December 5 is:
Repeal (of Prohibition) Day
National Sacher Torte Day It consists of two layers of dense chocolate cake with apricot preserves between the layers, chocolate icing, and whipped cream. This cake is the pride of Vienna.
Comfort Food Day
Bathtub Party Day
International Ninja Day
London auctioneers Christie’s held their first sale December 5, 1766.
Publication of Federalist Paper #17: The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union written by Alexander Hamilton in 1787. Hamilton addresses the issue of possible encroachment by the federal government on the powers of the states. He says that the states have more direct power over the citizens, especially in criminal and civil justice and that the nature of man dictates that citizens will be more attached to their own state governments than to a federal government.
Birthday of Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782), eighth President of the United States.
The term “O.K.” was popularized because Van Buren was from Kinderhook, New York, sometimes referred to as “Old Kinderhook” in speeches and print. O.K. Clubs formed to support Van Buren’s campaign. “O.K.” later came to mean all right.
- Van Buren was the first president born a citizen of the United States.
- Van Buren was the only president who spoke English as a second language.
- His autobiography does not mention his wife once. A gentleman of that day would not shame a lady by public references
- Van Buren took $100,000, the sum of his salary as president over four years, in a lump sum at the end of his term.
- Martin Van Buren said that the two happiest days of his life were his entrance into the office of President and his surrender of the office.
- Van Buren made three unsuccessful bids for reelection.
- It has been reported that Van Buren enjoyed the night life and was known to imbibe, often staying up until the wee hours of the morning. As a result, he was not easy to rouse out of bed. This presented a problem when Van Buren was Vice President. He once lay in bed so late that he could not reach the Senate by noon in order to call that body to order.
- Van Buren was only about five foot six inches tall and very fussy about his appearance.
California Gold Rush of 1849: In a message to the U.S. Congress in 1848, U.S. President James K. Polk confirmed that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California, leading to the Gold Rush of 1849.
1872 – The crewless American ship Mary Celeste was found by the British brig Dei Gratia. The ship had been abandoned for nine days but was only slightly damaged. None of those on board were ever seen or heard from again.
Birthday of Walt Disney, (Dec. 5, 1901), the pioneer of animated cartoon films and founder of the Disney theme parks.
Prohibition in the United States ended in 1933: Utah becomes the 36th U.S. state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 75% of states needed to enact the amendment. (This overturned the 18th Amendment which had made the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol illegal in the United States.)
TV series “Dragnet” premiered in 1951. Starred Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday and Harry Morgan as Officer Bill Gannon.
On December 5, 2008, human remains previously found in 1991 were finally identified by Russian and American scientists as those of Tsar Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov) who had been executed along with his entire family on 17 July 1918. Pictured (left to right): Olga, Maria, Nicholas II, Alexandra Fyodorovna, Anastasia, Alexei, and Tatiana.
Christmas Music:
Several years ago I worked on a project to celebrate the music in my life. Nothing says Christmas like the carols and songs heard only at this time of year. Here’s today’s sample:
Rocking Around the Christmas Tree
Lyrics can be printed by using the File->Print Preview Commands. They will print in black ink with no images.) No music has been embedded.
(Sorry, the Windows Media Player icon button no longer works)
Brenda Lee made this song popular in 1958 when she was 13 years old. In 2019, Lee’s recording of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and in 2024 it was declared the first Official Holiday Song of Tennessee. You can listen to it at You Tube
Tidbits of History, December 4
December 4 is:
National Cookie Day
Cookies were invented during the seventh century in Persia. Right around the time that sugar became a common resource in that region.
Santas’ List Day – “He’s making a list and checking it twice!”
Wear Brown Shoes Day
In 1674, Father Jacques Marquette founded a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan to minister to the Illiniwek. (The mission would later grow into the city of Chicago, Illinois.)
Publication of Federalist Paper #16: The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union written by Alexander Hamilton in 1787. Hamilton continues to push for a strong central government. In this article Hamilton speaks of states or groups of states resisting general authority and how that would lead to civil war and the disbanding of the Union. He makes a distinction between noncompliance and active resistance to federal mandates. He says the laws set forth by the federal government should not require the intervention of the state legislatures but directly apply to the people.
Peter Gaillard patented the power mower in 1812.
North Carolina ratified the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
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.
William Magear Tweed , the “Boss” of New York City’s Tammany Hall political organization, escaped from jail and fled to Spain from the U.S. in 1875. He was returned to custody in 1876. He died of pneumonia in the Ludlow Street Jail in 1878. Tweed was convicted for stealing an amount estimated by an aldermen’s committee in 1877 at between $25 million and $45 million from New York City taxpayers through political corruption, although later estimates ranged as high as $200 million.
1918 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sailed for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office.
1945 – By a vote of 65 to 7, the United States Senate approved United States participation in the United Nations. (The UN had been established on October 24, 1945.)
1954 – The first Burger King opened in Miami, Florida. At the end of fiscal year 2013, Burger King reported it had over 13,000 outlets in 79 countries; of these, 66 percent are in the United States.
Dianne Feinstein became San Francisco’s first woman mayor when she was named to replace George Moscone, who had been assassinated in 1978.
Christmas Music:
Several years ago I worked on a project to celebrate the music in my life. Nothing says Christmas like the carols and songs heard only at this time of year. Here’s today’s sample:
Lyrics can be printed by using the File->Print Preview Commands. They will print in black ink with no images.) No music has been embedded.
(Sorry, the Windows Media Player icon button no longer works)
Tidbits of History, December 3
December 3 is:
National Peppermint Latte Day
Make a Gift Day
National Roof over Your Head Day
First Sunday of Advent, the first season of the Christian church year which leads up to Christmas. The word Advent comes from the Latin phrase
“Adventus Domini”, meaning arrival of the Lord.
In 2023the four Advent Sundays are December 3, December 10, December 17, and December 24th.
Traditionally Advent is commemorated by means of an Advent calendar or the lighting of the Advent wreath.
Anniversary of the First Text Message
On December 3, 1992, Neil Papworth, a 22 year old Canadian test engineer sent the first text message over the Vodafone GSM network to the cellphone of his colleague Richard Jarvis who was enjoying a staff Christmas party. The message simply read “Merry Christmas”.
Illinois Admission Day, Illinois became the 21st U. S. State in 1818
- Capital: Springfield
- Nickname: Land of Lincoln/Prairie State
- Bird: Cardinal
- Flower: Violet
- Tree: White Oak
- Motto: State sovereignty, national union
See our page Illinois for more interesting facts and trivia about Illinois.
In a State of the Union message of 1901, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt asked Congress to curb the power of trusts “within reasonable limits”.
Modern neon lighting was first demonstrated by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show in 1910.
December 3, Laurel and Hardy Putting Pants on Philip, the first Laurel and Hardy film, was released in 1927
The musical Camelot debuted at the Majestic Theater on Broadway in 1960. Cast included Julie Andrews, Richard Burton, Roddy McDowall and Robert Goulet. Music by Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner.
1967 – At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, a transplant team headed by Christiaan Barnard carried out the first heart transplant on a human (53-year-old Louis Washkansky). He survived 18 days.
1992 – UN Security Council Resolution 794 was unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, with the task of establishing peace and ensuring that humanitarian aid was distributed in Somalia.
Christmas Music:
Several years ago I worked on a project to celebrate the music in my life. Nothing says Christmas like the carols and songs heard only at this time of year. Here’s today’s sample:
Lyrics can be printed by using the File->Print Preview Commands. They will print in black ink with no images.) No music has been embedded.
(Sorry, the Windows Media Player icon button no longer works)
Tidbits of History, December 2
December 2 is:
National Fritters Day The Spanish created this fried food technique, but today almost every culture has its own version of fritters. Sometimes they’re sweet, sometimes they’re savory.
December 2, 1775 – The USS Alfred becomes the first vessel to fly the Grand Union Flag (the precursor to the Stars and Stripes); the flag was hoisted by John Paul Jones.
At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of the French, the first French Emperor in a thousand years.
Monroe Doctrine: In the State of the Union message of 1823, U.S. President James Monroe proclaimed American neutrality in future European conflicts, and warns European powers not to interfere in the Americas.
Manifest Destiny: US President James K. Polk announced to Congress in 1845 that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.
Militant abolitionist leader John Brown was hanged for his October 16, 1859 raid on Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia.
1865 – Alabama ratifies 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, followed by North Carolina then Georgia, and U.S. slaves were legally free within two weeks.
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wed second wife, Edith Kermit Carow, in London in 1886. He would become the 26th U. S. President in 1901. Roosevelt’s first wife had died Feb 14, 1884 of kidney disease, only eleven hours after the death of his mother from typhoid fever.
Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveiled the Ford Model A in 1927 as its new automobile.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency began operations on December 2, 1970. In 2013 the EPA had 15,913 employees and an annual budget of $7.9 billion.
Christmas Music:
Several years ago I worked on a project to celebrate the music in my life. Nothing says Christmas like the carols and songs heard only at this time of year. Here’s today’s sample:
Lyrics can be printed by using the File->Print Preview Commands. They will print in black ink with no images.) No music has been embedded.
(Sorry, the Windows Media Player icon button no longer works)
Tidbits of History, December 1
December 1 is:
Eat a Red Apple Day The phrase “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” was coined by J. T. Sinson at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis to promote apples as a healthy snack.
National Fried Pie Day
Per Foodimentary.com:
Fried apple pies were first introduced in McDonald’s in 1968, originally fried in lard.
New Hampshire fried pies were the favorite dessert of U.S. president Franklin Pierce.
National French Fried Clam Day
National Handwashing Awareness week
World Aids Awareness Day
If the arm of King Henry I (born c 1068; died December 1, 1135) of England had been forty-two inches long, the unit of measure of a “foot” today would be fourteen inches. But his arm happened to be thirty-six inches long and he decreed that the standard “foot” should be one-third that length – twelve inches.
From Asimov, Isaac. Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts. New York, Bell Publishing Company, 1981
Birthday of Marie Tussaud (December 1, 1761), French-born artist who became known for her wax sculptures and the wax museum that she founded in London.
Publication of Federalist Paper #15: The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union written by Alexander Hamilton in 1787. In Paper #15 Hamilton opens the subject of the insuffiencies of the Articles of Confederation. This subject is discussed in this and following Papers. Under the Articles, the federal government could pass laws requisitioning men and money but had no authority over the individual citizens of the States to raise either. The national government could not enforce its laws because the states cannot be thrown in jail. He says “we must extend the authority of the union to the persons of the citizens, the only proper objects of government”.
United States presidential election, 1824: Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the United States House of Representatives is given the task of deciding the winner in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In February, 1825, John Quincy Adams was declared to be president-elect.
1885 – First serving of the soft drink Dr Pepper at a drug store in Waco, Texas. It was introduced nationally in the United States at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition as a new kind of soda pop, made with 23 flavors. Its introduction in 1885 preceded the introduction of Coca-Cola by one year. Like many early sodas, the drink was marketed as a brain tonic and energizing pick-me-up, so one theory holds that it was named for the pep it supposedly gave to users.
Birthday of Rex Stout (December 1, 1886), American author best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective, Nero Wolfe. The Nero Wolfe stories are narrated by Wolfe’s assistant, Archie Goodwin, who is presented as having recorded the cases of the detective genius from 1934 (Fer-de-Lance) to 1975 (A Family Affair).
1955 – American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man and was arrested for violating the city’s racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Christmas Music:
Several years ago I worked on a project to celebrate the music in my life. Nothing says Christmas like the carols and songs heard only at this time of year. Here’s today’s sample:
Lyrics can be printed by using the File->Print Preview Commands. They will print in black ink with no images.) No music has been embedded.
(Sorry, the Windows Media Player icon button no longer works)
Per Wikipedia:
“We Need a Little Christmas” is a popular Christmas song originating from Jerry Herman’s Broadway musical Mame, and first performed by Angela Lansbury in that 1966 production.
“In the musical, the song is performed after Mame has lost her fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and decides that she, her young nephew Patrick, and her two household servants “need a little Christmas now” to cheer them up.”
Tidbits of History, The month of December
The month of December is the twelfth and last month in the Gregorian calendar. It was the tenth month in the ancient Roman calendar and its name comes from the Latin word decem, meaning “ten”. It is the month with the shortest daylight hours of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the longest daylight hours of the year in the Southern Hemisphere.
December is the most festive month of the year. It is the month when people all over the world celebrate the birth of Christ, and many activities are carried out in preparation of that great day. The season of preparation, which is called “Advent” in the Christian calendar, begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas.
It is a month of happy traditions. Many people keep up customs that have been in their families for generations. They cook special dishes that originated with their forefathers, such as the English plum pudding or the Swedish lutefisk and other delicacies. December is the month for the singing of Christmas carols, the trimming of the tree, the writing of Christmas cards, and the selection of gifts for Christmas giving.
This is the month of Santa Claus in the United States and the month of Saint Nicholas in the countries of Europe. St. Nicholas has a feast day on the 6th, and on that day he brings fruit and cakes to children who have been good.
The last day of the month closes the year. In Japan it is a time of stocktaking and the payment of debts. December 31 is called “Hogmanay Day” in Scotland and it is a day when adults exchange presents and give cakes to children. It is also Saint Sylvester’s Day, which is observed in Germany and Belgium, with customs that anticipate the New Year. In Belgium, the last child out of bed on the morning of December 31 is a “Sylvester”, a lazy one who has to pay a tribute to early risers. In the United States the last hours of the month and the year constitute New Year’s Eve, a time of merrymaking for adults and Watch Night parties for young people.
The poinsettia has come to be the flower that is symbolic of December. Holly and mistletoe are also special floral decorations used at Christmas time.
This month has two birthstones, the turquoise and the zircon.
December is also:
Bingo Month
Write a Friend Month
National Egg Nog Month
National Fruit Cake Month
From Holiday Insights.com
Did you know? There are occasional “Leap Seconds” added to the official year. We will spare you the detail on those, except to say it helps to correct minor variations. A leap second is a one-second adjustment that is occasionally applied to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in order to keep its time of day close to the mean solar time, or UT1. Without such a correction, time reckoned by Earth’s rotation drifts away from atomic time because of irregularities in the Earth’s rate of rotation. Since this system of correction was implemented in 1972, 27 leap seconds have been inserted, the most recent on December 31, 2016, at 23:59:60 UTC.
On December 7, 1787 Delaware ratified the Constitution, becoming the 1st state.
On December 12, 1787, Pennsylvania joined the union as the 2nd state.
On December 18, 1787, New Jersey became the 3rd state.
On December 11, 1816 Indiana became the 19th state
On December 10, 1817 Mississippi became the 20th state.
On December 3, 1818, Illinois became the 21st state.
On December 14, 1819, Alabama became the 22nd state.
On December 29, 1845, Texas became the 28th state.
On December 28, 1846, Iowa became the 29th state.
Tidbits of History, November 30
November 30 is:
National Mousse Day
The word mousse is French and translates as “froth” or “foam.”
Stay At Home Because You Are Well Day
Birthday of Jonathan Swift (1667) , English clergyman, poet, satirist remembered for “Gulliver’s Travels” and A Modest Proposal.
Publication of Federalist Paper #14: Objections to the Proposed Constitution From Extent of Territory Answered written by James Madison. This article is the last to address the issue of the benefits of having one united country vs several smaller unions. Madison answers the arguments that the United States would be too big to be governed successfully by one central authority.
In New Orleans in 1803, Spanish representatives officially transferred the Louisiana Territory to a French representative. Just 20 days later, France transferred the same land to the United States as the Louisiana Purchase.
Birthday of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) (1835), American author. Wrote “Tom Sawyer”, “Huckleberry Finn”, “Life on the Mississippi”, and many more. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is in the public domain and is available at our other site, Nextdoorestore.com.
From Today in Science
In 1858, John Landis Mason received a U.S. patent for his invention known by his name – the Mason jar (No. 22,186). Although hundreds of men and women obtained patents for fruit jars, probably the most well known in the industry has been the Mason jar. It has become a common term for the preserved food jar. Mason developed and patented a shoulder-seal jar with a zinc screw cap. The “Mason jar” had a threaded neck which fit with the threads in a metal cap to screw down to the shoulder of the jar and in this way form a seal. In 1869, a top seal above the threads and under a glass lid was introduced to the jar, thus effecting an excellent seal.
Birthday of Sir Winston Churchill (1874), British statesman, prime minister. One of only eight “Honorary citizens of the U. S.”
1902-11-30 – American Old West: Second-in-command of 
Fort Worth’s Wild Bunch gang, Kid Curry Logan, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with hard labor. In the picture, the two men standing are William “News” Carver and Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan. The three sitting are Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, aka “Sundance Kid”; Ben Kilpatrick, aka “Tall Texan”; and Robert Leroy Parker, aka “Butch Cassidy”.
Birthday of “American Bandstand” producer and host, Dick Clark, (November 30, 1929) in Mount Vernon, N.Y. Dubbed “America’s oldest teenager”.
Lucille Ball married Desi Arnaz in Greenwich, Connecticut on this date in 1940.
On this date in 2018, ex-President George H. W. Bush died at Houston, Texas of Vascular Parkinson’s disease. (See heavy.com for information about this form of atypical Parkinsonism)
Tidbits of History, November 29
November 29 is:
Square Dance Day The square dance is the official dance of nineteen American states. Square Dance is a fun, simple, and healthy form of dance and it has roots in normal English, Irish and Scottish folk dance.
National Lemon Cream Pie Day
Lemon cream pie is a Southern specialty which was first made in the 1920s.
National Rice Cake Day
Soft forms of rice cakes have been popular in Japan for hundreds of years.
National Chocolates Day
Per Foodimentary.com
Chocolate comes from the Aztec word “xocolatl” which means “bitter water”.
In 1777, San Jose, California, was founded as Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe. It was the first civilian settlement, or pueblo, in Alta California.
Birthday of Louisa May Alcott (November 28, 1832), author of “Little Women” and many more. Raised in New England by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May and Amos Bronson Alcott, she grew up among many of the well-known intellectuals of the day, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
The Sand Creek Massacre occurred in Colorado on November 29, 1864, when a militia led by Colonel John Chivington, killed at least 400 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians who had surrendered and had been given permission to camp.
Thomas Edison demonstrated his phonograph for the first time in 1877.
Birthday of C.S.(Clive Staples) Lewis (November 29, 1898), a British writer and lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University and Cambridge University. He is best known for his works of fiction, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain
U.N. General Assembly partitioned Palestine between Arabs and Jews in 1947.
“Kukla, Fran, and Ollie” debuted on NBC in 1948.
President-elect Eisenhower visited Korea to assess war in 1952, fulfilling a campaign promise.
President Lyndon Baines Johnson set up Warren Commission in 1963 to investigate assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Roman Catholic Church in U.S. replaced Latin with English in 1964.
Atari announced the release of Pong, the first commercially successful video game in 1972.
1975 – Bill Gates adopted the name Microsoft for the company he and Paul Allen had formed to write the BASIC computer language for the Altair.
Tidbits of History, November 28
November 28 is:
Happy Thanksgiving Day!
See our page at Thanksgiving for tidbits of history about Thanksgiving!
National French Toast Day
French toast was not invented in France. In fact, French toast was around long before France even existed as a country.
The earliest reference to French toast dates all the way back to 4th century Rome.The name for French toast in France is “pain perdu”, which means “lost bread.”
November 28, 1520 – The first navigation of the Magellan Strait, to the south of mainland South America, was completed by Ferdinand Magellan and his crew.
Birthday of William Blake, (November 28, 1757), English poet, painter and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.
Second Continental Congress formally established U.S. Navy in 1775.
Publication of Federalist Paper #13: Advantage of the Union in Respect to Economy in Government written by Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton looks at the cost of supporting several confederacies vs the economy of supporting one federal government. He speculates that, if the states should form their own unions, there would be two – North and South based on geographical and commercial considerations. Each would have to support its own defense and bureaucracy.
Olympia formed as capital of Washington Territory in 1853.
1861 – Confederate Congress officially admitted Missouri to Confederacy
1925 – The Grand Ole Opry began broadcasting in Nashville, Tennessee, as the WSM Barn Dance.
1942 Fire destroyed the Coconut Grove nightclub in Boston, killing nearly 500 people.
1943 – World War II: Tehran Conference – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin met in Tehran, Iran, to discuss war strategy.
“Hopalong Cassidy” premiered on TV in 1948.
Red Planet Day to commemorate the first launch in 1964 of Mariner 4, the first spacecraft to obtain and transmit close range images of Mars.
1972 – Last executions in Paris: Claude Buffet and Roger Bontems are guillotined at La Santé Prison. The chief executioner was André Obrecht. Buffet was already serving a life sentence in prison. During a prison riot, Buffet and Bontems slit the throats of two hostages. (Bontems had been found innocent of murder, but as Buffet’s accomplice was condemned to death anyway).
Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn were made Honorary Citizens of the United States on November 28, 1984.
Tidbits of History, November 27
November 27 is:
Pins and Needles Day According to Days of the Year.com the original Pins and Needles Day started up in 1937 to commemorate the opening of the pro-Labor musical play of the same name on Broadway. The cast of the original production was made up of sewing machine workers, cutters and basters who simply wanted to do something a little creative in their free time.
National Bavarian Cream Pie Day
Before the advent of refrigeration, Bavarian cream represented a culinary triumph. In order to set the dish, the Bavarian cream would have had to be chilled in an ice-filled bowl.
Publication of Federalist Paper #12: The Utility of the Union In Respect to Revenue written by Alexander Hamilton. In this article Hamilton discusses the issues of taxation. At that time the only taxes collected were on imports and excise taxes on manufactured products. Personal property or income were not yet taxed.
1826 – John Walker invents the first friction match in England. He sold about 164 boxes of 50 matches which included a piece of sandpaper. Because of the danger of fire, the matches were banned in France and Germany.
1835 – James Pratt and John Smith were hanged in London. They were the last two to be executed for sodomy in England. The magistrate, Hensleigh Wedgwood, who had committed the three men to trial, subsequently wrote to the Home Secretary, Lord John Russel, arguing for the commutation of the death sentences, stating:
“It is the only crime where there is no injury done to any individual and in consequence it requires a very small expense to commit it in so private a manner and to take such precautions as shall render conviction impossible. It is also the only capital crime that is committed by rich men but owing to the circumstances I have mentioned they are never convicted.”
Wedgwood described the men as “degraded creatures” in another letter. Nevertheless, he argued that the law was unfair in their case in that wealthy men who wished to have sex could afford a private space in which to do it with little chance of discovery. Pratt and Smith were only condemned because they could only afford to use a room in a lodging house, in which they were easily spied upon.
New York Times dubs baseball “The National Game” in 1870.
1895 – Alfred Nobel’s will established the Nobel Prizes
NY’s Penn Station opened as world’s largest railway terminal in 1910.
In New York City, the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was held in 1924.
Bank robber Baby Face Nelson (Lester Joseph Gillis) died in a shoot-out with the FBI in 1934. Nelson was responsible for killing more FBI agents than any other person. He was a member of the gang of John Dillinger. His death is called The Battle of Barrington. In the shoot-out, Nelson was shot nine times. Two FBI agents were killed.
Jannetje Johanna Schaft was a Dutch communist resistance fighter during World War II. She became known as “the girl with the red hair”. Her secret name in the resistance movement was Hannie. She was killed on April 17, 1945. After the war, on November 27, 1945, she was reburied at the honorary cemetery at the dunes in Overveen, a ceremony attended by Princess Juliana and her husband, Prince Bernard, of the Netherlands.