1. South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on December 12, 1787. Its decision provided a crucial boost to the fledgling federal government and helped cement the document's status as the foundation of American democracy.
2. On December 12, 1860, delegates from South Carolina voted to secede from the United States, marking the first state to do so in the lead-up to the Civil War. The vote followed years of tension between slaveholding southern states and federal lawmakers over issues of states' rights and the legality of the institution of slavery.
3. The USS Yorktown, one of the most celebrated aircraft carriers in American naval history, was commissioned on December 12, 1943, in Charleston, South Carolina. The massive ship saw action in some of the Pacific Theater's most critical battles during World War II and later became a museum ship in the same city where it was launched.
4. On December 12, 1988, a massive explosion at the Phillips Petroleum plant in Charleston killed one worker and injured dozens of others. The blast, caused by a faulty valve on a propane storage tank, was one of the largest industrial accidents in the state's history and led to renewed scrutiny of safety standards and inspection practices in South Carolina's chemical industry.
5. Rock Hill, South Carolina, became the site of a landmark civil rights protest on December 12, 1961, when a group of African American students staged a sit-in at a whites-only lunch counter. The demonstration sparked a wave of similar protests across the country and helped galvanize the civil rights movement in the South.