On This Day: Clinton signs NAFTA into law
UPI Staff

On December 8, 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton, pictured in 1995, signed the North American Free Trade Agreement into law. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI
Dec. 8 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1886, delegates from 25 unions founded the American Federation of Labor, forerunner of the modern AFL-CIO, in Columbus, Ohio.

In 1941, President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare that "a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire" as a result of Japan's "unprovoked and dastardly attack."

In 1949, the Chinese Nationalist government, defeated by the Communists, retreated from the mainland to the island of Taiwan.

In 1980, former Beatle John Lennon was shot to death outside his apartment building in New York City. He was 40.


John Lennon and Yoko Ono listen in on the Watergate hearings on Capitol Hill in 1973. On December 8, 1980, Lennon was shot to death outside his apartment building in New York City. He was 40. UPI File Photo
In 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the first treaty between the two superpowers to reduce their massive nuclear arsenals.


President Ronald Reagan (R) and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev applaud after signing the historic arms control agreement banning intermediate-range nuclear missiles in the East Room of the White House on December 8, 1987. UPI File Photo
In 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist when the republics of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine signed an agreement creating the Commonwealth of Independent States.

In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, stating that free trade would lead to worldwide growth, equality, preservation of the environment and peace. The United States, Mexico and Canada agreed to replace NAFTA with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in 2020, an initiative by President Donald Trump.


Five massive vehicle-borne bombs went off in Baghdad on December 8, 2009, killing 127 people, including women and students, and injuring hundreds in the third coordinated attack to devastate the city since August. File Photo by Ali Jasim/UPI
In 1997, Jenny Shipley was sworn in as the first woman prime minister of New Zealand.

In 2004, the International Business Machines Corp., IBM, reported it was selling its personal computer business to Chinese rival Lenovo Group for $1.25 billion in cash and stock.


A prisoner signals "thumbs-up" after a fire spread through the San Miguel prison killing more than 80 people south of Santiago, Chile, on December 8, 2010. File Photo by Sebastian Padilla/UPI
In 2005, a Southwest Airlines jetliner overshot a runway at Chicago's Midway International Airport in a snowstorm, crashing through a fence into a city street. A 6-year-old boy in a car hit by the plane was killed and at least 11 people were hurt.

In 2008, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States and four co-defendants told a military judge at Guantanamo Bay that they wanted to confess to all charges of murder and war crimes.

In 2009, in what Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called "cowardly terrorist attacks, a series of apparently coordinated car bombings in Baghdad killed 127 people, injured more than 450 and destroyed some government buildings.

In 2010, a prison fire south of Santiago, Chile, that apparently broke out after a fight between inmates killed at least 80 people and injured a dozen others.

In 2020, Britain's National Health Service inoculated its first citizens against COVID-19 as it began its largest vaccine campaign in history.

In 2022, President Joe Biden announced that Russian authorities released WNBA star and Olympian Brittney Griner from prison after about 10 months of detainment. She had been sentenced to nine years in prison for smuggling cannabis oil.