December 18 · This Day in America
Secretary of State William Seward certifies it, and on December 18, 1865, the words become permanent: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude … shall exist within the United States." It is the first change to the Constitution since 1804. Three-quarters of the states have ratified it. The promise written in Philadelphia in 1776 — that all men are created equal — is, eighty-nine years later, finally written into the law of the land for everyone. It does not undo what was done. It does not yet make the country whole; the long argument over what freedom means is only beginning. But the chains are now unconstitutional. A nation that had built itself partly on bondage had argued, and bled, and at last amended itself. The document could be held to its own best sentence — and now it had to be.
Source: www.archives.gov
Also on this day · 1958
Project SCORE rides an Atlas rocket into orbit from Cape Canaveral — the first communications satellite ever. Days later it broadcasts President Eisenhower's recorded voice from space: "My message is a simple one: through this unique means I convey to you and all mankind America's wish for peace on Earth and goodwill toward men everywhere." The first human voice ever to fall from the sky was a Christmas wish.
Source: airandspace.si.edu
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, 1865