December 2, 1942 – Physicists led by Enrico Fermi carried out the first successful nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago.
December 5, 1933 – Prohibition ends when the 21st Amendment to the Constitution is ratified. It repeals the 18th Amendment which made the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquor illegal.
December 6, 1877 – At his laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, Thomas Edison spoke the children’s verse “Mary had a Little Lamb…” while demonstrating his newly-invented phonograph.
December 7, 1941 – The Japanese attack the U. S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii leaving 2,403 Americans dead and leading to the U. S. entry into World War II.