1814

The United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812 following ratification by both the British Parliament and the U.S. Senate.

1851

Fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, destroying about 35,000 volumes (about two-thirds of the library’s collection).

1865

Several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Tennessee that was the original version of the Ku Klux Klan.

1914

During World War I, impromptu Christmas truces began to take hold along parts of the Western Front between British and German soldiers.