December 26th, 1973

The now-classic horror film The Exorcist was released in the United States. The film is the first major picture of its kind and is often credited as the exigence of the rise in horror films focusing on demonic possession and exorcism.

December 27th, 1831

Charles Darwin embarked on the HMS Beagle that took him to the Galapagos Islands, where he would craft his theory of evolution, known as Darwinism.

December 28th, 1856

American President Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia. Wilson is most widely known for being a leader of the Progressive Movement in America and leading the country into World War I.

December 29th, 1865

William Lloyd Garrison, the publisher of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, published the very last issue of his Bostonian newspaper.

December 30th, 1922

Fifteen republics joined the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and declared their capital city to be Moscow. The USSR would remain prevalent until the end of the Cold War in 1991.

December 31st, 1600

The English-chartered East India Company was formed to regulate trade with India, China, Indonesia and Persia. The joint-stock company wasn’t dissolved until 1874.

January 1st, 1863

After the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation that declared all enslaved people in the Confederate states free. The proclamation was mostly political and slavery was not officially abolished across the United States until December 6th, 1865.