On December 19, 1998, a divided US House of Representatives voted to impeach President Bill Clinton on charges of lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice in the Monica Lewinsky affair. Read the Articles of Impeachment.
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December 18 is International Migrants Day, marking the 1990 adoption of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
On December 18, 1944, the US Supreme Court decided Korematsu v. United States, upholding the wartime relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps. Read Executive Order 9066, issued by President Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, under which the internments were authorized. View photos from the Japanese American internment camps, collected by the University of Utah [...]
On December 17, 1830, South American revolutionary Simon Bolivar died in Colombia. During his lifetime, Bolivar led successful revolutions against Spanish colonial rule throughout South America. His efforts led to the independence of the modern-day nations of Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador and Bolivia, a nation named in his honor.
On December 17, 1798, the US Senate began its first impeachment trial. Senator William Blount of Tennessee, a land speculator, was accused of plotting with England to wrest control of Florida from Spain. The Senate ultimately dismissed the charges for lack of jurisdiction—and, perhaps incidentally, lack of Blount, who had gone to Tennessee and had [...]
On December 16, 1950, US President Harry S. Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency during the Korean War in response to Chinese intervention.
On December 16, 1689, the English “Bill of Rights” went into effect. Review An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown.
On December 15, 1961, former-Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death in Jerusalem, Israel. Known as the “architect of the Holocaust,” Eichmann escaped to Argentina after World War II until he was captured there by Israeli agents in 1960. Learn more about the trial of Adolf Eichmann from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
On December 15, 1894, US labor leader and socialist Eugene V. Debs was sentenced to six months imprisonment for his leadership of the Pullman railroad strike. Visit the website of the Eugene V. Debs Foundation.
On December 14, 1819, Alabama was admitted to the United States of America as the twenty-second state. Read the Constitution of Alabama and learn more about the history of the state.
