On this date...

In 1672, New York Governor Lovelace announces monthly mail service between New York & Boston.

In 1690, a failed attack on Quebec and subsequent near-mutiny force the Massachusetts Bay Colony to issue the first paper currency in the history of the Western Hemisphere.

In 1765, the Connecticut Resolutions are issued.

In 1775, Lund Washington, the General’s cousin and farm manager, writes from Mount Vernon about land deals, troublesome tenants, and the idea of shipping flour and corn abroad for arms. He describes balking neighbors, smoky chimneys, a vicious bull, exposed corn houses, and Martha’s imperiled furniture.

In 1777: The March to Valley Forge begins. General Orders and the Order of March from Whitemarsh, PA are issued. "The army to march at four o'clock in the morning..." Baggage wagons and Artillery to cross the Schuylkill River at Swedes Ford 'at least two hours before the Army marches.'

In 1778, John Jay, the former chief justice of the New York Supreme Court, is elected president of the Continental Congress.

In 1817, Mississippi was admitted to the union as the 20th state.

In 1838, Mirabeau Lamar was inaugurated as the president of the Republic of Texas, replacing Sam Houston. The republic's constitution did not allow the presidency to be held by the same person in consecutive terms.

In 1861, the Confederacy admitted Kentucky as it recognized a pro-Southern shadow state government that was acting without the authority of the pro-Union government in Frankfort.

In 1864, US Civil War: General Sherman's Union Army reaches Savannah, Georgia and begins a 12-day siege.

In 1869, Motivated more by interest in free publicity than a commitment to gender equality, Wyoming territorial legislators pass a bill that is signed into law granting women the right to vote.

In 1884, Mark Twain's classic novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published, appearing in the United Kingdom and Canada; it was released in the United States the following year.

In 1898, Spanish-American War ends between Spain and the United States.

In 1899 Delta Sigma Phi fraternity founded at City College of New York, to spread "the principles of friendship and brotherhood among college men, without respect to race or creed."

In 1905, Author O. Henry’s best-known and most beloved story, "The Gift of the Magi," is published in the December 10, 1905 issue of New York Sunday World Magazine. It tells the poignantly ironic tale of a poor but devoted couple who each sacrifice their most valuable possession to buy a gift for the other.

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to win a Nobel Prize, winning the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to negotiate peace in the Russo-Japanese War.

In 1920, the Nobel Prize for Peace is awarded to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson for his work in ending the First World War and creating the League of Nations.

In 1922, the Canton Bulldogs defeat the Toledo Maroons, 19-0, and are declared the first champion of the newly renamed National Football League.

In 1927, "Grand Ole Opry" first named as such during Barn Dance radio broadcast, in Nashville, Tennessee.

In 1947, American physiologists Joseph Erlanger and Herbert Gasser presented with Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in Stockholm (awarded 1944), for research into nerve function.

In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. received his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, saying he accepted it “with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind.”

In 1967, CBS officially renames CBS-TV Studio 50 in New York (built in 1927 as Hammerstein's Theatre), as "The Ed Sullivan Theater" in celebration of the 20th anniversary of his program.

In 1971, Lucasfilm Ltd. is founded as a film and television production company by George Lucas in San Francisco, California.

In 1974, Representative Wilbur D. Mills, a Democrat from Arkansas, resigns as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the aftermath of the first truly public sex scandal in American politics.

In 1980, Rep. John W. Jenrette, D-S.C., resigned to avoid being expelled from the House following his conviction on charges related to the FBI's Abscam investigation.

In 2002, Former President Jimmy Carter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomacy in the Middle East in the 1970s.

In 2007, former Vice President Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with a call for humanity to rise up against a looming climate crisis and stop waging war on the environment.

In 2007, NFL star Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison for bankrolling a dogfighting operation and killing dogs that underperformed.

In 2009, President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with a humble acknowledgment of his scant accomplishments and a robust defense of the U.S. at war.

In 2017, Governor of California Jerry Brown tours Southern Californian wildfires and declares them "the new normal".

In 2021, Rare December tornadoes strike four American states, with a 'Quad-State Tornado' across Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky, completely destroying some towns and leaving at least 70 dead.