History Today

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 12th. Would you spend 5 million dollars on a notebook? That’s just what oil tycoon Armand Hammer paid on this day in 1980 for a notebook filled with drawings and writings from famed artist, architect and engineer Leonardo da Vinci. Written around 1508, the book contained 72 pages featuring 300 notes and detailed drawings relating to his study of water and how it moved. Surprising fact? The $5.

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Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 11th. What would you do for love? That’s a question many were asking themselves on this day in 1936, when Great Britain’s King Edward VIII became the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne.

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Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 10th. Just one month after the historic election of Kamala Harris as the nation’s first ever woman vice president, we look back to this day in 1869, when Wyoming became the first territory or state in U.S. history to grant women the right to vote.

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Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 9th. As the world continues to await a vaccine to help beat back the Covid-19 pandemic, we look back to this day in 1979, when a commission of scientists declared that smallpox had been officially eradicated from the earth. The disease, which ravaged humanity for centuries and killed about 30 percent of those who contracted it, is the only infectious disease afflicting humans that has officially been eradicated.

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Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 8th. It’s been 40 years since former Beatle John Lennon was shot and killed by an obsessed fan as he returned to his apartment on New York City’s Upper West Side on this day in 1980. As a key member of the most successful band of the 20th century, Lennon’s death was mourned by millions around the world.

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Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 7th. President Franklin Roosevelt called it a day “which will live in infamy”--on this day in 1941, a Japanese dive bomber appeared out of the clouds above the island of Oahu, Hawaii. A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes followed, descending on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious assault. The surprise attack on the U.S.

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Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 6th. On this day in 1865, after 400 years, slavery was finally abolished in America with the ratification of the 13th Amendment. The ratification came eight months after the end of the Civil War. When the war began, some in the North were against fighting what they saw as a crusade to end slavery.

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Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 5th. It’s a maritime mystery that’s never been solved: On this day in 1872, a British captain spotted an American ship called the Mary Celeste sailing erratically with its sails fully raised near the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.

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Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 4th. So far at least, the historic New York City bar Fraunces Tavern has survived the pandemic. It’s been a beloved watering hole since even before this day in 1783, when it famously became the site of George Washington’s farewell to his Continental Army officers.

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Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 3rd. For now at least, the face of Andrew Jackson is front and center on every one of the nearly 9 billion 20-dollar bills in circulation. On this day in 1828, Jackson was elected the seventh U.S. president. His election marked a turning point in American politics, as the center of political power shifted from East to West, and the political party system as we know it today began to form.

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