December 6 ...

In 1768 the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica was published. In 1790 Congress moved from New York to Philadelphia. In 1865 the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, abolishing slavery. In 1884 Army engineers completed construction of the Washington Monument. In 1889 former president of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis died in New Orleans. In 1896 lyricist Ira Gershwin was born in New York City. In 1923 a presidential address was broadcast on radio for the first time as President Coolidge spoke to a joint session of Congress. In 1947 Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated by President Truman. In 1957 America's first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit blew up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, FL. In 1969 a concert by The Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway in Livermore, CA was marred by the deaths of four people, including one who was stabbed by a member of the Hell's Angels. In 1973 House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew, who had resigned. In 1982 11 soldiers and six civilians were killed when an Irish National Liberation Army bomb exploded in a pub in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland. In 1989 Egon Krenz resigned as leader of East Germany; also on this day, 14 women were shot to death at the University of Montreal's school of engineering by a man who then took his own life. In 1995 President Clinton vetoed a seven-year Republican budget-balancing plan; also on this day, the House ethics committee sent a highly critical letter to House Speaker Newt Gingrich, saying he had committed three ethics violations. In 2004 al Qaeda terrorists struck the US Consulate in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, with explosives and machine guns, killing nine people.