Pearl Harbor. The Wright Brothers' first flight. The birth of Christmas traditions. What else happened in December? December isn't just the end of the year -- it's where history made some of its boldest moves. Nomical History: December delivers a riveting historical event for every day of the month. From wartime turning points to cultural revolutions, each entry is crafted with narrative prose that brings the past to life -- plus closing reflections that connect history to your world today. Inside this history book, you'll discover: The attack on Pearl Harbor -- and the 24 hours that transformed America forever How the Wright Brothers defied gravity (and the experts) at Kitty Hawk The Boston Tea Party and the night that brewed a revolution Why December 31 has witnessed some of history's strangest and most pivotal events The ratification of the Bill of Rights -- and the fight that almost killed it Read more

From the Publisher The Wright Brothers flew on December 17, 1903. The flight lasted 12 seconds. Nobody cared. Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved powered human flight on a cold, windy beach in North Carolina. The first flight covered 120 feet—shorter than the wingspan of a modern 747. Only five people witnessed it, and none of them were reporters. The Wrights sent a telegram to their father. He tried to get it published in the local newspaper. The editor passed. The Associated Press ran a garbled version of the story that got most of the details wrong. The most revolutionary invention of the 20th century debuted to an audience of five on a Tuesday in December, and the press couldn't be bothered. That's a December story. The month is full of things that changed everything but were barely noticed at the time—alongside things that were noticed by everyone immediately, like Pearl Harbor, which happened 38 years and ten days later. Here's an actual entry. December 25, 1914 The Christmas Truce. On Christmas Day, 1914, German and British soldiers in the trenches of World War I stopped shooting at each other and walked into no man's land. They exchanged cigarettes, showed each other photographs of their families, and—according to multiple eyewitness accounts—played football. The Germans put candles on small Christmas trees along their trench parapets. The British sang carols. For a few hours, men who had been trying to kill each other that morning stood together in the mud and acted like human beings. The officers on both sides were furious. High command issued orders ensuring it would never happen again. In subsequent years, artillery bombardments were deliberately scheduled for Christmas Eve to prevent fraternization. The Truce wasn't a heartwarming story about the power of peace. It was a terrifying reminder to military leadership that soldiers might figure out they had more in common with the men they were shooting than with the men who ordered them to shoot. Every day in December has a story like this. Some warmer, some colder, all told this way. Joel Thomas Creator of the Nomical History series I write history the way it actually happened — messy, ridiculous, consequential, and rarely as dignified as the textbooks suggest. The name "Nomical" is a word I made up by smashing "notable" and "comical" together, because I got tired of pretending those two things don't overlap. The Wright Brothers' first flight is notable. The fact that it covered less distance than the wingspan of a modern 747, was witnessed by five people, and got rejected by the local newspaper when their father tried to get it published — is comical. But it's also how history actually works: the most revolutionary invention of the 20th century debuted to an audience of five on a Tuesday in December, and the press couldn't be bothered. I live in Virginia. I have a day job. I wrote these books because I kept finding stories that were too good not to share and too weird for any textbook to include.