicious and violent act was apparently fueled by your need to be acknowledged. He remains behind bars at Attica Prison in New York State.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 11:36:31 +0000