Margaret Madeline Chase Smith was born on December 14, 1897, in Skowhegan, Maine. A trailblazing legislator, she was the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress and was one of the longest-serving female US senators.
World War I hero Alvin Cullum York was born on December 13, 1887, in Pall Mall, Tennessee. One of America’s most decorated soldiers of World War I, York earned the Medal of Honor and Distinguished Service Cross, among others.
A quarter-century after the Wright brothers first left the ground at Kitty Hawk, the world’s aviation leaders gathered in Washington, DC, to decide just how far—and how fast—human flight could go next. On December 12, 1928, the International Civil Aeronautics Conference opened with a bold mission: to celebrate the past, assess the present, and imagine a future where airplanes would shrink oceans, reshape economies, and bring nations closer together.
On December 9, 1962, Petrified Forest National Park was officially established, upgrading an already protected landscape into a full national park. The designation ensured stronger protection for its fossil-rich badlands, archaeological sites, and striking deposits of petrified wood, and it marked a major milestone in decades of preservation efforts.
On December 8, 1831, the man who shaped one of the most iconic buildings in American history—James Hoban—died in Washington, DC. Although his name isn’t as well known as the presidents who lived in his masterpiece, Hoban’s work left a permanent mark on the nation. As the architect of the White House, he helped design not only a home for America’s leaders but also a symbol of the country’s identity. His life story stretches from rural Ireland to the heart of the young United States, where his talent built the setting for generations of American history.
On December 7, 1787, Delaware was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, making it America’s first state. But its quick decision wasn’t just a race to the finish—it marked the beginning of a new national identity, driven by bold choices, fierce debates, and a vote that helped shape the country we know today.
Nearly two years after President Abraham Lincoln first declared enslaved people in the Confederacy free, the United States finally took the decisive step that ended slavery everywhere in the country. With the ratification of the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865, the country closed the door on a system that had shaped—and scarred—America since its earliest days. Getting there, however, required a long, bitter, and politically complicated struggle that stretched across the final years of the Civil War.
On December 3, 1818, President James Monroe signed the legislation that admitted Illinois as the 21st state in the Union. But the history of Illinois stretches far back before statehood. Long before European explorers arrived, the region was home to complex American Indian cultures whose achievements, alliances, and struggles helped shape the land that would become Illinois.
On November 28, 1954, Nobel Prize–winning physicist Enrico Fermi died in Chicago, Illinois. His passing marked the end of the life of one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century—a man whose ideas shaped modern physics and whose work helped usher in the Atomic Age.