This Week in History
by Dianne Hermann
“The secret to happiness is freedom.
The secret to freedom is courage.” Carrie Jones
Dec 1-7, 2025
December 1
1891 – James Naismith of Springfield, Massachusetts, creates the game of basketball as a way to motivate and inspire young men that “should be of a recreative nature, something that would appeal to their play instincts.” Two peach baskets were nailed to each end of the lower balcony of the gymnasium at Springfield College and Naismith wrote the 13 original rules for the game. The Basketball Hall of Fame, founded in 1959, is located in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1913 – Henry Ford introduces the continuous moving assembly line, producing a car every 2 hours and 38 minutes. By 1927, Ford factories built a Model T every 24 seconds and accounted for half of all cars sold worldwide.
1929 – Toymaker Edwin S. Lowe invents the game “Bingo” when he is 18 years old. Lowe bought the rights to the game “Yahtzee” in 1956. Lowe died in 1986 at age 75.
1941 – The U.S. Civil Air Patrol (CAP) organizes. The week after the Pearl Harbor attack thousands of CAP civilian volunteers log more than 500,000 hours performing critical wartime missions.
1955 – Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to move to the back of the bus, triggering the Montgomery bus boycott.
1969 – The U.S. government holds its first draft lottery since WW II. The first number drawn is 258 (matching the birth date of September 14) so all men born between 1944 and 1950 who share that birth date are called to serve at once.
1981 – The AIDS virus (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is officially recognized. The cause was later discovered to be a human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV.
1982 – Michael Jackson releases his “Thriller” album and it becomes, and remains, the best-selling album of all time. Jackson died at age 50 in 2009.
1987 – NASA announces four companies (Boeing Aerospace, G. E.’s Astro-Space Division, McDonnell Douglas Aeronautics, and Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International) have been given contracts to help build a space station. Construction began in 1988. The International Space Station has been continuously inhabited for over 24 years. It will be decommissioned in 2030. Watch a short NASA video about life on the ISS.
1998 – Exxon announces that it will buy Mobil for $73.7 billion creating the largest company in the world to date. Walmart is now the largest. Three of the top six companies are Chinese.
2001 – The 76 years of TWA airline operations comes to an end when Captain Bill Compton lands Trans World Airlines Flight 220, an MD-83, at St. Louis International Airport. American Airlines acquired TWA.
December 2
1823 – President James Monroe declares his “Monroe Doctrine.” Monroe stated during a message to Congress that, “The American continents … are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.”
1845 – U.S. President James K. Polk announces to Congress that the United States should aggressively expand into the West in what became known as “Manifest Destiny.”
1942 – Dr. Enrico Fermi and his staff produce the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago. Fermi described the Chicago Pile-1 apparatus as “a crude pile of black bricks and wooden timbers.”
1954 – The U.S. Senate censures Senator Joe McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) for “conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.” McCarthy claimed that communists had infiltrated the U.S. State Department. He became chair of the Senate’s subcommittee on investigations. He continued to serve in the Senate until his death in May of 1957 at age 48.
1957 – The first nuclear power plant in the world opens in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, and remained operational until 1982. There are currently 94 commercially operating nuclear reactors in 54 nuclear power plants in the U.S. in 28 states.
1982 – The first permanent artificial heart is successfully implanted in retired dentist Barney Clark. He lived 112 days with the Jarvic-7 heart.
2014 – Stephen Hawking claims that Artificial Intelligence could be a “threat to mankind” and spell the end of the human race. Hawking, who from suffered from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), died in 2018 at age 76. Watch a report on the claim.
December 3
1868 – The first blacks are selected to serve on a U.S. jury in preparation for the trial of Confederate President Jefferson Davis for treason. They never served on the jury because Davis, after 2 years of imprisonment at Fort Monroe, Virginia, was released in $100,000 bail.
1923 – The first Congressional open session is broadcast via radio from Washington, DC.
1950 – Paul Harvey begins his national radio broadcast. Harvey started his radio career with a local broadcast in Chicago in 1944. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. His final broadcast was on February 7, 2009. Harvey died three weeks later at age 90. Good day!
1989 – Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President George H. W. Bush declare that the Cold War is over. It started after the end of World War II amid geopolitical uncertainties. The term Cold War was coined by author George Orwell in an essay written in 1945.
2012 – The Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977, reaches the end of our solar system and enters interstellar space. At 15 billion miles from Earth, it is the most distance human-made object. Voyager’s mission is expected to continue until about 2025, when its generators will no longer be able to supply enough power to operate the onboard instruments.
2015 – Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announces that all combat roles in U.S. armed forces will be open to women. Watch Carter’s announcement from the Pentagon.
December 4
1872 – The American merchant ship Mary Celeste is discovered mysteriously abandoned in the Atlantic Ocean. There were no signs of foul play, the ship had a full supply of food and water, but her crew was never found.
1918 – President Wilson sails for the Versailles Peace Conference in France at the end of World War I, becoming the first chief executive to travel outside U.S. while in office. The Conference set the terms for peace.
1920 – In the first pro football playoff game, the Buffalo All-Americans beat the Canton Bulldogs 7-3 at the Polo Grounds. The undefeated Akron Pros go on to beat the Buffalo All-Americans.
1964 – Baseball approves a free-agent draft. Rick Monday was the first pick in the first free agent draft on June 8, 1965. Monday is most well-known for rescuing the American flag from fans trying to burn it during a 1976 game at Dodger Stadium. Watch the heroic incident with player interviews.
1978 – Dianne Feinstein becomes San Francisco’s first woman mayor when she is named to replace Mayor George Moscone, who was murdered. Feinstein, who passed away in 2023 during her sixth term, was the oldest Senator at 90 years of age. She was also listed as the second-wealthiest Senator.
1991 – Pan American World Airways, founded in 1927, ceases operations. Pan Am was the largest U.S. international air carrier. Delta, founded in 1924, is the oldest airline company still operating in the U.S.
1998 – The Unity Module, the first U.S.-built module for the International Space Station, is launched on board the Space Shuttle Endeavor. The main construction of the ISS was completed in 2011. The ISS has been continuously occupied since November 2000 and is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2030.
2017 – The Supreme Court allows President Trump’s travel ban for six mostly Muslim nations to go into effect.
December 5
1792 – George Washington is re-elected President, with John Adams as his Vice-President.
1848 – President James T. Polk triggers the Gold Rush of ’49 when he confirms the discovery of gold in Sutter’s Mill, California. About 300,000 people went to California and extracted more than 750,000 pounds of gold.
1933 – The 21st Amendment is ratified as the only amendment adopted to repeal an earlier amendment (18th Amendment – Prohibition).
1945 – The “Lost Squadron” disappears east of Florida in the Bermuda Triangle. Five bombers of Flight 19 reported problems with their instruments. The search aircraft also disappeared, for a total loss of 27 men.
1955 – The AFL (founded in 1886) and CIO (founded in 1935) unions merge. The AFL-CIO represents 58 national and international unions with about 12.5 million active and retired members. Membership peaked in 1979 with 20 million members.
1964 – Captain Roger Donlon is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the Vietnam War for his heroism in battle earlier in the year. Watch Cpt. Donlon’s story in his own words.
1985 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average rises above 1,500 for the first time. It is now around 47,000.
1998 – James P. Hoffa becomes the president of the Teamsters union, 23 years after his father, Jimmy Hoffa, was the head of the Teamsters. His father disappeared in 1975 and is presumed dead.
2008 – OJ Simpson is sentenced to 33 years in prison for kidnapping and armed robbery. He was paroled in 2017 after serving 9 years. OJ died in April 2024 at age 76.
December 6
1790 – Congress convenes in Philadelphia, the new temporary U.S. capital, after leaving New York City. Washington, DC became the permanent capital of the U.S. in 1800.
1884 – The construction of the Washington Monument is completed. The project took 34 years to build and was interrupted by financial problems and the Civil War. The marble used for upper two-thirds of the monuments came from a different quarry and is a different color.
1907 – A coal mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia, killed 362 miners in the worst mine disaster in U.S. history. It was one of four deadly coal mine disasters in 1907.
1923 – President Calvin Coolidge made the first presidential address on the radio. The broadcast to a joint session of Congress was the first of what is now known as the State of the Union Address.
1957 – The first U.S. attempt to launch a satellite fails when the Vanguard rocket blows up. Only 3 of the 11 Vanguard rockets were successfully placed in orbit from 1957 to 1959.
1964 – “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer,” a stop-action animation movie, airs for the first time on TV (and every year since). The title song was written by Johnny Marks and sung by country music legend Gene Autry. Listen to the iconic song with images from the movie.
1969 – About 300,000 people attend the Altamont Speedway Free Concert in California, four months after Woodstock. The rock concert, featuring the Rolling Stones, was marred by violence.
1994 – The Maltese Falcon movie prop is auctioned for $398,590. In 2013, it sold at auction for over $4 million, making it one of the most expensive movie props ever sold.
2006 – NASA announces that photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggests the presence of liquid water on Mars.
December 7
1787 – Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the Constitution.
1925 – Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller sets a world record in the 150-yard freestyle with a time of 1 minute 25 seconds. He went on to play “Tarzan” in several movies. Weissmuller died in 1984 at age 79. Watch a 1974 interview with Weissmuller on how he became Tarzan.
1941 – The Japanese attack the U.S. at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii, killing 2,403 people, on a date that will live in infamy.
1963 – Instant replay is used for the first time in the Army-Navy game. The system was invented by CBS Sports Director Tony Verna and weighed 1,300 pounds.
1982 – Charlie Brooks Jr., a convicted murderer, becomes the first prisoner in the U.S. to be executed by lethal injection. He was executed at a prison in Huntsville, Texas.
1998 – Attorney General Janet Reno declines to seek an independent counsel investigation of President Bill Clinton over his 1996 campaign financing.
2005 – Rigoberto Alpizar, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 924 who claimed to have a bomb, is shot and killed by a team of U.S. federal air marshals at Miami International Airport.
Image from: vanityfair.com
