Category: Today

On Dec. 10, 1869, Wyoming territorial legislators passed a bill to make it the first state or territory to grant women the right to vote. At the time, men outnumbered women by a margin of six-​to-​one in Wyoming.

On Dec. 10, 1778, John Jay was elected president of the Continental Congress. Jay, who would later contribute to the Federalist Papers and be named the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, had resigned the Congress in 1776, opposing complete independence from Great Britain and refusing to sign the Declaration of Independence.

On Dec. 9, 1775, the Virginia and North Carolina militias defeated 800 slaves and 200 redcoats serving John Murray, earl of Dunmore and governor of Virginia, at Great Bridge outside Norfolk, ending British royal control of Virginia. The Tory survivors retreated first to Norfolk, then to Dunmore’s ship, where the majority died of smallpox.

On Dec. 8, 1941, the day following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt asked for a congressional declaration of war against Japan and Congress passed the declaration that day. (So, that’s how they used to do it.) There was one dissenting vote, that of Jeanette Rankin, the first woman ever elected to Congress. A lifelong pacifist, Rankin had also voted against U.S. entry into the First World War 24 years earlier.

On Dec. 7, 1787, the U.S. Constitution is unanimously ratified by all 30 delegates to the Delaware Constitutional Convention, making Delaware the first state of the modern United States.

On Dec. 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, officially ending the institution of slavery. It reads: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” The ratification came eight months after the end of the Civil War. 

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.