Moments in Time: Confederate soldiers
The History Channel
On Dec. 25, 1868, President Andrew Johnson offered amnesty to all Confederate soldiers with Proclamation 179. It was the fourth order of its kind, with earlier agreements re-establishing legal rights to Confederate soldiers if they signed oaths of loyalty to the United States.
On Dec. 26, 1991, Jack Ruby's 38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver, which the nightclub owner used to kill J.F.K. assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, sold for $220,000 in a Las Vegas auction. The original asking price was $1 million.
On Dec. 27, 2019, Valerie Sneade and Jason Roy got married at their local Dunkin' Donuts in Worcester, Massachusetts, after ending their relationship at the same shop nearly three decades earlier. The reunited couple attributed their long separation to misunderstandings and "words that didn't come out right."
On Dec. 28, 1967, American businesswoman Muriel "Mickie" Siebert became the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. She also became the first female superintendent of banking for New York State. And after her death, the New York Stock Exchange named Siebert Hall for her, marking the first time a room at the stock exchange was named for a person.
On Dec. 29, 1852, Emma Snodgrass was arrested in Boston for the crime of ... wearing pants. Mocked by one newspaper as "the foolish girl who goes around in virile toggery," she was sent home to her police officer father in New York but went on to repeat the act a number of times.
On Dec. 30, 1940, California's first freeway, Arroyo Seco Parkway, also known as the Pasadena Freeway, officially opened to traffic. Now considered narrow and outdated, though still in use, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
On Dec. 31, 1970, Paul McCartney, after struggling through the summer of that year with the idea of having to bring legal action against his bandmates in order to be released from Apple Records and business manager Allen Klein, filed a lawsuit in London's High Court of Justice to dissolve the Beatles.
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