🗃️ On New Year’s Eve 1999, Donald Trump told Tom Brokaw that he was considering a presidential bid.

On December 31, 1999, the United States officially handed over the Panama Canal to the Panamanian government, in accordance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977.

On December 31, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill to admit West Virginia as the Union’s 35th state. Six months later, he issued a proclamation formally recognizing its statehood.

On December 31, 1969, Vice President Spiro Agnew gifted Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos a moon rock from NASA’s Apollo 11 mission.

🗃️ On New Year’s Eve 1999, President Bill Clinton ushered in the new millennium with a celebration on the National Mall.

🗃️ In an address to the Soviet people on New Year’s Day 1988, President Ronald Reagan said that the United States would “always speak out on behalf of human dignity.”

🗃️ In his 2010 New Year’s message, President Barack Obama pledged, “Brighter days are ahead.”

🗃️ On New Year’s Eve 1977, President Jimmy Carter toasted the Shah of Iran during a visit to the country, calling him “an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world.” The Shah was ousted just over one year later.

On December 31, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed sweeping amendments to the Clean Air Act, first enacted in 1963, significantly expanding the federal government’s authority to curb air pollution.

Last December, Donald Trump was named TIME’s 2024 “Person of the Year.”

On December 30, 2006, Saddam Hussein was executed, three years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

On this day in 1964, Walter Mondale was appointed to the U.S. Senate from Minnesota to fill the vacancy left by Hubert Humphrey, who was elected vice president. Mondale would serve in the chamber until he was elected vice president in 1976 alongside Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were married for 77 years and four months, the longest of any presidential couple in U.S. history. The two met in their hometown of Plains, Georgia, having known each other since childhood, and were married in July 1946.

🗃️ In his Nobel address in 2002, former President Jimmy Carter said “the bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices.” — Subscribe for daily historical snapshots: everythingbriefing.substack.com

🗃️ In February 2011, former President Jimmy Carter said he hoped he’d be remembered for “peace and human rights.”

President John F. Kennedy looks on as his wife, Jacqueline, speaks in Spanish to soldiers of the Bay of Pigs Brigade in Miami, Florida, on December 29, 1962. The First Lady was fluent in multiple languages, including French and Spanish, and had working knowledge of several others.

On December 29, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act into law, establishing OSHA. The landmark legislation granted the federal government the authority to establish and enforce workplace safety rules.

On December 29, 2016, President Barack Obama issued sweeping sanctions on Russia in retaliation for its interference in that year’s presidential election.

On December 29, 1845, President James Polk signed a joint resolution adopted by Congress to officially annex the Republic of Texas, making it the nation’s 28th state.

On December 29, 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt delivered his “Arsenal for Democracy” speech. In the fireside chat, he called on American manufacturers to boost production of war materials to aid Allied nations battling the Axis powers.

One year ago today, former President Jimmy Carter died at the age of 100. Carter served one term as president before spending four decades in service to philanthropic causes with his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn.

On December 28, 2000, President Bill Clinton said at the White House that government projections showed the U.S. debt would be eliminated by 2010.

On December 28, 1832, John C. Calhoun resigned as vice president—the first of only two to do so—amid disagreements with President Andrew Jackson during the Nullification Crisis.

On December 28, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed the International Emergency Economic Powers Act into law. The legislation granted the president broad authority to sanction foreign actors and restrict international trade.

President Barack Obama is pictured from afar in the Oval Office amid ongoing debt ceiling negotiations with congressional leaders. December 28, 2012. — Subscribe for daily historical snapshots: everythingbriefing.substack.com

On December 28, 1846, Iowa was admitted to the Union as the 29th state.

President Donald Trump greeted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Mar-a-Lago estate today ahead of bilateral talks aimed at ending Ukraine’s war with Russia. Trump said he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of the meeting with Zelenskyy and would call him afterward.

On December 28, 1856, future President Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia.

🗃️ Former presidential candidates George McGovern and Bob Dole joke at a White House event hosted by President Bill Clinton on food aid for children on December 28, 2000. Clinton had served as McGovern’s Texas campaign coordinator in 1972, and defeated Dole in the 1996 general election.

On December 28, 1973, President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law. The legislation sought to prevent the extinction of endangered plants and wildlife and is one of several major environmental laws approved by Nixon during his presidency.

On December 27, 1977, President Jimmy Carter issued an executive order to lower tariffs on developing nations, part of the administration’s “human rights through trade” approach to foreign policy. The order came just ahead of Carter’s nine-day, seven-nation tour across Asia and Europe.

🗃️ In the waning days of his time in office, on December 27, 2016, President Barack Obama hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Pearl Harbor, the site of Imperial Japan’s deadly attack on U.S. service members 75 years earlier.

On December 27, 1972, President Richard Nixon visited Independence, Missouri, one day after the death of Harry Truman.

🗃️ An ad for Governor Jimmy Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign.

President George H. W. Bush is pictured with a black eye on December 27, 1992. Bush said the bruise was from a snowball thrown by his granddaughter Marshall on Christmas Eve.

The front pages of The Kansas City Star and the Los Angeles Times following the deaths of former Presidents Harry Truman and Gerald Ford, 34 years apart on December 26. — Subscribe for daily historical snapshots: everythingbriefing.substack.com

President Bill Clinton gestures to reporters before a duck-hunting trip on Maryland’s Eastern Shore on December 27, 1993.

On December 27, 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt seized the railroads as a scheduled national strike threatened to hobble the country’s transportation system amid World War II. — Subscribe for daily historical snapshots: everythingbriefing.substack.com

🗃️ On December 27, 2006, President George W. Bush addressed the death of Gerald Ford, who passed the night before.

🗃️ Former President Gerald Ford’s death is announced on ABC News on December 26, 2006.

On December 26, 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress. The remarks were part of Churchill’s multi-week visit to the United States following Washington’s entry into World War II.

The front page of The New York Times on December 26, 1991, one day after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

On December 26, 1973, President Richard Nixon became the first and only president to fly a public commercially scheduled flight in a bid to bring attention to the nation’s energy crisis.

In December 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and “the spirit of Ukraine” were named the TIME Person of the Year following Russia’s full-scale invasion.

In a letter addressed to Paul K. Carr on September 6, 1989, former President Gerald Ford described Harry Truman as a “favorite President of the Fords.” The two men, who served as the nation’s 33rd and 38th presidents, both died on December 26, exactly 34 years apart.

The cover of Sports Illustrated magazine on December 26, 1960, featuring President-elect John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline.

🗃️ Speaking to a joint session of Congress in January 1975, President Gerald Ford declared that the state of the union was “not good.” — Subscribe for daily historical snapshots: everythingbriefing.substack.com

🗃️ At the 1948 Democratic National Convention, underdog President Harry Truman said he and his running mate, Alben Barkley, would win the election and “make these Republicans like it.” — Subscribe for daily historical snapshots: everythingbriefing.substack.com

On December 26, 2006, former President Gerald R. Ford died at the age of 93 at his home in Rancho Mirage, California. At that time, Ford was the longest-living U.S. president, a record later surpassed by George H. W. Bush (age 94) and Jimmy Carter (age 100).

On December 26, 1972, former President Harry S. Truman died at the age of 88 in Kansas City, Missouri.