December 8 Birthday
On December 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot four times in the back outside his apartment building, the Dakota, in New York City. He was forty. His killer, Mark David Chapman, had waited outside all day and had asked Lennon for an autograph that morning. Lennon signed it. Chapman shot him at 10:50 PM. Lennon was pronounced dead at Roosevelt Hospital. His last words were reported to be "I'm shot." Yoko Ono told the crowd gathered outside the Dakota the next day: "There is no funeral for John." His ashes were scattered in Central Park. People born on December 8 fall under the zodiac sign of Sagittarius. The birthstone is Tanzanite and the birth flower is Holly. Historical events on December 8 include 1980: John Lennon shot and killed outside the Dakota in New York, 1941: United States declares war on Japan, 1987: Reagan and Gorbachev sign INF Treaty eliminating intermediate nuclear missiles. Famous people born on December 8 include Eli Whitney (1765), Sammy Davis Jr. (1925), Jim Morrison (1943).