This Day in History
In Alaska
• In 1922, the Ready Bullion Mine on Douglas Island near Juneau was permanently shut down.
• In 1971, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was signed into law, creating the 13 regional Native corporations in Alaska.
• In 1973, plans to add 31.5 million acres of Alaska land to the National Wildlife Refuge System were submitted by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton under a provision of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
In the nation
• In 1787, New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
• In 1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, was declared in effect.
• In 1915, President Wilson, widowed the year before, married Edith Bolling Galt at her Washington home.
• In 1944, in a pair of rulings, the Supreme Court upheld the wartime relocation of Japanese-Americans, but also said undeniably loyal Americans of Japanese ancestry could not be detained.
• In 1971, the Rev. Jesse Jackson announced the founding of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity).
In the world
• In 1892, Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite" publicly premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia.
• In 1940, Adolf Hitler signed a secret directive ordering preparations for a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. (Operation Barbarossa was launched in June 1941.)