Today in history

December 14

1791
The Bill of Rights was ratified.
Constitution of the United States of America

1917
U.S. peace activist and suffragist Kate Richards O’Hare jailed five years for speech denouncing World War I, occupied a neighboring jail cell to Emma Goldman, the well know anarchist organizer, feminist, writer and anti-war critic imprisoned for obstructing the draft. O’Hare was one of a number of prisoners Eugene Debs cited in his “Canton Speech” for which he in turn would be imprisoned.

1961
U.S. President John F. Kennedy formally announced that the United States would increase aid to South Vietnam, which included the expansion of the U.S. troop commitment. Kennedy, concerned with recent advances made by the communist insurgency movement in South Vietnam wrote to South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem: “We shall promptly increase our assistance to your defense effort.”

1994
After eight years, United States finally agreed to honor New Zealand’s ban on nuclear weapons in its territory. The ban is once again under attack.