On Dec. 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment and bringing an end to the era of national prohibition of alcohol in America. Utah became the 36th state to ratify the amendment. Pennsylvania and Ohio had ratified it earlier in the day.
On 4 Dec. 1942, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz set up the underground Council for the Assistance of the Jews in Warsaw, Poland, codenamed Żegota. Providing medical care, relief money and false identity documents for those hiding in German-occupied Poland, the organization helped save some 4,000 Polish Jews.
On this day in 2005, an estimated 60,000 to 250,000 people in Hong Kong protested for democracy, calling for universal and equal suffrage, the right to directly elect the Chief Executive and all the seats of the Legislative Council, and am end to the appointed seats of the district councils.
On Dec. 3, 1943, Alan Bock was born. Bock was an American libertarian author, and a senior editorial writer and former editorial page editor for the Orange County Register. He wrote regular columns for WorldNetDaily and Antiwar.com and was a contributing editor at Liberty magazine. Bock was the author of four books: Ecology Action Guide, The Gospel Life of Hank Williams, Ambush at Ruby Ridge, and Waiting to Inhale: the Politics of Medical Marijuana. Bock died earlier this year, on May 18. He would have been 68 today.
On Dec. 2, 1777, according to legend, Philadelphia housewife and nurse Lydia Darragh saves the lives of General George Washington and his Continental Army when she overhears the British planning a surprise attack on Washington’s army.
On this day in 1859, abolitionist John Brown is hanged for his raid on Harper’s Ferry. He wrote, “The crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”
On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake’s order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
On Nov. 30, 1967, Democratic Senator Eugene J. McCarthy of Minnesota declared he would challenge Lyndon Johnson, the incumbent president of his own party, over the Vietnam War. McCarthy’s strong showing in the 1968 New Hampshire primary drove Johnson from the race.
On this date in 1835, writer Samuel Clemens, known as Mark Twain, was born. On this date in 1874, Winston Churchill was born.