- 1776 – American forces under Gen. George Washington, having crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night, defeated Hessian mercenary troops at the Battle of Trenton.
- 1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.
- 1908 – Jack Johnson became the first African-American to win the world heavyweight boxing title.
- 1917 – President Woodrow Wilson signed an order giving the federal government control over operation of U.S. railroads for the duration of World War I.
- 1941 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
- 1991 – The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War.
- 1996 – Child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found slain in a basement room of her family’s Boulder, Colo., home.
