According to the Wyoming Historical Society, on December 15, 1963, the Esther Hobart Morris statue was dedicated at the Wyoming Capitol. She was the first female Justice of the Peace in the country. On December 16, 1868, the Dakota Territorial Legislature formed Albany County and Carbon County out of the western part of Laramie County. On December 16, 1871, the Wyoming Territorial Library was established. It’s now the Wyoming State Library. The same day the next year, Territorial Gov. J.A. Campbell declared Evanston an incorporated town. On December 16, 1983, future Nobel laureate in chemistry Kary Mullis completed his first successful experiment on Polymerase Chain Reaction. It was made possible by a heat-resistant enzyme discovered in Yellowstone bacteria. On December 19, 1910, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of former Cheyenne attorney Willis Van Devanter to the U.S. Supreme Court.

And, according to the University of Wyoming American Heritage Center, on December 18, 1890, the trustees passed a resolution that required all faculty to abstain from alcohol to get or keep their jobs.