On this date...

In 1775, Washington writes to Joseph Reed, a trusted advisor, revealing his anxieties. He thanks Reed for alerting him to local jealousies in Massachusetts and apologizes if his demanding duties have made him seem uncourteous. He worries over slow enlistments, the lack of money from Congress, and unauthorized camp letters appearing in newspapers.

In 1791, the Bill of Rights was ratified when Virginia became the tenth state to ratify those first amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Congress had sent 12 amendments to the states for consideration. In that original order, the first was never adopted while the second was not ratified until 1992 as the 27th Amendment.

In 1836, A devastating fire devours the building temporarily housing the US patent office. In all, some 10,000 patent drawings and 7,000 patent models—the earliest records of innovation in the young nation—were lost in the conflagration.

In 1864, The Battle of Nashville took place starting today and ending on December 16th, during the American Civil War. Fought in Nashville, Tennessee, it pitted Union forces under General George H. Thomas against the Confederate Army of Tennessee led by General John Bell Hood.

In 1874, 1st reigning king to visit US is the King of Hawaii, received by President Grant

In 1890, The Lakota (Teton) chief Sitting Bull was killed on the Grand River in South Dakota by Native police and soldiers who had been sent by the U.S. government to arrest him so as to prevent him from leading an insurrection.

In 1925, the New York Americans lose to the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1, in the formal opening of New York's Madison Square Garden, which becomes one of the world's most famous sporting venues.

In 1938, Ground was broken for the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.

In 1939, A citywide celebration accompanied the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta, Georgia, on this day in 1939. Actresses Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel and director Victor Fleming were among those who won Academy Awards for their work on a film that has a controversial legacy.

In 1944, After departing from an airfield outside London, a single-engine aircraft carrying trombonist and bandleader Glenn Miller goes missing over the English Channel. Miller was traveling to France for a congratulatory performance for American troops that had recently helped to liberate Paris.

In 1945, General Douglas MacArthur, in his capacity as Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in the Pacific, brings an end to Shintoism as Japan’s established religion. The Shinto system included the belief that the emperor, in this case Hirohito, was divine.

In 1948, Alger Hiss, a former U.S. government official, was indicted on two charges of perjury in connection with accusations of membership in a communist espionage ring during the 1930s. The Hiss case was one of the most publicized espionage incidents of the Cold War.

In 1955, "Folsom Prison Blues" single released by Johnny Cash (Billboard Song of the Year 1968)

In 1961, Martin Luther King Jr. joins over 500 civil rights demonstrators in jail, arrested for protesting in Albany, Georgia.

In 1961, US President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy visit Puerto Rico - last official sitting presidential visit until Barack Obama in 2011

In 1967, the Silver Bridge between Gallipolis, Ohio, and Point Pleasant, West Virginia, collapsed into the Ohio River, killing 46 people.

In 1970, Illinois State Constitution is adopted at a special election

In 1973, Jean Paul Getty III, the grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, is found alive near Naples, Italy, five months after his kidnapping by an Italian gang.

In 1973, at a time when society often still views gay people as deviants, the American Psychiatric Association reverses a century-old decision, issuing a resolution stating that homosexuality it neither a mental illness nor a sickness.

In 1997, The U.S. Department of Defense ordered that all Americans in its service (about 2.5 million people) be inoculated against anthrax, a potential weapon of biological warfare.

In 2003, The late Sen. Strom Thurmond's family acknowledged Essie Mae Washington-Williams' claim that she was Thurmond's illegitimate mixed-race daughter.

In 2004, American telecommunications giants Sprint Corp. and Nextel Communications Inc. announced they would merge in a $35 billion deal.

In 2009, The Washington, D.C. City Council voted to legalize same-sex marriage.

In 2011, The Iraq War officially ended when the United States formally declared that its mission in Iraq was over.

In 2011, Barry Bonds is sentenced to 30 days of house arrest, two years of probation and 250 hours of community service, for an obstruction of justice conviction stemming from a grand jury appearance in 2003.

In 2016, a federal jury in Charleston, South Carolina, convicted Dylann Roof of killing nine Black church members who had welcomed him into their Bible study gathering.