‘History’ Archives
On This Day, December 22, 1775
Continental Congress creates a Continental Navy On Friday, December 22, 1775, the Continental Congress creates a Continental Navy, naming Esek Hopkins, Esq., as commander in chief of the fleet. Congress also named four captains to the new service: Dudley Saltonstall, Abraham Whipple, Nicholas Biddle and John Burrows Hopkins. Their respective vessels, the Alfred, Columbus, Andrew Doria and Cabot, became the first ships of the Navy's fleet. Five first lieutenants, including future American ... Full Story
On This Day: December 21, 1988
Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Scotland On this day in 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York explodes in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members aboard, as well as 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground. A bomb hidden inside an audio cassette player detonated in the cargo area when the plane was at an altitude of 31,000 feet. The disaster, which became the subject of Britain's largest criminal investigation, was believed to be an attack ... Full Story
On This Day, December 20, 1957
Elvis Presley is drafted On this day in 1957, while spending the Christmas holidays at Graceland, his newly purchased Tennessee mansion, rock-and-roll star Elvis Presley receives his draft notice for the United States Army. With a suggestive style--one writer called him "Elvis the Pelvis"--a hit movie, Love Me Tender, and a string of gold records including "Heartbreak Hotel," "Blue Suede Shoes," "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel," Presley had become a national icon, and the world's first bona ... Full Story
On This Day: December 19, 1776
Thomas Paine publishes American Crisis These are the times that try men's souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. When these phrases appeared in the pages of the Pennsylvania Journal for the ... Full Story
On This Day: December 18, 1620
Mayflower docks at Plymouth Harbor On December 18, 1620, the British ship Mayflower docked at modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, and its passengers prepared to begin their new settlement, Plymouth Colony. The famous Mayflower story began in 1606, when a group of reform-minded Puritans in Nottinghamshire, England, founded their own church, separate from the state-sanctioned Church of England. Accused of treason, they were forced to leave the country and settle in the more tolerant ... Full Story
On This Day: December 17, 1903
First airplane flies, The Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft. Orville piloted the gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane, which stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 feet on its inaugural flight. Orville and Wilbur Wright grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and developed an interest in aviation after learning of the glider flights of the German ... Full Story
On This Day, December 16, 1773
The Boston Tea Party In Boston Harbor, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships and dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor. The midnight raid, popularly known as the "Boston Tea Party," was in protest of the British Parliament's Tea Act of 1773, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting it a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. The low tax allowed the East India Company to ... Full Story
On This Day: December 15, 1791
The Bill of Rights becomes law On this day in 1791, Virginia becomes the last state to ratify the Bill of Rights, making the first ten amendments to the Constitution law and completing the revolutionary reforms begun by the Declaration of Independence. Before the Massachusetts ratifying convention would accept the Constitution, which they finally did in February 1788, the document's Federalist supporters had to promise to create a Bill of Rights to be amended to the Constitution immediately ... Full Story
On This Day: December 14, 1799
First U.S. President George Washington dies On this day in 1799, George Washington, the man described by fellow soldier and Virginian Henry Lee as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen" dies at his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia. Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the second son from the second marriage of a colonial plantation owner, Washington rose to eminence on his own merit. His first job at age 17 was as a surveyor in the Shenandoah Valley. In ... Full Story
On This Day: December 13, 1776
General Charles Lee leaves his troops for Widow White's tavern On this day in 1776, American General Charles Lee leaves his army, riding in search of female sociability at Widow White's Tavern in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. General George Washington had repeatedly urged General Lee to expedite his movements across New Jersey in order to reinforce Washington's position on the Delaware River. Lee, who took a commission in the British army upon finishing military school at age 12 and served in ... Full Story
