Category: Today

On December 30, 1919, Lincoln’s Inn in London, England, admitted its first female bar student.

On December 29, 1911, Mongolia gained independence from the Qing Dynasty.

The first Vice President of the United States to resign his office occurred on December 28, 1832, when the seventh, John C. Calhoun — serving at the job since March 4, 1825, under two presidents, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson — vacated the position to take up his new calling as Senator from South Carolina (December 29, 1832 – March 3, 1843). After an unsuccessful bid for the presidency and a short stint as Secretary of State, Calhoun returned to the Senate on November 26, 1845, dying in office on March 31, 1850.

On the same date three years later, the great leader Osceola led his Seminole warriors into the Second Seminole War against the United States Army. Eleven years after that, Iowa joined the union as the 29th state.

On December 27, 1657, a group of English citizens in Flushing, New York, who were not themselves Quakers, signed a petition protesting the persecution of Quakers. This “Flushing Remonstrance” is an eloquent statement of the principle of religious liberty, and is widely regarded as a forerunner to the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

The petition was delivered to Director-​General of New Netherlands, Peter Stuyvesant.

Henry Lee III’s eulogy to George Washington in Congress declared the former general and president to be “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” Washington had died on December 14th, 1799, and Lee’s eulogy took place twelve days later.

A series of unofficial truces occurred across the Western Front to celebrate Christmas in 1914. The image, at top, illustrates the event: “British and German Soldiers Arm-​in-​Arm Exchanging Headgear: A Christmas Truce between Opposing Trenches” with a sub caption explaining “Saxons and Anglo-​Saxons fraternising on the field of battle at the season of peace and goodwill: Officers and men from the German and British trenches meet and greet one another — A German officer photographing a group of foes and friends.” Originally published in The Illustrated London News, January 9, 1915.

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On Christmas Day in 1776, George Washington and the Continental Army crossed the Delaware River at night to attack, the next day, the Hessian forces serving Great Britain at Trenton, New Jersey.

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United States President Andrew Johnson granted an unconditional pardon to all Confederate veterans on Christmas Day in 1868.