TODAY IN HISTORY
On Dec. 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery, was ratified as Georgia became the 27th state to endorse it.
Also on this date
In 1790,
Congress moved to Philadelphia from New York.
In 1907,
the worst mining disaster in U.S. history occurred as 362 men and boys died in a coal mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia.
In 1917,
about 2,000 people were killed when an explosives-laden French cargo ship, the Mont Blanc, collided with the Norwegian vessel Imo at the harbor in Halifax, Nova Scotia, setting off a blast that devastated the Canadian city.
In 1917,
Finland declared its independence from Russia.
In 1922,
the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which established the Irish Free State, came into force one year to the day after it was signed in London.
In 1957,
America’s first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit failed as Vanguard TV3 rose about four feet off a Cape Canaveral launch pad before crashing down and exploding.
In 1969,
a free concert by The Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway in Alameda County, California, was marred by the deaths of four people, including one who was stabbed by a Hell’s Angel.
In 1973,
House minority leader Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew.
In 1998,
in Venezuela, former Lt. Col. Hugo Chavez, who had staged a bloody coup attempt against the government six years earlier, was elected president.
In 2007,
President George W. Bush announced a plan to freeze interest rates on subprime mortgages held by hundreds of thousands of homeowners.
Ten years ago:
Declaring the American middle class in jeopardy, President Barack Obama, speaking in Kansas, outlined a populist economic vision that would drive his reelection bid, insisting the United States had to reclaim its standing as a country in which everyone could prosper if provided “a fair shot and a fair share.”
Five years ago:
President-elect Donald Trump officially announced he would nominate retired Marine Gen. James Mattis to be his defense secretary, bringing his pick onstage at a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
One year ago:
President Donald Trump said his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani had tested positive for COVID-19. —