December 3

1619 – Thirty-eight colonists arrive at Berkeley Hundred, Virginia. The group’s charter proclaims that the day “be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.”
1783 – At Fraunces Tavern in New York City, U.S. General George Washington bids farewell to his officers.
1861 – The 109 Electors of the several states of the Confederate States of America unanimously elect Jefferson Davis as President and Alexander H. Stephens as Vice President.
1865 – North Carolina ratifies 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, followed soon by Georgia, and U.S. slaves were legally free within 2 weeks
1875 – Notorious New York City politician Boss Tweed escapes from prison. He is later recaptured in Spain.
1918 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sails for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office.
1943 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt closes down the Works Progress Administration, because of the high levels of wartime employment in the United States.
1945 – By a vote of 65-7, the United States Senate approves United States participation in the United Nations.
2017 – The Winklevoss twins are the first Bitcoin billionaires. They are known for suing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea from their social website ConnectU during 2004, which is now social media site Facebook.

Thomas Nast’s cartoon published in 1972 accurately predicts a prison’s inability to hold Boss Tweed

1969 – Jay Z, American rapper, producer, and actor, co-founded Roc-A-Fella Records. Born Shawn Corey Carter, Jay-Z takes his professional name from his nickname “Jazzy” and his mentor Jaz-O, and not the J/Z subway line that now services his home town of Brooklyn, as the myth goes.

1945 – Thomas Hunt Morgan, American geneticist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1866)