Day In History: December 6

DAY IN HISTORY

1745 – Charles Edward Stuart’s army begins retreat during the second Jacobite Rising.1768 – The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica is published.1790 – The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1865 – The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, banning slavery.

1869 – African-American delegates meet in Washington, D.C., to form the Colored National Labor Union as a branch of the all-white National Labor Union created three years earlier. Unlike the NLU, the CNLU welcomed members of all races. Isaac Myers was the CNLU’s founding president; Frederick Douglas became president in 1872

1875 – Forty-fourth Congress (1875-77) convened with historic high of eight Blacks. One U.S. senator, Blanche K. Bruce, Mississippi. Seven Black congressmen: Jeremiah Haralson, Alabama; Josiah T. Walls, Florida; John R. Lynch, Mississippi; John A. Hyman, North Carolina; Charles E. Nash, Louisiana; Joseph H. Rainey, Robert Smalls, South Carolina.

1877 – The first edition of the Washington Post is published.

1884 – The Washington Monument in Washington D.C. is completed.

1904 – Theodore Roosevelt announced his “Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine stating that the United States would intervene in the Western Hemisphere should Latin American governments prove incapable or unstable.

1907 – A coal mine explosion at Monongah, West Virginia kills 362 workers.

1917 – Finland declares independence from Russia.

1917 – Halifax Explosion: In Canada, a munitions explosion kills more than 1,900 people and destroys part of the City of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1921 – The Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed in London by British and Irish representatives.

1922 – One year to the day after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Irish Free State comes into existence.

1928 – The government of Colombia sends military forces to suppress a month-long strike by United Fruit Company workers, resulting in an unknown number of deaths.

1933 – U.S. federal judge John M. Woolsey rules that James Joyce’s novel Ulysses is not obscene.

1941 – World War II: The United Kingdom and Canada declare war on Finland in support of the Soviet Union during the Continuation War.

1953 – Vladimir Nabokov completes his controversial novel Lolita.

1956 – A violent water polo match between Hungary and the USSR takes place during the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, against the backdrop of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

1960 – In Tucson, 500 store owners, Ariz sign pledges of nondiscrimination

1967 – Adrian Kantrowitz performed the first human heart transplant in the United States.

1969 – Meredith Hunter is killed by the Hells Angels during a The Rolling Stones’s concert at the Altamont Speedway in California.

1971 – Pakistan severs diplomatic relations with India following New Delhi’s recognition of Bangladesh.

1975 – The Troubles: Fleeing from the police, a Provisional IRA unit takes a couple hostage in Balcombe Street, London, beginning a six-day siege.

1977 – South Africa grants independence to Bophuthatswana, although it is not recognized by any other country.

1982 – The Troubles: The Irish National Liberation Army bombed a pub frequented by British soldiers in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland. It killed eleven soldiers and six civilians.1988 – The Australian Capital Territory is granted self-government.

1989 – The École Polytechnique massacre (or Montreal Massacre): Marc Lépine, an anti-feminist gunman, murders 14 young women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal.1991 – In Croatia, forces of the Yugoslav People’s Army bombard Dubrovnik after laying siege to the city since May.

1992 – The Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, India is demolished, leading to widespread riots causing the death of over 1500 people.

1997 – Lee Brown became Houston’s first black mayor narrowly defeating businessman Rob Mosbacher.

1997 – United Mine Workers begin what is to become a 110-day national coal strike

2006 – NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.

2008 – The 2008 Greek riots break out upon the killing of a 15-year-old boy, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, by a police officer.