Day 365 - This day in legal and military history

December 31
 
New Year's Eve

NATIONAL Make Up Your Mind Day
 
NATIONAL Unlucky Day
 
NATIONAL Champagne Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1862 President Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia in two
 
1938 The first breath test for drivers, "drunkometer," was introduced in Indianapolis
 
1946 President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II
 
1965 California becomes the largest state by population
 
1992 Czechoslovakia splits into the Czech Republic and Slovakia
 
1999 The United States Government hands control of the Panama Canal and the adjacent land known as the Panama Canal Zone to Panama 

2017 I finished a blog post every day this year!

Day 364 - This day in legal and military history

December 30
 
NATIONAL Bacon Day
 
NATIONAL Bicarbonate of Soda Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1862 The draft of the Emancipation Proclamation is finished and circulated among President Abraham Lincoln‘s cabinet for comment
 
1922 Soviet Russia is renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
 
1940 California's first freeway opened 

San Jose freeway interchange

2006 Saddam Hussein, former Iraq dictator, is executed by hanging for crimes committed against his own people during his rule

Day 363 - This day in legal and military history

December 29
 
NATIONAL Pepper Pot Day
 
NATIONAL Tick Tock Day
 
NATIONAL No Interruptions Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1607 Indian Chief Powhatan spares John Smith’s life after the pleas of his daughter Pocahontas
 
1845 Texas is admitted as the 28th state of the Union
 
1851 The first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) opened in Boston

1890 The US Cavalry kills 146 Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee, South Dakota
 
1891 Edison patented the “transmission of signals electrically” (radio)
 
1950 Time magazine selected “GI Joe” as the Man of the Year

Day 362 - This day in legal and military history

December 28
 
NATIONAL Card Playing Day
 
NATIONAL Chocolate Candy Day
 
NATIONAL Pledge of Allegiance Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1065 Westminster Abbey consecrated

1846 Iowa is admitted as the 29th State of the Union
 
1869 William F. Semple patented chewing gum
 
1945 Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance

Day 361 - This day in legal and military history

December 27
 
NATIONAL Make Cut-Out Snowflakes Day 

NATIONAL Fruitcake Day
 
NATIONAL Visit the Zoo Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1831 HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, departs from Plymouth
 
1932 Radio City Music Hall opens in New York City

Day 360 - This day in legal and military history

December 26
 
Boxing Day
 
NATIONAL Candy Cane Day 

NATIONAL Thank You Note Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1786 Daniel Shays leads a rebellion in Massachusetts to protest the seizure of property for the non-payment of debt.
 
1865 James H. Nason received a patent for a coffee percolator
 
1966 The first Kwanzaa is celebrated.
 
1982 Time magazine chooses a personal computer as its “Man of the Year”, the first non-human ever to receive the honor.
 
1991 The Supreme Soviet formally dissolves the Soviet Union.

Day 359 - This day in legal and military history

December 25
 
Christmas Day 

Gunny Claus, USMC

NATIONAL Pumpkin Pie Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1776 General George Washington crosses the Delaware River with 5,400 troops
 
1896 “Stars & Stripes Forever” was written by John Philip Sousa.

Day 358 - This day in legal and military history

December 24
 
Christmas Eve
 
NATIONAL Eggnog Day
 
NATIONAL Chocolate Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1814 The War of 1812 between America and Britain ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent
 
1818 "Silent Night" was composed by Franz Joseph Gruber
 
1851 A devastating fire at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, destroys about two-thirds of its 55,000 volumes
 
1865 The Ku Klux Klan was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee
 
1955 NORAD Tracks Santa for the first time in what will become an annual Christmas Eve tradition

1963 New York’s Idlewild Airport was renamed JFK Airport in honor of the murdered President Kennedy

Day 357 - This day in legal and military history

December 23
 
Festivus Day
 
NATIONAL Roots Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1776 Thomas Paine wrote “These are the times that try men’s souls”
 
1779 Benedict Arnold was court-martialed for improper conduct
 
1788 Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the seat of the national government, which became the District of Columbia
 
1823 The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement C. Moore [original may have been written by Major Henry Livingston], often called “Twas the night before Christmas,” was published in Troy, New York

1986 Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager completed the first non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling aboard the experimental airplane Voyager

Day 356 - This day in legal and military history

December 22
 
NATIONAL Date Nut Bread Day
 
NATIONAL Forefathers Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1829 The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad opens the first passenger railway line
 
1918 The last of the World War I food restrictions are lifted
 
1989 The division of East and West Germany effectively ends when the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin reopens 

2010 US President Barack Obama signs a law officially repealing the 17-year-old military policy known as “Don’t ask, don’t tell”

Day 355 - This day in legal and military history

December 21
 
WINTER SOLSTICE – shortest day of the year
 
INTERNATIONAL Dalek Remembrance Day 

NATIONAL Crossword Puzzle Day
 
NATIONAL Humbug Day
 
NATIONAL Look on the Bright Side Day
 
NATIONAL Flashlight Day
 
NATIONAL Don't Make Your Bed Day
 
NATIONAL Short Girl Appreciation Day
 
NATIONAL Re-gifting Day
 
NATIONAL Short Story Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1620 The Pilgrims land at or near Plymouth Rock
 
1913 The first crossword puzzle was printed in the New York World
 
1937 Disney's Snow White, the first feature length color and sound cartoon, premiered
 
1988 Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York explodes in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland
 
2003 Time magazine named The American soldier, who bears the duty of “living with and dying for a country’s most fateful decisions,” as Person of the Year

Day 354 - This day in legal and military history

December 20
 
NATIONAL Go Caroling Day 

NATIONAL Games Day
 
NATIONAL Sangria Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1669 The first American jury trial was held in Delaware. Marcus Jacobson was condemned for insurrection and sentenced to flogging, branding, and slavery.
 
1802 The United States buys the Louisiana territory from France
 
1860 South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the Union
 
1879 Thomas A. Edison demonstrated his incandescent light at Menlo Park, New Jersey
 
1945 Tire rationing in the US ended
 
1948 US Supreme Court decided it had no jurisdiction to hear the appeals of Japanese war criminals sentenced by the International Military Tribunal

Day 353 - This day in legal and military history

December 19
 
NATIONAL Look for an Evergreen Day
 
NATIONAL Oatmeal Muffin Day
 
NATIONAL Ugly Sweater Day
 
NATIONAL Underdog Day
 
NATIONAL Hard Candy Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1732 Benjamin Franklin began publishing Poor Richard's Almanac
 
1777 Washington's army takes up winter quarters at Valley Forge
 
1843 Charles Dickens published "A Christmas Carol"
 
1972 Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings

1998 President Bill Clinton becomes the second president in American history to be impeached
 
2001 The fires that had burned beneath the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York City for the previous three months were declared extinguished except for a few scattered hot spots

Day 352 - This day in legal and military history

December 18
 
INTERNATIONAL Migrants Day
 
NATIONAL Arabic Language Day
 
NATIONAL Bake Cookies Day
 
NATIONAL Roast Suckling Pig Day
 
NATIONAL Answer the Telephone Like Buddy the Elf Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1878 New Jersey became the third state to ratify the US Constitution and become a state
 
1865 The 13th Amendment is formally adopted into the US Constitution, ensuring that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude… shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction”
 
1892 Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite" premiered at St. Petersburg's Maryinksy Theatre
 
1944 Douglas MacArthur is promoted to five star rank as a General of the Army 

1944 The Supreme Court upheld the wartime relocation of Japanese-Americans

Day 351 - This day in legal and military history

December 17
 
NATIONAL Maple Syrup Day
 
NATIONAL Wright Brothers Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1777 France recognized American independence
 
1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
 
1944 The US approves an end to the internment of Japanese Americans, declaring that the “evacuees” from the West Coast could return to their homes effective January 2, 1945
 
1948 The Smithsonian Institution accepts the Kitty Hawk – the Wright brothers’ plane

1989 The Simpsons, television’s longest-running animated series, makes its US debut
 
1992 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed by US, Canada, and Mexico

Day 350 - This day in legal and military history

December 16
 
NATIONAL Chocolate Covered Anything Day
 
NATIONAL Day of Reconciliation
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1773 To protest the tax on tea from England, a group of young Americans, disguised as Indians, throws 342 chests of tea from 3 British ships into the Boston Harbor
 
1835 A fire in New York City lasts two days and destroys 674 buildings including the Stock Exchange, the Merchants’ Exchange, the Post Office, and the South Dutch Church
 
1944 The Battle of the Bulge during World War II began in Belgium

2000 Colin Powell was selected to become the first African-American secretary of state

Day 349 - This day in legal and military history

December 15
 
NATIONAL Bill of Rights Day
 
NATIONAL Lemon Cupcake Day
 
NATIONAL Ugly Christmas Sweater Day
 
NATIONAL Cat Herders Day
 
NATIONAL Underdog Day
 
NATIONAL Free Shipping Day
 
NATIONAL Wear Your Pearls Day 
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1791 The "Bill of Rights" to the US Constitution goes into effect when Virginia submits its ratification
 
1939 The movie Gone With the Wind premiered in Atlanta, Georgia

1964 Canada adopted its national flag, a red maple leaf on a white background
 
1972 The Commonwealth of Australia orders equal pay for women
 
1973 The American Psychiatric Association votes to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders

Day 348 - This day in legal and military history

December 14
 
INTERNATIONAL Monkey Day
 
NATIONAL Roast Chestnuts Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1819 Alabama is admitted as the 22nd state, making 11 slave states and 11 free states
 
1911 Roald Amundsen and four others discover the South Pole

1903 The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
 
1999 In Panama, former US President Jimmy Carter symbolically turned over the Panama Canal, with formal ownership transfer date of December 31
 
2008 Iraqi broadcast journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi throws his shoes at US President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad
 
2012 At Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, 20 children and six adults are shot to death by a 20-year-old gunman who then commits suicide

Day 347 - This day in legal and military history

December 13
 
NATIONAL Ice Cream Day
 
NATIONAL Violin Day
 
NATIONAL Cocoa Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1642 New Zealand was discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman
 
1862 Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats Union Major General Ambrose Burnside at the Battle of Fredericksburg in Virginia
 
1972 Astronaut Gene Cernan climbs into his lunar lander on the moon and prepares to lift off. He is the last man to set foot on the moon.
 
2003 Deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured while hiding in a hole in the ground

Day 346 - This day in legal and military history

December 12
 
Chanukah / Hanukkah begins at sundown, ends December 20
 
NATIONAL Ding-a-Ling Day
 
NATIONAL Poinsettia Day 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1787 Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the US Constitution
 
1800 Washington DC was established as the capital of the US
 
1995 By only three votes, the US Senate killed a constitutional amendment giving Congress authority to outlaw flag burning and other forms of flag desecration
 
1998 The House Judiciary Committee approved a fourth and final article of impeachment against President Clinton
 
2000 The US Supreme Court announces its decision in Bush v Gore, effectively ending legal challenges to the results of that year’s presidential election

Day 345 - This day in legal and military history

December 11
 
INTERNATIONAL Mountain Day
 
NATIONAL Noodle Ring Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1816 Indiana is admitted to the Union as the 19th state
 
1844 Nitrous oxide was used for the first time in dentistry
 
1941 Italy and Germany declare war against the US.  The US declares war on Italy and Germany.
 
1945 A Boeing B-29 Superfortress shatters all records by crossing the United States in five hours and 27 minutes

1946 The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established
 
1951 Joe DiMaggio announces his retirement from baseball
 
2008 Bernard Madoff, an investment manager, was charged with defrauding clients of as much as $50 billion in what might be the largest swindle in Wall Street history

Day 344 - This day in legal and military history

December 10
 
WORLD Choral Day
 
WORLD Candle Lighting Day
 
INTERNATIONAL Human Rights Day
 
NATIONAL Dewey Decimal System Day
 
NATIONAL Nobel Prize Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1817 Mississippi is admitted as the 20th state
 
1861 Kentucky is admitted to the Confederate States of America
 
1862 The US House of Representatives passes a bill creating the state of West Virginia
 
1901 The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace
 
1948 The United Nations General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights
 
1958 The first domestic passenger jet flight took place in the United States - 111 passengers flew from New York City to Miami
 
2009 US President Barack Obama accepts the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway

Attribution: Photo: Harry Wad

Day 343 - This day in legal and military history

December 9
 
INTERNATIONAL Children's Day
 
INTERNATIONAL Anti-Corruption Day
 
INTERNATIONAL Shareware Day
 
INTERNATIONAL Day of Veterinary Medicine
 
NATIONAL Christmas Card Day
 
NATIONAL Pastry Day
 
NATIONAL Gingerbread Decorating Day 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1793 Noah Webster established New York’s first daily newspaper, American Minerva
 
1854 Alfred Lord Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade" is published
 
1867 The capital of Colorado Territory is moved from Golden to Denver
 
1965 “A Charlie Brown Christmas" premiered

Day 342 - This day in legal and military history

December 8
 
NATIONAL Brownie Day
 
NATIONAL Take it in the Ear Day
 
NATIONAL Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day
 
NATIONAL Lost and Found Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1931 Coaxial cable was patented
 
1980 John Lennon is shot to death outside his Manhattan apartment building
 
1991 The leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine sign an agreement that dissolves the Soviet Union and establishes the Commonwealth of Independent States
 
1993 President Bill Clinton signed The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into law
 
2010 SpaceX becomes the first privately held company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft

Day 341 - This day in legal and military history

December 7
 
PEARL HARBOR REMEMBRANCE DAY
 
INTERNATIONAL Civil Aviation Day
 
NATIONAL Letter Writing Day
 
NATIONAL Cotton Candy Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1787 Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States
 
1941 Japanese planes raid Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in a surprise attack, bringing the US into WWII

1942 The US Navy launches the USS New Jersey, the largest battleship ever built
 
1945 The microwave oven was patented
 
1963 During the Army-Navy game, videotaped instant replay was used for the first time in a live sports telecast
 
1972 America's final moon mission, Apollo 17, blasted off from Cape Canaveral
 
1999 The Recording Industry Association of America files a copyright infringement suit against the file-sharing website Napster

Day 340 - This day in legal and military history

December 6
 
NATIONAL St. Nicholas Day
 
NATIONAL Mitten Tree Day
 
NATIONAL Put On Your Own Shoes Day
 
NATIONAL Pawn Brokers Day
 
NATIONAL Miners Day
 
NATIONAL Microwave Oven Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1790 Congress moved from New York City to Philadelphia
 
1865 The 13th Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery
 
1877 Thomas A. Edison makes the first sound recording when he recites “Mary had a Little Lamb” into his phonograph machine
 
1884 Construction of the Washington Monument was completed
 
1921 Ireland’s 26 southern counties become independent from Britain forming the Irish Free State
 
1947 Florida’s Everglades National Park is established

2001 President George W. Bush dedicated the national Christmas tree to those who died on September 11 and to GIs who died in the line of duty
 
2006 NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars

Day 339 - This day in legal and military history

December 5
 
WORLD Soil Day
 
INTERNATIONAL Ninja Day
 
NATIONAL Bathtub Party Day
 
NATIONAL Repeal Day [end of Prohibition]
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1776 Phi Beta Kappa is organized as the first American Greek-letter college fraternity, at William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia
 
1848 President Polk triggered the Gold Rush of ’49 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California
 
1861 In the US Congress, petitions and bills calling for the abolition of slavery are introduced
 
1933 The 21st Amendment is ratified, ending Prohibition in the United States, which had begun 13 years earlier with the 18th Amendment

1955 The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO

Day 338 - This day in legal and military history

December 4
 
WORLD Wildlife Conservation Day
 
NATIONAL Santa's List Day
 
NATIONAL Wear Brown Shoes Day
 
NATIONAL Sock Day
 
NATIONAL Cookie Day
 
NATIONAL Dice Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1619 America’s first Thanksgiving Day was held in Virginia, with a proclamation that the day “be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God”
 
1783 George Washington delivered his farewell address to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York City
 
1947 Tennessee William’s play A Streetcar Named Desire premieres on Broadway starring Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy
 
1950 The University of Tennessee defies court rulings by rejecting five Negro applicants
 
1981 President Ronald Reagan broadens the power of the CIA by allowing spying in the United States
 
1993 Astronauts aboard space shuttle Endeavour captured the Hubble Space Telescope for repairs

Day 337 - This day in legal and military history

December 3
 
Advent begins
 
NATIONAL Roof Over Your Head Day
 
NATIONAL Make a Gift Day
 
NATIONAL Disability Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1800 US state electors met and cast their ballots for the presidency, resulting in a tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr
 
1818 Illinois is admitted into the Union as the 21st state
 
1828 Andrew Jackson was elected 7th president of the United States over John Quincy Adams
 
1979 Eleven are dead and eight injured in a mad rush to see the rock band The Who at a concert in Cincinnati, Ohio

1984 Toxic gas leaks from a Union Carbide plant and results in the deaths of thousands in Bhopal, India
 
1989 Presidents George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev announce the official end to the Cold War at a meeting in Malta
 
1992 A test engineer for Sema Group sends the world’s first text message, using a personal computer and the Vodafone network
 
2005 The first manned rocket-powered aircraft delivery of US Mail takes place in Mojave, California

Day 336 - This day in legal and military history

December 2
 
NATIONAL Fritters Day
 
NATIONAL Mutt Day
 
NATIONAL Special Education Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1804 Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of France in Notre Dame Cathedral
 
1823 President James Monroe proclaims the principles known as the Monroe Doctrine, “that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by European powers”
 
1867 People wait in mile-long lines to hear Charles Dickens give his first reading in New York City
 
1927 The new Ford Model A is introduced

1954 The US Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Senator Joseph R. McCarthy for conduct unbecoming of a senator
 
1970 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established
 
1993 NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavor on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope
 
2001 Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, one of the most complex bankruptcy cases in US history

Day 335 - This day in legal and military history

December 1
 
WORLD AIDS Awareness Day
 
NATIONAL Eat a Red Apple Day
 
NATIONAL Bartender Appreciation Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1824 The presidential election between John Q. Adams, Andrew Jackson, William Crawford, and Henry Clay was turned over to the House of Representatives due to the lack of an electoral-vote majority
 
1881 Virgil, Wyatt and Morgan Earp are exonerated in court for their action in the Gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona
 
1887 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes appeared for the first time in print in the story "A Study in Scarlet"
 
1941 Japanese emperor Hirohito signed a declaration of war
 
1942 National gasoline rationing goes into effect in the United States
 
1955 Rosa Parks refuses to sit in the back of a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, defying the South’s segregationist laws
 
1959 Twelve nations, including the United States, signed a treaty setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve free from military activity
 
1981 The AIDS virus is officially recognized
 
1990 Channel Tunnel sections from France and the UK meet beneath the English Channel

2000 The US Supreme Court heard arguments by attorneys of Al Gore and George W. Bush on the legality of a vote extension by the Florida Supreme Court