Today in History....December 6

On this day in …

1790, Congress moved from New York to Philadelphia

1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, officially ending the institution of slavery, is ratified. "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." With these words, the single greatest change wrought by the Civil War was officially noted in the U.S. Constitution

1884, Army engineers completed construction of the Washington Monument

1921, British and Irish representatives signed a treaty in London providing for creation of an Irish Free State a year later on the same date

1923, a presidential address was broadcast on radio for the first time as President Coolidge spoke to a joint session of Congress

1947, Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated by President Truman

1955, the Federal government standardized the size of license plates throughout the U.S. Previously, individual states had designed their own license plates, resulting in wide variations

1957, America's first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit failed as Vanguard TV-3 blew up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
1973, House minority leader Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew

1996, stock markets around the world plunged after comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan were taken to mean that U.S. stock prices were too high

2001,


The U.S. House of Representatives, by a one-vote margin, gave President Bush more power to negotiate global trade deals

Yasser Arafat, ym"sh, intensified his crackdown on Islamic terrorists. The stunt was nonetheless met with angry resistance as 1,500 Hamas supporters battled Palestinian riot police outside the home of the group's leader