On December 25, 1831, as plantation owners across Jamaica gathered to celebrate Christmas, thousands of enslaved men and women quietly set in motion one of the most consequential uprisings in the history of Atlantic slavery. What became known as the Great Jamaican Slave Revolt—or…
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In the early hours of December 24, 1914, amid the frozen mud and shattered landscapes of the Western Front, an extraordinary pause descended upon the bloodiest conflict Europe had ever known. World War I, only five months old, had already hardened into a war…
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On December 23, 1688, James II of England fled England for France, bringing to a close one of the most decisive constitutional crises in English history. His flight—effectively an abdication—marked the culmination of the Glorious Revolution, a political upheaval that replaced a reigning monarch…
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On December 22, 1864, one of the most consequential campaigns of the American Civil War reached its dramatic conclusion when Savannah, Georgia, fell to Union forces under the command of William Tecumseh Sherman. Days later, Sherman sent a succinct but unforgettable message to Abraham…
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On December 21, 1826, a small group of American settlers in Nacogdoches, then part of Mexican Texas, issued a bold declaration of independence from Mexico. Their action marked the opening act of the Fredonian Rebellion, an ill-fated but historically significant uprising that foreshadowed the…
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On December 20, 1803, in a modest ceremony in New Orleans, American officials formally took possession of the Louisiana Territory, completing what would become one of the most consequential land transfers in world history: the Louisiana Purchase. With that act, the United States doubled…
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On December 19, 1606, three small ships slipped their moorings in England and headed west into the Atlantic, carrying with them an experiment whose consequences would reshape world history. The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery departed under the authority of the Virginia…
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On December 18, 2019, the United States House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald J. Trump, marking only the third time in American history that a sitting president had been formally charged with “high crimes and misdemeanors.” The vote followed a bitter, fast-moving…
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On December 17, 1903, on a cold, wind-swept stretch of sand near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, two bicycle makers from Dayton, Ohio quietly altered the trajectory of human history. Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved what generations of inventors, engineers, and dreamers had failed to…
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On December 17, 1983, London witnessed one of its darkest days when a car bomb exploded outside Harrods Department Store, killing six people and injuring nearly 100 others. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), a paramilitary group advocating for Irish unification, orchestrated the attack.…
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