1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
On this day in 1861, in Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from that state as well as from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia and Louisiana convened to establish the Confederate States of America. The discussion to secede from the Union began in 1858 from the ongoing conflict between the North and the South over the issue of slavery. By 1860, the majority of the slave states were publicly threatening secession if the Republicans, the anti-slavery party, won the presidency. Following Republican Abraham Lincoln’s victory over the divided Democratic Party in November 1860, South Carolina initiated secession proceedings and on Dec. 20 the state’s legislature passed the “Ordinance of Secession.” After the declaration, South Carolina set about seizing forts, arsenals, and other strategic locations within the state. Within six weeks, five more Southern states had followed South Carolina’s lead. On Feb. 9, 1861, the newly christened Confederate States of America elected Jefferson Davis of Mississippi their first president.
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