December 22
Today in America's Present Past
1696 | Politician and Georgia founder, James Oglethorpe was born.
1727 | Founder William Ellery was born.
1775 | Congress: Appointed Esek Hopkins Commander in Chief of the Fleet, the highest naval post then in existence of the Continental Navy.
1789 | SCOTUS: Justice Levi Woodbury was born.
1803 | General Joseph King Fenno Mansfield was born.
1807 | POTUS: President Thomas Jefferson send the Embargo Act into law.
1828 | First Lady Rachel Jackson died.
1856 | Diplomat Frank Kellogg was born.
1873 | Abolitionist Charles Lenox Remond died.
1882 | Thomas Edison created a string of electric Christmas Lights.
1894 | The U.S. Golf Association was formed.
1899 | Cleric Dwight L. Moody died.
1903 | Biophysicist Haldan Keffer Harline was born.
1905 | Poet Kenneth Rexroth was born.
1915 | Actress Barbara Billingsley was born.
1922 | Congress: Speaker Jim Wright was born.
1937 | The Lincoln Tunnel, under the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey opened other the public.
1945 | Journalist Diane Sawyer was born.
1960 | Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat was born.
1960 | Rapper Luther Campbell was born.
1964 | First flight of the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.
1965 | Film: “Doctor Zhivago” debuted.
1966 | Activist Lucy Burns died.
1967 | Film: “The Graduate” debuted.
1975 | POTUS: Republican President Ford signed legislation that created the National Petroleum Reserve.
2010 | POTUS: Democrat President Obama signed legislation that repealed “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy for the U.S. military.
2024 | Chemist Stuart A. Rice died.