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, 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.
Tidbits of History, November 26
November 26 is:
National Cake Day
In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook became the first European to visit Maui in 1778. He was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.
First streetcar railway in America starts operating (NYC) (12 cent fare) in 1832.
West Virginia was created in 1861 as a result of dispute over slavery with Virginia. West Virginia was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, and was a key border state during the war. West Virginia was the only state to form by separating from a Confederate state, the first to separate from any state since Maine separated from Massachusetts and was one of two states admitted to the Union during the American Civil War (the other being Nevada).
“Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll was published in 1865.
The tomb of Tutankhamun was entered on November 26, 1922. Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to enter the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in over 3000 years.
Birthday of Charles Schulz (November 26, 1922), American cartoonist and creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip.
100 of his thought provoking quotes can be found here.
A classic Thanksgiving tradition!
“Casablanca,” starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, had its world premiere at the Hollywood Theater in New York on this date in 1942.
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified Republican George W. Bush the winner over Democrat Al Gore in the state’s 2000 presidential balloting by 537 votes.
Tidbits of History, November 25
November 25 is:
National “Eat with a Friend” Day
National Parfait Day
Per /Foodimentary.com
Parfait is a French word that means perfect.
It is often served in a tall, clear glass and topping creation with whipped cream and fruit.
The oldest recipe with the name parfait comes from a French cookbook dated 1869. It was a frozen coffee-flavoured French ice dessert constructed in parfait-shaped (tall and thin) ice cream moulds.
French style parfait is served on decorated plates instead of tall, thin glassware.
The unique texture of parfait is because the fat, sugar, and air interfere with the formation of water crystals, which would otherwise cause an oily texture in your mouth.
1758 – French and Indian War: British forces capture Fort Duquesne from French control. Later, Fort Pitt will be built nearby and grow into modern Pittsburgh.
Delmonico’s, one of NY’s finest restaurants, provides a meal of soup, steak, coffee & half a pie for 12 cents in 1834.
Birthday of Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835). He led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history. He became a leading philanthropist in the United States and in the British Empire.
Birthday of Carrie Nation (November 25, 1846), American temperance leader who used a hatchet to implement her campaign against saloons.
Woody Woodpecker debuts with release of Walter Lantz’s “Knock Knock” in 1940.
1947 Movie studio executives agreed to blacklist the Hollywood 10, who were jailed a day earlier for contempt of Congress for failing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.
On Nov. 25, 1963, the funeral of President John F. Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery.
1979 – Pat Summerall and John Madden broadcast a game together for the first time, a pairing that would last 22 years and become one of the most well-known partnerships in TV sportscasting history.
Six-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez was rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida in 1999.
President George W. Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security in 2002. Its stated missions involve anti-terrorism, border security, immigration and customs, cyber security, and disaster prevention and management. As of 2018 DHS employs 240,000 people and has a budget of $51.672 billion.