December 8 makes us pine for what we’ve lost to history. Back in the good old days, this whole modern practice of surnames wasn’t nearly as established, so people were able to identify their leaders the ways they wanted. That’s why we know that in the year 877, when the new king of Aquitaine was… Continue reading

On December 7, 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the US Constitution. It didn’t take effect for two more years, on March 4, 1789 — a date that, oddly enough, isn’t celebrated (or even much remembered ) in the US. It can, of course, be amended, and has been 27 times. The US… Continue reading

“I think that I shall never see / A poem as lovely as a tree.” Many, if not most people remember that’s the first couplet of Trees, a poem by Joyce Kilmer. Not quite as many remember that in spite of the name, Joyce Kilmer was male. “Joyce” was actually his middle name. He wrote… Continue reading

Today is the anniversary of Flight 19, the five US Air Force bombers that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle. They were on a training mission and reported that their compasses had stopped working and they’d gotten lost. Although they knew they were due east of Florida, where they’d taken off, for some reason they didn’t… Continue reading

As everybody knows, December 4, at least in the US, is National Cookie Day. December, of course, is well known for National Food Days; it all starts on the first, which is Eat a Red Apple Day. The next day takes a left turn away from healthy choices to be National Fritter Day. Then after… Continue reading

December 3, 1800, was the day that Aaron Burr nearly became the third president of the US. The 1800 election resulted in a tie between Burr and Thomas Jefferson, so it was up to the House of Representatives to hold a contingent election. After the first ballot, that was tied too, and it stayed that… Continue reading

It was December 2, 1823 that US President James Monroe delivered the State of the Union address where he announced what’s now called the Monroe Doctrine — the US was going to be neutral in all future European conflicts. The Monroe Doctrine lasted quite a while, although of course the US eventually got involved in… Continue reading

Everybody in the US has heard about Rosa Parks from Montgomery, Alabama, who refused to give up her bus seat just so a white-skinned person could sit in it. It was a seminal moment in the civil rights movement, and it happened on this date, December 1, in 1955. Parks probably didn’t choose the date,… Continue reading

It’s November 30, which is not the day the gigantic Louisiana Purchase took place — that was the time in 1803 that the US purchased over 800,000 square miles of land from France, just about doubling the size of the country. But November 30, 1802 had something to do with the purchase, because it was… Continue reading

Today is the anniversary of the day that Enos, the only chimpanzee to orbit the earth, was launched aboard Mercury-Atlas 5 in 1961. It was the final rehearsal of the Mercury program before John Glenn’s orbital flight. Enos completed two orbits, then his capsule reentered the atmosphere and splashed down in the Atlantic. Enos was… Continue reading