Dear Readers,
On Dec. 8, 1991, the leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine declared the death of the Soviet Union and formed a Commonwealth of Independent States.
The three leaders, Boris Yeltsin of Russia, Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine and Stanislav Shushkevich of Belarus, met secretly for two days in a hunting lodge 50 miles north of Brest, Belarus. At the conclusion of the meeting, they released a statement proclaiming the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). 
The announcement effectively ended the authority of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. "The Brest statement does not reckon with Mr. Gorbachev; it simply ignores him," wrote The New York Times.
Gorbachev's power had been weakening in the preceding years, and he was nearly removed from power in August 1991, when Communist hardliners arrested him and kept him in his country home for several days. Though the coup was put down and Gorbachev was restored to his office, his authority was effectively destroyed.
Yeltsin, who had climbed atop a tank outside the Russian parliamentary building and called for resistance against the coup, emerged a hero. He had won the support of the Russian people and the Russian government began to take control of Soviet government ministries.
December 8 is also the birthday of Flip Wilson, TV's first black superstar.
Thirty years ago today, John Lennon was shot dead as he entered his apartment building on the West Side of Manhattan. The first major report of the tragic news was delivered by ABC sportscaster Howard Cosell during the network's Monday Night Football. Newseum has this coverage of the accounts of Lennon's death. LennonFBIfiles.com covers President Nixon's efforts to deport Lennon, a vocal critic of the Vietnam War.
From SweetSearch2Day:
Interview of the Day is a 1956 Paris Review article with author Dorothy Parker. She explains, "There’s a hell of a distance between wisecracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.”
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