History Today

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 15th. Happy Bill of Rights Day! You may never have heard of it, but today was declared Bill of Rights Day in 1941 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. That’s because, on this day in 1791, Virginia voted to ratify the Bill of Rights, giving it the three-fourths majority it needed to become the law of the land.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 14th. Amid the recent news that the story of everyone’s favorite disco band, the BeeGees, is headed to the big screen, we look back to this day in 1977, when Saturday Night Fever opened at LA’s Mann Chinese Theater. Saturday Night Fever featured six BeeGees songs, among other disco hits, while telling the story of Tony Manero, the paint store clerk who lived for his weekends at the disco.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 13th. In the wake of the late October killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, we look back to this day in 2003, when former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured. Hussein spent nine months on the run after a U.S.-led invasion force entered Iraq to topple his 20-year regime. He was executed in December 2006 after being found guilty of crimes against humanity.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 11th. What would you do for love? That’s the question people around the world 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.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 10th. Next year, Americans will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, which granted women the right to vote. But in Wyoming, women had already been voting for more than 50 years when the 19th amendment was ratified.That was all thanks to a law passed on this day in 1869 making Wyoming the first territory or state in U.S. history to give women the right to vote.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 9th. It’s a beloved holiday tradition, and it all started on this day in 1965, when A Charlie Brown Christmas aired for the first time. In the animated TV special, Charlie Brown gets over the holiday blues and into the holiday spirit with help from Linus, Lucy, Sally, Snoopy and rest of the Peanuts Gang.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 8th. Still famous the world over, the Beatles are the top-selling band in music history, and on this day in 1980, fans were shocked to find out that 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.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 7th. President Franklin Roosevelt called today a day “which will live in infamy”--on this day in 1941, a swarm of more than 360 Japanese warplanes descended on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in a ferocious assault. The surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific fleet killed 2,400 Americans, wounded 1,200 more, destroyed 15 ships, and drew the United States into World War II.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 6th. With the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers off to a strong start this season, fans may be fondly recalling their dominance in the 1980s and 90s. That success was thanks in large part to the work of Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice, who broke the record for most career touchdown receptions on this day in 1992. Rice retired with 197 touchdown receptions, the most in football history.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 4th. We all make mistakes from time to time, but most of them aren’t as visible as the one curators at New York’s Museum of Modern Art finally corrected on this day in 1961. Forty seven days earlier, they had accidentally hung “Le Bateau,” a papercut by artist Henri Matisse, upside down in the museum’s “Last Works of Henri Matisse” exhibit.