Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift.

Historical Events in December 1854

Eureka Stockade

Dec 3 Eureka Stockade: In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 goldminers at Ballarat, Victoria, are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences

  • Dec 5 Aaron Allen of Boston patents folding theater chair
  • Dec 8 Pope Pius IX proclaims Immaculate Conception, makes Mary, free of Original Sin

Charge of the Light Brigade

Dec 9 Alfred Tennyson's poem "Charge of the Light Brigade" is published in "The Examiner"

The Childhood of Christ

Dec 10 Hector Berlioz premieres his oratorio "L'enfance du Christ (The Childhood of Christ)", conducting musicians and soloists from the Opéra-Comique, at the Salle Herz, Paris

  • Dec 15 1st street-cleaning machine in the US used in Philadelphia
  • Dec 19 Allen Wilson of Conn patents sewing machine to sew curving seams
  • Dec 26 Treaty of Medicine Creek signed by Nisqually, Puyallup and Coast Salish peoples with Isaac Ingalls Stevens, Governor of Washington Territory, giving up 2.5 million acres to preserve fishing and gathering rights [1]
  • Dec 26 Wood-pulp paper 1st exhibited, Buffalo
  • Dec 30 Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co, 1st in US, incorporated in NYC