On this date...

Thomas Nast

In 1637, Puritan reformist preacher Anne Hutchinson is tried in Massachusetts Bay Colony as a heretic, found guilty and banished.

In 1775, Major General Philip Schuyler writes Washington with triumphant news: Fort St. Jean has fallen. Schuyler forwards General Richard Montgomery’s report that the British garrison surrendered on November 3. “I beg leave to congratulate you on this happy event,” Schuyler writes.

In 1786, The oldest performing musical organization in the United States is founded in Stoughton, Massachusetts, as the Stoughton Musical Society.

In 1805, Lewis and Clark Expedition first sights the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Columbia River.

In 1811, In the Battle of Tippecanoe, a seasoned U.S. expeditionary force under Major General William Henry Harrison defeated Shawnee Indians led by Tecumseh's brother Laulewasikau (Tenskwatawa), known as the Prophet.

In 1837, Abolitionist newspaper editor Elijah P. Lovejoy was murdered by a mob in Alton, Illinois, while defending his press building.

In 1861, Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant overrun a Confederate camp at the Battle of Belmont, Missouri, but are forced to flee when additional Confederate troops arrive.

In 1874, Harper's Weekly featured a Thomas Nast cartoon about the possibility of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant seeking a third term, and the Republican vote was represented by an elephant; the animal, which appeared in several other Republican-related cartoons by Nast, eventually became the party's official logo.

In 1893, Passage of a referendum made Colorado the first state to grant women the right to vote.

In 1904, George M. Cohan's 1st full-length musical "Little Johnny Jones", featuring the songs "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Give My Regards To Broadway", opens at the Liberty Theatre, NYC; runs for 52 performances be before going on tour.

In 1907, Delta Sigma Pi, a professional fraternity organized to foster the study of business in universities is founded at New York University.

In 1910, First air freight shipment is undertaken by the Wright Brothers and department store owner Max Morehouse from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio

In 1916, Jeannette Rankin becomes first woman elected to US Congress.

In 1932, the Supreme Court hands down its decision in the matter of Powell v. Alabama. The case arose out of the infamous Scottsboro case. Nine young Black men were arrested and accused of raping two white women on train in Alabama. The boys were fortunate to barely have escaped a lynch mob sent to kill them, but were railroaded into convictions and death sentences. The Supreme Court overturned the convictions on the basis that they did not have effective representation.

In 1933, Fiorello La Guardia is elected the 99th Mayor of New York City.

In 1940, The Tacoma Narrows Bridge connecting the Olympic Peninsula with Tacoma, Washington, broke up in a wind of about 42 miles (67 km) per hour.

In 1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Thomas E. Dewey and was elected to an unprecedented fourth term as president of the United States.

In 1962, After losing the governor's election in California, American politician Richard Nixon gave what he called his “last press conference,” telling reporters that “you won't have Nixon to kick around any more”; he was elected president six years later.

In 1967, American lawyer and politician Carl Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first African American to lead a major U.S. city.

In 1967, LBJ signs a bill establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

In 1972, President Richard Nixon was reelected in a landslide over Democrat George McGovern.

In 1973, Congress over-rode President Richard M. Nixon's veto of the War Powers Act.

In 1976 "Gone With The Wind", 1939 Oscar-winning film epic starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, makes broadcast television debut on NBC; aired in two parts over consecutive nights; earns a then record 65% share of TV viewers.

In 1989, American politician Douglas Wilder was elected governor of Virginia, becoming the first African American to win a U.S. gubernatorial election.

In 1991, Earvin "Magic" Johnson announces HIV-positive diagnosis.

In 1996, NASA launched Mars Global Surveyor, a robotic spacecraft designed to carry out a long-term study of the planet; contact with the spacecraft was lost in 2006.

In 1998, House Speaker Newt Gingrich resigned following an election in which the Republican House majority shrunk from 22 to 12.

In 2000, the U.S. presidential election ended in a statistical tie between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush, only to be settled on December 12 by the U.S. Supreme Court after a bitter legal dispute.

In 2000, American politician Hillary Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming the first first lady to win elective office.

In 2009, The Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed, 220-215, landmark health care legislation to expand coverage to tens of millions who lacked it and placed tough new restrictions on the insurance industry.

In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden clinched victory over President Donald Trump as a win in Pennsylvania pushed Biden over the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes. Trump refused to concede.