On December 4, 1982, the Fifth National People’s Congress passed the current Constitution of China.
On December 3, 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt called for the dissolution of business trusts in his first State of the Union address. Roosevelt would go on to dissolve 44 trusts during his administration, earning the nickname “Trust Buster”.
On December 3, 1931, the UK Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster, under which the British dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Irish Free State and Newfoundland gained complete legislative independence. The statute received royal assent and came into force on December 11.
On December 2, 1859, militant abolitionist John Brown was hanged for murder and treason in the wake of an unsuccessful attack on the US armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. Read John Brown’s last speech to the court at his trial.
December 2 is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.
On December 1, 1955, civil rights activist Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her action prompted a year-long boycott of the Montgomery public transit system, which only came to an end after bus segregation was ruled illegal by the federal [...]
On November 30, 1804, US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase went on trial in the Senate for “arbitrary and oppressive conduct of trials.” He was acquitted in March 1805. Read a C-SPAN interview with Chief Justice William Rehnquist on his 1992 book Grand Inquests: The Historic Impeachments of Justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson. [...]
On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.
On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.