Dec. 19
1777: Gen. George Washington led his army of more than 12,000 soldiers to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
1998: President Bill Clinton was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice.
2008: President George W. Bush ordered a $17.4 billion emergency bailout of the U.S. auto industry.
Dec. 20
1803: The Louisiana Purchase was completed as ownership of the territory was formally transferred from France to the United States.
1946: The classic holiday film “It’s a Wonderful Life” premiered.
1989: The U.S. launched Operation Just Cause, sending troops into Panama to topple the government of Gen. Manuel Noriega.
Dec. 21
1620: Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, for the first time.
1864: During the Civil War, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman concluded their “March to the Sea” when they captured Savannah, Georgia.
1891: The first basketball game, devised by James Naismith, is believed to have been played at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1944: During the World War II Battle of the Bulge, U.S. Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe rejected a German demand for surrender, writing “Nuts!” in his official reply.
Dec. 22
1858: Opera composer Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy.
1989: Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu the last of Eastern Europe’s hardline Communist rulers, was toppled from power.
Dec. 23
1823: The poem “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” was published in the Troy (New York) Sentinel; the verse, more popularly known as ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” was later attributed to Clement C. Moore.
1913: The Federal Reserve System was created as President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act.
1948: Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo.
1954: The first successful human kidney transplant took place at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.
Dec. 24
1814: The United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812.
1865: Several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, that was the original version of the Ku Klux Klan.
1914: During World War I, impromptu Christmas truces began to take hold along parts of the Western Front between British and German soldiers.
1943: President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe as part of Operation Overlord
1968: The Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve telecast.
Dec. 25
A.D. 336: The first known commemoration of Christmas on Dec. 25 took place in Rome.
1066: William the Conqueror was crowned King of England.
1818: “Silent Night (Stille Nacht)” was publicly performed for the first time during the Christmas Midnight Mass at the Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.
1977: Comedian and filmmaker Sir Charles Chaplin died in Switzerland at age 88.
