On December 3, 1989, the world learned that the most protracted, most potentially destructive cold war between the United States and the USSR was on the verge of coming to an end. Held just a month after the tearing down of the Berlin Wall,…
Read More
The United States presidential election of 1800 remains one of the most dramatic and pivotal in the nation’s history. At its core was the Electoral College, the mechanism by which the president and vice president are formally elected. On December 3, the electors cast…
Read More
The first generation of Americans to witness commercial aviation mature from barnstorming spectacle to intercity utility could hardly miss the symbolism of December 2, 1939, when New York City formally opened its new municipal airport on the shoreline of Flushing Bay. In an era…
Read More
John Brown’s hanging on December 2, 1859, was a moment of profound historical significance, symbolizing the deep divisions over slavery in pre-Civil War America. The execution occurred in Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia), just weeks after his failed raid on the federal armory…
Read More
On the evening of December 1, 1955, in a humid Southern city still governed by the iron routines of Jim Crow, a single act of refusal cracked the façade of segregation. Rosa Louise McCauley Parks—42 years old, a department-store seamstress, and a quiet stalwart…
Read More
On December 2, 1823, President James Monroe established his defining legacy. Delivering a message to Congress, the fifth president of the United States announced a foreign policy that would make America the predominant actor in the Western Hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine was born. At…
Read More
On December 1, 1824, the presidential election did something that hasn’t happened since–it was turned over the House of Representatives to choose the president after no one achieved a majority in the Electoral College. That year’s race involved four major candidates: John Quincy Adams,…
Read More
On December 1, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his second State of the Union Address, a landmark speech that emphasized the moral and strategic motivations behind the Union’s fight in the American Civil War. Delivered just ten weeks after the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln…
Read More
On November 30, 1999, the streets of Seattle became the unexpected epicenter of a global political confrontation. What had been planned as a polished, high-profile opening to the World Trade Organization’s Third Ministerial Conference instead unraveled into a day of lockdowns, tear gas, immobilized…
Read More
On November 30, 1995, Bill Clinton delivered a historic address outside Belfast City Hall, marking a pivotal moment in Northern Ireland’s peace process. Speaking to a massive crowd, Clinton expressed strong support for efforts to end decades of sectarian violence and urged all parties…
Read More
