On this day in 1849, a Russian court sentences Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for his allegedly antigovernment activities linked to a radical intellectual group. His execution is stayed at the last minute.

Dostoevsky’s father was a doctor at Moscow’s Hospital for the Poor, where he grew rich enough to buy land and serfs. After his father’s death, Dostoevsky, who suffered from epilepsy, studied military engineering and became a civil servant while secretly writing novels. His first, Poor People, and his second, The Double, were both published in 1846-the first was a hit, the second a failure.

Dostoevsky began participating in a radical intellectual discussion group called the Petrashevsky Circle. The group was suspected of subversive activites, which led to Dostoevsky’s arrest in 1849, and his sentencing to death.

On December 22, 1849, Dostoevsky was led before the firing squad but received a last-minute reprieve and was sent to a Siberian labor camp, where he worked for four years. He was released in 1854 and worked as a soldier on the Mongolian frontier. He married a widow and finally returned to Russia in 1859. The following year, he founded a magazine and two years after that journeyed to Europe for the first time.

In 1864 and 1865, his wife and his brother died, the magazine folded, and Dostoevsky found himself deeply in debt, which he exacerbated by gambling.

In 1866, he published Crime and Punishment, one of his most popular works. In 1867, he married a stenographer, and the couple fled to Europe to escape his creditors. His novel The Possessed (1872) was successful, and the couple returned to St. Petersburg. He published The Brothers Karamazov in 1880 to immediate success, but he died a year later.

FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY IS SENTENCED TO DEATH

— Source: www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fyodor-dostoevsky-is-sentenced-to-death

Sherman’s March to the Sea, more formally known as the Savannah Campaign, was a military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia from November 15 to December 21, 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army. The campaign began with Sherman’s troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta, on November 15 and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21. His forces destroyed military targets as well as industry, infrastructure, and civilian property and disrupted the Confederacy’s economy and its transportation networks. Sherman’s bold move of operating deep within enemy territory and without supply lines is considered to be revolutionary in the annals of war.

Start date: Nov 15, 1864
End date: Dec 21, 1864

— Source: wiki/Sherman’s_March_to_the_Sea

Colo is a western gorilla widely known as the first gorilla to be born in captivity anywhere in the world and as the oldest gorilla in captivity in the world. Colo was born at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium to Millie Christina and Baron Macombo. She was briefly called Cuddles before a contest was held to officially name her. Colo’s name is derived from the place of her birth, Columbus, Ohio. Tomatoes are her favorite food.

— Source: wiki/Colo_(gorilla)

The 1984 New York City Subway shooting was a shooting in the New York City Subway, in which Bernhard Goetz shot four alleged muggers on a New York City Subway train in Manhattan on December 22, 1984. He fired five shots, seriously wounding all four men. Goetz surrendered to police nine days after the shooting and was eventually charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, and several firearms offenses. A jury found him not guilty of all charges except for one count of carrying

Location: New York City, United States
Date: December 22, 1984
Attack type: Mass shooting
Weapons: Smith & Wesson Model 38
Non-fatal injuries: 4
Perpetrator: Bernhard Goetz

— Source: wiki/1984_New_York_City_Subway_shooting

Valley Forge was the military camp 18 miles northwest of Philadelphia where the American Continental Army spent the winter of 1777–78 during the American Revolutionary War. Starvation, disease, malnutrition, and exposure killed more than 2,500 American soldiers by the end of February 1778.

Start date: Dec 19, 1777
End date: Jun 18, 1778

— Source: wiki/Valley_Forge

A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas, commonly known as A Christmas Carol, is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. A Christmas Carol tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation into a gentler, kindlier man after visitations by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.

Authors: Charles Dickens · Paul Sills · Stephen Krensky
First published: Dec 19, 1843
ATOS reading level: 4.10
Characters: Ebenezer Scrooge · Ghost of Christmas Past · Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come · Tiny Tim · Ghost of Christmas Present · Bob Cratchit · Fezziwig · Mrs. Cratchit · Fred · Martha Cratchit
Genre: Novella
Adaptations: A Christmas Carol (2009) · A Christmas Carol (1951) · A Christmas Carol (1984) · A Christmas Carol (1938) · Scrooge (1970) · The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) · A Christmas Carol (1999)

— Source: wiki/A_Christmas_Carol

The Sino–British Joint Declaration, formally known as the Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong, was signed by Premier Zhao Ziyang of the People’s Republic of China and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom on behalf of their respective governments on 19 December 1984 in Beijing.

The Declaration entered into force with the exchange of instruments of ratification on 27 May 1985, and was registered by the PRC and UK governments at the United Nations on 12 June 1985. In the Joint Declaration, the PRC Government stated that it had decided to resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong (including Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories) with effect from 1 July 1997, and the UK Government declared that it would hand over Hong Kong to the PRC with effect from 1 July 1997. The PRC Government also declared its basic policies regarding Hong Kong in the document.

In accordance with the “one country, two systems” principle agreed between the UK and the PRC, the socialist system of PRC would not be practiced in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), and Hong Kong’s previous capitalist system and its way of life would remain unchanged for a period of 50 years until 2047. The Joint Declaration provides that these basic policies should be stipulated in the Hong Kong Basic Law and that the socialist system and socialist policies shall not be practiced in HKSAR.

— Source: wiki/Sino-British_Joint_Declaration

Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, was impeached by the House of Representatives on two charges, one of perjury and one of obstruction of justice, on December 19, 1998. Two other impeachment articles, a second perjury charge and a charge of abuse of power, failed in the House. He was acquitted of both charges by the Senate on February 12, 1999. Independent Counsel Ken Starr alleged that Clinton had broken the law during his handling of the Lewinsky scandal and the Paula Jones lawsuit. Four charges were considered by the full House of Representatives; only two passed, and those on a nearly party-line vote. It was only the second time in history that the House had impeached the President of the United States, and only the third that the full House had considered such proceedings. The trial in the United States Senate began right after the seating of the 106th Congress, in which the Republicans began with 55 senators. A two-thirds vote was required to remove Clinton from office. Fifty senators voted to remove Clinton on the obstruction …

Start date: Dec 19, 1998
End date: Feb 12, 1999

— Source: wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton