At approximately 8 a.m. on the morning of December 26, 1776, General George Washington’s Continental Army reaches the outskirts of Trenton, New Jersey, and descends upon the unsuspecting Hessian force guarding the city. Trenton’s 1,400 Hessian defenders were still groggy from the previous evening’s Christmas festivities and had underestimated the Patriot threat after months of […]

Eight months after the United States enters World War I on behalf of the Allies, President Woodrow Wilson announces the nationalization of a large majority of the country’s railroads under the Federal Possession and Control Act. The U.S. entry into the war in April 1917 coincided with a downturn in the fortunes of the nation’s […]

On December 26, 1941, the federal Office of Price Administration initiates its first rationing program in support of the American effort in World War II: It mandates that, beginning in early January the following year, no driver will be permitted to own more than five automobile tires. President Roosevelt established the Office of Price Administration […]

On December 26, General George S. Patton employs an audacious strategy to relieve the besieged Allied defenders of Bastogne, Belgium, during the brutal Battle of the Bulge. The capture of Bastogne was one of the key goals of the Battle of the Bulge. Bastogne provided a road junction in rough terrain where few roads existed; […]

On December 26, 1956, the visionary carmaker Preston Tucker dies of lung cancer. He was just 53 years old. Tucker began his career in the auto industry as a mail messenger at General Motors. He quickly worked his way out of the mailroom, however, and before he turned 30 he was the vice president of […]

On December 26, 1972, former President Harry S. Truman dies in Independence, Missouri. Then-President Richard Nixon called Truman a man of “forthrightness and integrity” who had a deep respect for the office he held and for the people he served, and who “supported and wisely counseled each of his successors.” Truman was born in Lamar, […]

On the afternoon of December 26, 1996, six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey is found dead under a blanket in the basement of her family’s Boulder, Colorado, home. John and Patsy Ramsey, her parents, had called police at 5:52 that following morning to report their daughter missing. Although police found a ransom note demanding $118,000, the money would […]