This Day in History

Merry Christmas, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 25th. It’s a reminder that the holiday spirit can persist even in the toughest of times: Just after midnight on Christmas 1914, during World War I, the majority of German troops stopped firing their guns and artillery and began to sing Christmas carols. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/a...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 24th. It’s become a beloved annual tradition, and it all began on this day in 1923, when President Calvin Coolidge lit the first national Christmas tree ever to grace the White House grounds. Not only was this the first White House “community” Christmas tree, but it was the first to be decorated with electric lights–a stra...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 23rd. If you know anything about Vincent Van Gogh, you likely know what happened on this day in 1888. That’s when the Dutch painter, suffering from severe depression, cut off the lower part of his ear with a razor. He later documented the event in a painting titled Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear. Learn more about your ad...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 22nd. It was an exciting day for animal lovers around the world: on this day in 1956, the Columbus Zoo in Ohio welcomed Colo, the first-ever gorilla born in captivity. Colo was a western lowland gorilla who weighed just about 4 pounds at birth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 21st. YouTube is the world’s second most popular website, after Google, with more than 2 billion users each month. Most of the site’s most popular videos are music videos, just like the one that became the first video to hit 1 billion views on this day in 2012--Gangnam Style by the Korean rapper Psy. The video’s success ma...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 20th. Just last month, a lock of Elvis Presley’s hair sold for some four thousand pounds at auction in the UK. Decades after his death, Elvis still has a remarkable fan base, and most people have heard hits like “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Hound Dog.” But they may not know that Elvis was also a U.S. army veteran, who received...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 19th. Most Americans are familiar with the July 1969 footage of the Apollo lunar landing, when NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon. But you might not know that the Apollo program continued for another three years. On this day in 1972, Apollo 17 became the last of America’...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 18th. Thanksgiving has been celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November since 1941, but it was actually on this day all the way back in 1777 that Americans celebrated the first day of national thanksgiving. That first celebration was held in honor of the American victory over the British at the Battle of Saratoga. Learn...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 17th. Prior to the pandemic, nearly 3 million people flew in and out of America’s airports each day. That number would likely have astonished Orville and WIlbur Wright, who made their famous first flight on this day in 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. That flight--the first made in a self-propelled, heavier-than-air c...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 16th. If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that just because something seems improbable, that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. The same adage would apply to the tragedy that unfolded on this day in 1960 over the skies of New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 15th. The leaning tower of Pisa is one of Italy’s most famous tourist attractions, but between 1990 and this day in 2001 it was closed to the public, as a team of experts spent 11 years and $27 million to fortify the tower without eliminating its famous lean. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adcho...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 14th. It was one of the saddest days in modern American history--on this day in 2012, a shooter killed 20 first graders and six school employees before turning the gun on himself at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Prior to the massacre, the shooter had killed his own mother, who was the owner of t...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 13th. On the heels of a tumultuous election, we look back to this day in 2000, when then-Vice President Al Gore conceded the presidential election to Texas governor George W. Bush. Gore had won the national popular vote by more than 500,000 votes, but narrowly lost Florida, giving the Electoral College to Bush, 271 to 266....

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 12th. Would you spend 5 million dollars on a notebook? That’s just what oil tycoon Armand Hammer paid on this day in 1980 for a notebook filled with drawings and writings from famed artist, architect and engineer Leonardo da Vinci. Written around 1508, the book contained 72 pages featuring 300 notes and detailed drawings r...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 11th. What would you do for love? That’s a question many were asking themselves on this day in 1936, when Great Britain’s King Edward VIII became the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 10th. Just one month after the historic election of Kamala Harris as the nation’s first ever woman vice president, we look back to this day in 1869, when Wyoming became the first territory or state in U.S. history to grant women the right to vote. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 9th. As the world continues to await a vaccine to help beat back the Covid-19 pandemic, we look back to this day in 1979, when a commission of scientists declared that smallpox had been officially eradicated from the earth. The disease, which ravaged humanity for centuries and killed about 30 percent of those who contracte...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 8th. It’s been 40 years since former Beatle John Lennon was shot and killed by an obsessed fan as he returned to his apartment on New York City’s Upper West Side on this day in 1980. As a key member of the most successful band of the 20th century, Lennon’s death was mourned by millions around the world. Learn more about yo...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 7th. President Franklin Roosevelt called it a day “which will live in infamy”--on this day in 1941, a Japanese dive bomber appeared out of the clouds above the island of Oahu, Hawaii. A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes followed, descending on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious assault. The surprise attack on...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 6th. On this day in 1865, after 400 years, slavery was finally abolished in America with the ratification of the 13th Amendment. The ratification came eight months after the end of the Civil War. When the war began, some in the North were against fighting what they saw as a crusade to end slavery. Learn more about your ad...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 5th. It’s a maritime mystery that’s never been solved: On this day in 1872, a British captain spotted an American ship called the Mary Celeste sailing erratically with its sails fully raised near the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 4th. So far at least, the historic New York City bar Fraunces Tavern has survived the pandemic. It’s been a beloved watering hole since even before this day in 1783, when it famously became the site of George Washington’s farewell to his Continental Army officers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 3rd. For now at least, the face of Andrew Jackson is front and center on every one of the nearly 9 billion 20-dollar bills in circulation. On this day in 1828, Jackson was elected the seventh U.S. president. His election marked a turning point in American politics, as the center of political power shifted from East to West...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 2nd. Actor Matt Damon turned 50 this year, some 23 years after his Oscar-nominated performance in Good Will Hunting, which premiered on this day in 1997. The film was a box-office smash and received nine Academy Award nominations, and two wins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 1st. Sixty-five years ago today, a 42-year-old African-American seamstress named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus to a white man. Her decision helped spark the civil rights movement in the United States. The local Black community soon organized a bus boycott, led by a young Reverend...