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Ask An Expert: First Congress
Question: Where and when did the First Congress meet? How many days were they in session and what was their agenda? Answer: The First Congress was one of the longer ones — but then so was its agenda. It drafted the Bill of Rights, it established the Departments of Treasury,...
Today in History: French Foreign Minister Acknowledges the U.S. as Independent Nation
On December 17, 1777, the French foreign minister Charles Gravier Comte Vergennes officially acknowledged the United States as an independent nation. The American War of Independence was very popular in France but the French King Louis XVI had felt uneasy about supporting the Americans openly for fear of getting drawn...
Today in History: The Boston Tea Party
On this date in 1773, outraged colonists disguised themselves as Indians, and dumped hundreds of crates of tea into Boston Harbor. The Boston Tea Party Historical Society has compiled a number of first-person accounts of what happened that night. The first published account was by Joshua Wyeth, who was 16...
Today in History: Lincoln pardons His Sister-in-Law
On December 14, 1863, President Lincoln, grants an amnesty to Emilie Todd Helms, the half-sister of his wife Mary Todd Lincoln and the widow of a Confederate general called Benjamin Helms. Emilie Todd Helms was born in 1836 in Kentucky and was eighteen years younger than her sister Mary. After...
Today in History: Wilson receives Nobel Peace Prize
Ninety years ago today – on December 10, 1920 – the Nobel Peace Prize for the year 1919 was awarded to President Wilson. In 1919, the Norwegian Nobel Committee had not been able to find a suitable candidate to receive the price and therefore postponed its decision until the following...
Today in History: Walesa Elected in Poland
Lech Walesa was an electrician and labor leader, who was largely responsible for forcing the Communist government of Poland to recognize the Solidarity movement. On December 9, 1990, he became the nation’s first directly-elected leader
Today in History: The Attack on Pearl Harbor
At 7:55 in the morning of December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese warplanes descended on the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Only recently had the Pacific Fleet of the United States been transferred from its old naval base in San Diego, California,...
Today in History: Washington Arrives at the Banks of the Delaware
In early December of 1776 George Washington arrived with his soldiers at the banks of the Delaware River near Trenton, New Jersey. In a letter to Congress dated December 3, 1776, Washington reported that much of the Continental Army’s provisions had already been transported across the river to Pennsylvania: “Immediately...
Today in History: Monroe Doctrine Declared
On December 2, 1823, in his annual address to Congress, President James Monroe warned that acts by European powers to expand colonies or otherwise interfere in the Western Hemishpere, would be regarded as acts of war. This idea came to be known as the Monroe Doctrine. As Monroe explained: In...
Today in History: Lincoln Calls America ‘last, best hope of Earth’
On December 1, 1862, Abraham Lincoln addressed a joint session of Congress to deliver his State of the Union Address. Lincoln was addressing Congress shortly after his Republican party suffered heavy losses in the 1862 midterm elections – which were seen as a negative verdict on the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln...