International Volunteer Day (IVD), officially known as International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development, is celebrated every year on December 5. Its purpose is to highlight the essential role volunteers play in communities around the world and to encourage even more people to serve. While it was first observed in 1986, its origins trace back to earlier United Nations efforts to strengthen global development through volunteerism.
Music history took an unforgettable turn on December 4, 1956, when Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash all happened to end up at Sun Studios on the same day. What began as a coincidence quickly became one of the most legendary and unplanned jam sessions in American music history.
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 December 2, 1980, President Jimmy Carter established Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Today the park is part of one of the world’s largest international protected areas.
On December 1, 1921, the US Post Office Department opened its Philatelic Agency in Washington, DC, to the benefit of stamp collectors. It became a valuable resource for stamp information and fulfilled requests for stamps – and was sometimes the only place to get certain issues!
Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was born on November 30, 1924, in New York City. The first Black woman elected to Congress and the first Black woman to seek a major party’s presidential nomination, Chisholm built her career on courage, independence, and a fearless commitment to justice.
On November 29, 1944, the War Department officially adopted the Honorable Discharge Emblem, a small but meaningful symbol worn by millions of service members returning home from World War II. For many veterans, it represented not only their service, but also their safe return after years of sacrifice.
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.
On November 27, 1950, the Korean War Battle of Chosin Reservoir began—a fighting withdrawal carried out in brutal subzero cold. What followed was a 17-day struggle for survival, where frozen weapons, relentless attacks, and unbroken determination turned a retreat into one of the Marine Corps’ most storied feats.