December 24, 1914. In the trenches of World War One, British and German troops call a truce to celebrate Christmas together.
December 23, 1688. King James II of England abandons the throne and flees abroad after a coup forces him from power
December 22, 1894. Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish captain in the French army, is convicted of treason for allegedly passing military secrets to the Germans.
December 21, 1968. Apollo 8, the first crewed spacecraft to successfully orbit the Moon and return to Earth, launches from the Kennedy Space Center
December 20, 1860. South Carolina secedes from the Union precipitating the Civil War
December 17th 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright achieve the first powered, sustained and controlled airplane flight in history.
December 16th, 1773. American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dump 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor
December 15, 1890. Native American chief Sitting Bull is killed on the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota
December 14th, 1911. Roald Amundsen becomes the first person to reach the South Pole.
December 13th, 2003. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is captured by American forces.
On History Daily, we do history, daily. Every weekday beginning November 1st—the same day President John Adams first moved into the White House—we’ll bring you a slice of the history that happened that day. Whether it’s to remember the tragedy of December 7th, 1941, the day “that will live in infam…