| 1817 |
|
Mississippi is admitted as the 20th state. |
| 1861 |
|
Kentucky is admitted to the Confederate States of America. |
| 1862 |
|
The U.S. House of Representatives passes a bill creating the state of West Virginia. |
| 1869 |
|
Governor John Campbell signs the bill that grants women in Wyoming Territory the right to vote as well as hold public office. |
| 1898 |
|
The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Paris, ceding Spanish possessions, including the Philippines, to the United States. |
| 1917 |
|
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the International Red Cross. |
| 1918 |
|
U.S. troops are called to guard Berlin as a coup is feared. |
| 1919 |
|
Captain Ross Smith becomes the first person to fly 11,500 miles from England to Australia. |
| 1936 |
|
Edward VIII abdicates to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American-born divorcee. |
| 1941 |
|
Japanese troops invade the Philippine island of Luzon. |
| 1941 |
|
The siege of Tobruk in North Africa is raised. |
| 1943 |
|
Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill that postpones a draft of pre-Pearl Harbor fathers. |
| 1943 |
|
Allied forces bomb Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. |
| 1949 |
|
150,000 French troops mass at the border in Vietnam to prevent a Chinese invasion. |
| 1950 |
|
Dr. Ralph J. Bunche becomes the first African-American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. |
| 1977 |
|
On UN Human Rights Day, the Soviet Union places 20 prominent dissidents under house arrest, cutting off telephones and threatening to break up a planned silent demonstration in Moscow’s Pushkin Square. Soviet newspapers decry human rights violations elsewhere in the world. |
|
Born on December 10 |
| 1830 |
|
Emily Dickinson, American poet of more than 1,000 poems, seven published in her lifetime. |
| 1851 |
|
Melvil Dewey, American librarian who created the Dewey Decimal System. |
| 1881 |
|
Viscount Alexander of Tunis, British soldier who took his title from his part in the Allied victories in North Africa. |
| 1891 |
|
Nelly Sachs, Nobel Prize-winning poet. |
| 1903 |
|
Mary Norton, English children’s author (Bedknobs and Broomsticks). |
| 1907 |
|
Rumor Godden, English novelist (Black Narcissus). |
| 1908 |
|
Oliver Messian, French composer (Quartet for the End of Time). |
| 1911 |
|
Chester "Chet" Huntley, American broadcast journalist. |
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