December 28: William B. Sampson, who successfully argued for the priest-penitent privilege, died on this date in 1836.

December 27: Hamilton Fish Kean, who represented the State of New Jersey in the United States Senate 1929-1935, died on this date in 1941.

December 26: On this date in 1941, Winston Churchill, grandson of Leonard and Clara Hall Jerome, became the first British prime minister to address a joint session of Congress.

December 25: Leonard Bernstein, on this date in 1989, conducted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Berlin to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall.

December 24: On this date last year, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, who earned Academy Award nominations for his scores to “Far From the Madding Crowd” (1967), “Nicholas and Alexandra” (1971), and “Murder on the Orient Express” (1974), died.

December 23: George Catlin, friend, painter and chronicler of the American Indian, died on this date in 1872.

December 22: On this date in 1937, the Lincoln Tunnel, engineered by Ole Singstad, opened for traffic.

December 21: On this date in 1961, notorious mobster Joey Gallo was sentenced to 7 to 14 years in prison; he was murdered during his birthday party at Umberto’s Restaurant in Little Italy in 1972.

December 20: Frederick Bourne was born on this date in 1851; he would become president of the Singer Sewing Machine Company and a very wealthy man.

December 19: On this date in 1912, William Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum, which caught fire in the East River, resulting in the death of 1,200 people, many of whom are interred at Green-Wood, was granted a presidential pardon after serving 3 years at Sing Sing prison.