A view of Dartmouth College campus in New Hampshire from the early 1900s. It was established on December 13, 1769. Throughout its long history the college has produced an impressive list of notable alumni which includes over two dozen billionaires, 3 Nobel Prize laureates, 24 U.S. governors and one Vice President of The United States. Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Union soldiers after the Battle of Fredericksburg The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought in December 1862. On the 13th of December the Union Army suffered heavy casualties. Thousands of Union injured were pinned down near Marye’s Heights on a frigid December evening and were unable to receive assistance due to steady enemy fire. Image via NYPL Digital Collections, no known restrictions

Mary Todd, wife of Abraham Lincoln, was born on December 13, 1818. Mrs. Lincoln was a controversial figure during the Civil War, endured the deaths of three of her four sons and was present at the assassination of her husband. Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain {PD-US-expired}

On today’s date December 13, 1835: American clergyman Phillips Brooks was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Brooks is known as the author of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” He completed the lyrics while he was rector of Church of The Holy Trinity in Philadelphia after an earlier visit to the Holy Land. For Christmas services in 1868, Brooks’ organist (Lewis Redner) added music to the poem creating one of the most famous Christmas carols of all time.

Born December 13, 1864, Emil Seidel left school at 13 to become a woodcarver. While studying woodworking techniques in Germany he became a Socialist and was elected mayor of Milwaukee in 1910, the first Socialist to do so. Seidel was defeated for reelection by an unusual alliance of both Democrats AND Republicans. Image from NARA via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US.

“Liberty and freedom and democracy are prizes awarded only to those peoples who fight to win them, and then keep fighting eternally to hold them.” Alvin C. York was born on December 13, 1887 in Fentress County, Tennessee Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

On December 13, 1918, about a month after the armistice that ended WW1, the US 29th Infantry Division marched into Cologne, Germany. In the background of this image is the Cologne Cathedral, which took 632 years to build. Heavily damaged by WW2 bombing, the structure has since been restored. Image from IWM (Q 7220) via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Image of Federal forces in possession of a Confederate cannon at Fort McAllister near Savannah, Georgia just after its capture on December 13, 1864. A marine stands in attention on the left just above the gun toward the background. Also above the gun, to the right is a cavalryman who is leaning on his saber. In the center of the image is a Union officer, surrounded by troops, who reaches toward the cannon as if in the act of firing. Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

A portrait of Orville Wright dated December 13, 1928. “This flight lasted only 12 seconds, but it was nevertheless the first in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in full flight, had sailed forward without reduction of speed, and had finally landed at a point as high as that from which it started.” A quote by Orville Wright who lived until the late 1940s; more than 35 years after the death of his brother Wilbur Wright. Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

A technician works on NASA’s Relay 1 satellite. On December 13, 1962, Relay 1, the first satellite to broadcast American TV signals over the Pacific was launched. Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Happy Birthday Dick Van Dyke! Born on December 13, 1925 in West Plains, Missouri. Image: Dick Van Dyke in December of 1959 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain