December 28
The world’s first commercial movie screening takes place at the Grand Cafe in Paris. The film was made by Louis and Auguste Lumiere, two French brothers who developed a camera-projector called the Cinematographe. The Lumiere brothers unveiled their invention to the public in March 1895 with a brief film showing workers leaving the Lumiere factory. The entrepreneurial siblings screened a series of short scenes from every-day French life and charged admission for the first time. – 1895.
An earthquake in Sicily kills more than 100,000 persons and destroys several towns. The 7.5-magnitude tremor off the coast of the large island was responsible for deaths on the Italian mainland. – 1908.
December 29
Six months after the Congress of the Republic of Texas accepts U.S. annexation of the territory, Texas is admitted into the United States as the 28th state. – 1845.
In the final chapter of America’s long Indian wars, the U.S. Cavalry kills 146 Sioux at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. – 1890.
After years of intensive lobbying by the labor movement, a comprehensive National safety law is enacted when president Richard Nixon signs the Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970, to create the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA). – 1970.
More than 15,000 United Steel Workers members at 16 Goodyear Tire & Rubber plants end an 86-day strike and ratify a three-year contract. – 2006.
December 30
In post-revolutionary Russia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is established, which comprises a confederation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation, divided in 1936 into the Georgian, Azerbaijan, and Armenian republics. Known as the Soviet Union, the new communist state was the successor to the Russian Empire and the first country in the world to be based on Marxist socialism. – 1922.
December 31
Nearly 60,000 unemployed workers rally at a Pittsburgh stadium. – 1931.
The United States, in accordance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, officially hands over control of the Panama Canal, to put the strategic waterway into Panamanian hands for the first time. Crowds of Panamanians celebrated the transfer of the 50-mile canal, which links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. – 1999.
January 1
With the Great Depression in full force, the year 1932 opens with 14 million unemployed, National income is down by 50% and breadlines include former shopkeepers, businessmen, and middle-class housewives. Charity is overwhelmed: Only one-quarter of America’s unemployed are receiving any help at all. – 1932.
Workers begin to acquire credits toward Social Security pension benefits. Employers and employees became subject to a tax of one percent of wages on up to $3,000 a year. – 1937.
Facing a popular revolution spearheaded by Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista flees the island nation. Amid celebration and chaos in the Cuban capitol of Havana, the U.S. debated how best to deal with the radical Castro and the ominous rumblings of anti-Americanism in Cuba. – 1959.
The federal minimum wage increases to $2.65 per hour. – 1978.
January 2
Georgia votes to ratify the U.S. Constitution to become the fourth state in the modern United States, and was one of the original 13 colonies. – 1788.
Albert Fall, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior, resigns in response to public outrage over the Teapot Dome scandal. Fall’s resignation illuminated a deeply corrupt relationship between western developers and the federal government. – 1923.
An underground explosion at Sago Mine in Tallmansville, W. Va., traps 12 miners and cuts power to the mine. Eleven men die, mostly by asphyxiation. The mine had been cited 273 times for safety violations over the prior 23 months. – 2006.
January 3
In an event that heralds the birth of modern Japan, patriotic samurai from Japan’s outlying domains join with anti-shogunate nobles in restoring the emperor to power after 700 years. The young emperor, Meiji, and his ministers, move the royal court from Kyoto to Tokyo, dismantle feudalism, and enact widespread reforms along Western models. The newly-unified Japanese government sets off on a path of rapid industrialization and militarization, and builds Japan into a major world power by the early 20th Century. – 1867.
U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower signs a special proclamation to admit the territory of Alaska into the Union as the 49th and largest geographical state. – 1959.