Also on this day: The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, is declared in effect by Secretary of State William H.
Seward. (Months earlier, he had survived an assassination attempt on the same night that President Abraham Lincoln was killed.) Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Nutcracker” publicly premieres in St.
Petersburg, Russia.During World War I, the 10-month Battle of Verdun ends with French troops succeeding in repulsing a major German offensive.Congress passes the 18th Amendment to the U.S.
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