December 20
More than two years after the Berlin Wall was constructed by East Germany to prevent its citizens from fleeing its communist regime passes are granted. – 1963.
December 21
Samuel Slater’s thread-spinning factory goes into production in Pawtucket, R.I., which launches the Industrial Revolution in America. – 1790.
December 22
The Romanian army defects to the cause of anti-communist demonstrators, and the government of Nicolae Ceausescu is overthrown. – 1989.
December 23
In Tokyo, Japan, Hideki Tojo, former Japanese premier and chief of the Kwantung Army, is executed along with six other top Japanese leaders for their war crimes. – 1948.
December 24
Seventy-two copper miners’ children die in panic caused by company stooge in Calumet, Mich. who shouted fire into a crowded hall. – 1913.
December 25
During the American Revolution, patriot General George Washington crosses the Delaware River with 5,400 troops, to surprise a Hessian force that is celebrating Christmas in Trenton, N.J.. – 1776.
December 26
The first day of the first Kwanzaa is celebrated in Los Angeles under the direction of Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University in Long Beach. – 1966.
Sources: History.com, Toil and Trouble, by Thomas R. Brooks; American Labor Struggles, by Samuel Yellen; IWW calendar, Solidarity Forever; Historical Encyclopedia of American Labor, edited by Robert E. Weir and James P. Hanlan.