President Abraham Lincoln announced a grant of amnesty for
Emilie Todd Helm, his wife Mary Lincoln’s half sister and the
widow of a Confederate general.

The pardon was one of the first under Lincoln’s Proclamation
of Amnesty and Reconstruction, which he had announced less
than a week before.

Emilie Todd Helm (1836 – 1930)

ED DONAHUE

FDR Signing Declaration of War Against Japan.

At a news conference in 1969, President Richard Nixon said 
the Vietnam War is coming to a “conclusion as a result of
the plan that we have instituted.”

Nixon had announced at a conference in Midway in June that
the United States would be following a new program he termed “Vietnamization.”

Under the provisions of this program, South Vietnamese forces
would be built up so they could assume more responsibility
for the war. As the South Vietnamese forces became more
capable, U.S. forces would be withdrawn from combat and
returned to the United States.

 
CARLATA BRADLEY    
    
    
 
  

Dave Brubeck was a jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded
as a foremost exponent of cool jazz.

Born in Concord, California, Brubeck was drafted into the US
Army, but was spared from combat service when a Red Cross
show he had played at became a hit. Within the US Army,
Brubeck formed one of the first racially diverse bands.

Brubeck died of heart failure on December 5, 2012, in
Norwalk, Connecticut, one day before his 92nd birthday.