Today in history

On Dec. 6, 1790, Congress moved from New York to Philadelphia.

In 1875 mystical poet Evelyn Underhill was born in Wolverhampton, England.

In 1884 Army engineers completed construction of the Washington Monument.

In 1886 poet Joyce Kilmer was born in New Brunswick, N.J.

In 1896 lyricist Ira Gershwin was born in New York.

In 1889 Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, died in New Orleans;

he was 81.

In 1898 Alfred Eisenstaedt, the photographer whose pioneering images for Life magazine helped define American photojournalism, was born in what is now Tczew, Poland.

In 1920 jazz pianist Dave Brubeck was born in Concord, Calif.

In 1921 British and Irish representatives signed a treaty in London providing for creation of an Irish Free State a year later on the same date.

In 1923 a presidential address was broadcast on radio for the first time as President

Calvin Coolidge spoke to a joint session of Congress.

In 1947 Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated by President Harry S. Truman.

In 1957 America’s first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit blew up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla. Also in 1957 AFLCIO members voted to expel the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

In 1969 a concert by the Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway in Livermore, Calif., was marred by the deaths of four people, including one who was stabbed by a Hell’s Angel.