On December 7, 1776, the Marquis de Lafayette arranged to enter the American military as a major general. On the same date in 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.
The 1941 date marks, of course, “the day that will live in infamy,” when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.
On December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, banning slavery in all states and territories.
In 1917 on this date, Finland declared independence from Russia.
Vladimir Nabokov completed his controversial novel Lolita on the Sixth of December in 1953, and would soon find himself embroiled in censorship and related publishing difficulties, though with no trouble in the United States when it was eventually published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 1958.
There may be a certain amount of convenience in having a timepiece in every room of a house; still the convenience of the first, that is, the importance of having one, is probably greater than that of all the rest put together. So, a person who has one house may wish to have a second, but still the want of the second is not equal to that of the first.
William F. Lloyd, “A Lecture on the Notion of Value as Distinguished Not Only From Utility, but also from Value in Exchange” (University of Oxford, 1833). This lecture is an early explication of the principle of diminishing marginal utility, a central concept in economics. The formal statements of the notion were published by other economists from 1870 on.
On December 5, 1933, nationwide alcohol Prohibition in the United States ended after Utah became the 36th U.S. state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 75 percent of states needed to enact the amendment that overturned the 18th.
Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.
Marie Curie, as quoted in Madame Curie: A Biography (1937) by Eve Curie Labouisse, Part 2, p. 116.
Our lame duck president seems intent on making waves on his way out of the pond. Not all those waves seem designed to flood the world with freedom. Click on over to Townhall, for the latest affront to freedom and the American Dream.
Though nobody has ever seen two dogs making an exchange, yet a dog has been often seen to hide a bone. The dog does this from a sense of its value, properly so called. He does not do it merely from a sense of utility, or, in other words, because he likes a bone, but because he knows that a bone is a good thing which is not always to be had when wanted.
William F. Lloyd, “A Lecture on the Notion of Value as Distinguished Not Only From Utility, but also from Value in Exchange” (University of Oxford, 1833).
On December 4, 1783, at Fraunces Tavern in New York City, General George Washington formally bade his officers farewell.
Fake photography has mass repercussions on everyday life and experience:
It is worth noting that this site, ThisIsCommonSense.com, uses obviously manipulated photos. They are often collages, sometimes sketches or Photoshop cartoons. We have tried to be pretty forthright about this practice.
On December 3, 1989, the leaders of the two world superpowers, the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, declared an end to the Cold War, at a summit in Malta. A little over two years later not only had the Cold War ended, the Soviet Union was itself dissolved.