This Day in His-Story

Joseph Smith Jr., the Prophet of the Restoration, was born on December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Vermont. Raised by faithful parents and shaped by hardship, illness, and spiritual seeking, Joseph was led at age 14 to pray for guidance, resulting in the First Vision, where he saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. This sacred experience prepared him to restore the gospel, translate the Book of Mormon, and...

On December 22, 1882, Edward H. Johnson, a close associate of Thomas Edison, displayed the first Christmas tree lit with electric lights in his New York City home. His revolving tree, decorated with hand-wired red, white, and blue bulbs, offered a safer alternative to candle-lit trees and helped inspire a new holiday tradition. Though it took years for electricity to be widely trusted and affordab...

The winter solstice marks the astronomical first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and the shortest day of the year, when the sun reaches its lowest point in the sky and daylight hours are at their shortest. After this day, sunlight gradually increases, a change many cultures have viewed as a rebirth of light. In 2020, the winter solstice coincided with a rare Great Conjunction, when Jupite...

One of the earliest recorded accounts of cutting down a Christmas tree comes from December 20, 1821, when Matthew Zahn of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, wrote about his family selecting an evergreen for Christmas. While this was not the beginning of the tradition, it reflects a long history that stretches back to ancient winter celebrations in Egypt and Rome, medieval Paradise trees, and German candleli...

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’s timeless holiday story, was published in London on December 19, 1843, and sold out its entire first printing by Christmas Eve. Written in just six weeks during a period of personal financial strain, the story follows the bitter Ebenezer Scrooge as he is visited by the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, leading him to repentance and renewal. In...

The Nutcracker, the beloved Christmas ballet by Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, premiered on December 18, 1892, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and has since become a treasured holiday tradition around the world. Based on a fairy tale by E.T.A. Hoffmann and adapted by Alexandre Dumas, the story follows young Marie as her wooden nutcracker comes to life, defeats the Mouse King, and c...

Ludwig van Beethoven, baptized on December 17, 1770, became one of the greatest composers in history, reshaping music through his bold symphonies, sonatas, and concertos—even as he battled personal hardship and eventual deafness. A gifted child raised under an abusive father, Beethoven supported his family by age ten and published his first work at twelve. His early masterpieces, such as the “Moon...

On December 16, 1901, Beatrix Potter privately published The Tale of Peter Rabbit , a story that grew into one of the best-selling children’s books in history and launched her career as the beloved author-illustrator of 23 classics. Though raised in a quiet, sheltered home, Potter spent her childhood sketching animals, exploring the countryside, and developing a love for nature that filled her sto...

The Bill of Rights—the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution—was ratified on December 15, 1791, securing essential freedoms like religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. During the nation’s early debates, Federalists and Anti-Federalists disagreed on how to protect individual liberties until leaders such as George Mason and James Madison pushed for a national bill of rights. Congre...

On December 14, 1911, Roald Amundsen and his small Norwegian team became the first explorers to reach the South Pole, arriving five weeks before the British expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott in one of history’s most dramatic polar races. Amundsen had secretly changed his plans from the Arctic to the Antarctic, sailing on the polar ship Fram and using expert ski skills and dog teams to cross th...

National Cocoa Day on December 13 celebrates the warm comfort of hot cocoa, a drink whose roots stretch back thousands of years to the Olmecs and Mayans, who first cultivated cacao—the “food of the gods.” From Columbus introducing cocoa beans to Europe, to Spanish physicians praising its health benefits, to early American chocolate makers like John Hanan and Dr. James Baker refining it in the colo...

Gingerbread House Day, celebrated each year on December 12, honors a beloved Christmas tradition that began centuries ago with the arrival of gingerbread in Europe, brought by Gregory of Nicopolis in 992 AD. Over time, gingerbread became an art form—shaped into saints, royal portraits, and festive figures, eventually leading German bakers in the early 1800s to create the first decorated gingerbrea...

International Mountain Day highlights the beauty and importance of the world’s mountains, which cover about a quarter of Earth’s land and supply most of the planet’s fresh water. Mountains form through tectonic forces—folding, faulting, or volcanic activity—creating ranges like the Himalayas, Sierra Nevada, and Mount Fuji. They provide food, energy, clean air, recreation, and habitats for wildlife...

Emily Dickinson, born December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, became one of America’s most influential poets, known for her brief, striking lines and deep emotional insight. Living a mostly secluded life, she wrote over 1,700 poems—many exploring nature, hope, faith, and doubt—often in hymn-like meter that later shaped modern poetry. Her famous works like “Hope Is the Thing with Feathers” re...

A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired on December 9, 1965, becoming an instant classic and offering a simple message about the true meaning of Christmas. Though considered a risky project—bringing Schulz’s quiet comic-strip world to animation—the special drew more than 15 million viewers on its debut night. The story follows Charlie Brown as he searches for Christmas purpose amid commercialism, wi...

Eli Whitney, born December 8, 1765, in Massachusetts, revolutionized American agriculture with his 1794 invention of the cotton gin, a machine that removed seeds from cotton far faster than hand labor and transformed cotton into the nation’s leading export by the mid-1800s. A naturally gifted mechanic who once built a nail forge and violin, Whitney studied at Yale before moving to Georgia, where h...

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, destroying or damaging much of the U.S. Pacific fleet—including the USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma—and killing 2,403 Americans, which prompted President Roosevelt’s “date which will live in infamy” speech and brought the United States into World War II. Though the assault devastated battleships and aircraft, key resources such as...

St. Nicholas, a 3rd-century Christian from what is now Turkey, devoted his inherited wealth to serving the poor, becoming Bishop of Myra and earning a reputation for generosity, courage, and compassion—especially through stories like secretly providing dowries for three impoverished daughters, which inspired modern Christmas gift-giving traditions. After enduring persecution, attending the Council...

Walt Disney, born December 5, 1901, became one of the world’s best-known creators through his pioneering work in animation, earning 26 Academy Awards and developing beloved characters like Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, and Goofy. From childhood newspaper routes to art studies, ambulance service in World War I, and early animation experiments like Laugh-o-Grams and Alice in Cartoonla...

National Sock Day celebrates the rare joy of a perfectly matched pair while tracing the long history of socks from ancient animal-hair coverings to silk stockings for nobles, to modern machine-knit socks thanks to William Lee’s 1589 knitting invention that helped spark the Industrial Revolution. Today socks come in every fabric and design, from practical wool to the colorful pairs famously worn by...

On December 3, 1777, Quaker mother Lydia Barrington Darragh bravely warned the Continental Army of a planned British attack after secretly overhearing officers meeting in her home, risking her safety to walk miles through snow under the pretense of getting flour so she could pass the message to Patriot contacts. Her intelligence reached George Washington in time to prepare for the assault at White...

King Camp Gillette revolutionized shaving when he patented his razor with disposable blades in 1901, a breakthrough inspired by his experience as a traveling salesman and advice to “invent something people use and throw away.” After years of difficulty creating thin, hardened steel, inventor William Nickerson helped produce the first successful Gillette safety razor, which quickly spread nationwid...

Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum, and several companions were imprisoned in Liberty Jail from December 1838 to April 1839, suffering bitter cold, poisoned food, and unjust confinement while the Saints faced severe persecution in Missouri. In this dark setting, Joseph poured out his pleas to God and received the revelations now found in Doctrine and Covenants 121–123—teachings that remind us that ad...

Mark Twain—born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835—grew up along the Mississippi River, where the sights, characters, and struggles of frontier life later shaped his classic American novels. Leaving school at 11 to work as a printer’s apprentice, he developed a love for words that carried him from riverboat piloting to mining to writing, eventually adopting the pen name “Mark Twain,” a...

Louisa May Alcott was born on November 29, 1832, a month she jokingly called “disagreeable,” just like her character Jo in Little Women. Raised in a thoughtful, creative home in Concord, she learned from thinkers like Thoreau and Emerson, acted in family plays, and developed her talent for writing despite her family’s financial struggles. Her experiences as a Civil War nurse, her early published s...