The Week in History Dec. 18-24

Dec. 18

1865: The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, was declared in effect by Secretary of State William H. Seward.

1892: Tchaikovsky's ballet ''The Nutcracker'' publicly premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia.

1915: President Woodrow Wilson, widowed the year before, married Edith Bolling Galt at her Washington home.

1971: The Rev. Jesse Jackson announced in Chicago the founding of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity).

1972: South Dakota's four presidential electoral votes were cast for President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew. The electors were chosen by South Dakota voters in the November election.

1986: The Aberdeen County Club announced its 1987 membership rates. Golf memberships for a couple or family were $832 and $416 for singles. Social memberships for a couple or family were $312 and for a single is $182.

2014: “The Interview” will not be playing in Aberdeen. Carmike Cinemas, the country's fourth-largest chain and owners of Carmike 9 at the then-Lakewood Mall, pulled its scheduled showing of the film after hackers threatened terrorist attacks at theaters showing the comedy. The movie is about two American journalists who are assigned to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Dec. 19

1843: ''A Christmas Carol,'' by Charles Dickens, was first published in England.

1950: Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was named commander of the military forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

1971: ''A Clockwork Orange,'' Stanley Kubrick's controversial movie adaptation of the Anthony Burgess novel, had its world premiere in the U.S.

1972: Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, winding up the Apollo program of manned lunar landings.

1998: President Bill Clinton was impeached by the Republican-controlled House for perjury and obstruction of justice. (He was later acquitted by the Senate.)

Dec. 20

1803: The Louisiana Purchase was completed as ownership of the territory was formally transferred from France to the United States.

1812: German authors Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published the first volume of the first edition of their collection of folk stories, titled ''Children's and Household Tales.''

1963: The Berlin Wall was opened for the first time to West Berliners, who were allowed one-day visits to relatives in the Eastern sector for the holidays.

1978: Former White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman was released from prison after serving 18 months for his role in the Watergate cover-up.

1980: Aberdeen police officers were considering participating in the whisker contest for the Aberdeen Centennial. Special permission was granted since it was against police department regulations for officers to have beards.

2002: Trent Lott resigned as Senate Republican leader two weeks after igniting a political firestorm with racially charged remarks.

Dec. 21

1620: Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass.

1937: Walt Disney's first feature-length animated cartoon, ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,'' had its world premiere in Los Angeles.

1945: Gen. George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident.

1964: Several college students picketed downtown Aberdeen stores to protest the merchants' new policy to be open on Sunday afternoons.

1984: Tickets were on sale for the 1985 Snow Queen contest featuring entertainment by Bobbie Vee. Reserved seats were $7, general admission was $4.

1991: Eleven of the 12 former Soviet republics proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the death of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Dec. 22

1864: During the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman said in a message to President Abraham Lincoln: "I beg to present you as a Christmas-gift the city of Savannah."

1944: During the World War II Battle of the Bulge, U.S. Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe rejected a German demand for surrender, writing "Nuts!" in his official reply.

1977: Three dozen people were killed when a 250-foot-high grain elevator at the Continental Grain Company plant in Westwego, La., exploded.

1983: South Dakota ranked last on the per-capita average pay list coming in at $12,702 per year. Alaska ranked No. 1 at $27,904.

1984: Clark Engineering moved into its new building at 1011 First Ave. S.E.

1984: New York City resident Bernhard Goetz shot and wounded four youths on a Manhattan subway, claiming they were about to rob him.

2001: Richard C. Reid, a passenger on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami, tried to ignite explosives in his shoes, but was subdued by flight attendants and fellow passengers. Reid is serving a life sentence in federal prison.

Dec. 23

1783: George Washington resigned as commander in chief of the Continental Army and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Va.

1823: The poem ''Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas'' was published anonymously in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel; the verse, more popularly known as '''Twas the Night Before Christmas,'' was later attributed to Clement C. Moore.

1928: The National Broadcasting Company set up a permanent, coast-to-coast network.

1972: The next legislative session would attempt to raise South Dakota's minimum wage from $1.25 to $1.60 per hour to conform with the federal wage increase.

1974: The University of South Dakota would have a medical school beginning in the fall.

1989: Money Magazine declared South Dakota one of 10 “tax haven” states since South Dakota had no personal income tax and only 4% sales tax.

Dec. 24

1865: Several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tenn., called the Ku Klux Klan.

1951: Gian Carlo Menotti's ''Amahl and the Night Visitors,'' the first opera written specifically for television, was first broadcast by NBC-TV.

1955: The Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., fielded a series of phone calls from children wanting to know the whereabouts of Santa Claus after an ad in a local newspaper mistakenly gave the Center's number; thus began a tradition continued by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) of tracking Santa's location the night before Christmas.

1968: The Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve telecast.

1978: The Federal Aviation Administration planned to establish new radar services at airports in Sioux Falls and Rapid City.

1980: Americans remembered the U.S. hostages in Iran by burning candles or shining lights for 417 seconds — one second for each day of captivity.

This article originally appeared on Aberdeen News: History listing for events Dec. 18-24