The election of delegates to Alabama's Secession convention took place on December 24, 1860.  The one hundred delegates elected convened on January 7, 1861 and four days later voted 61-39 to take Alabama out of the Union.  (By John Osborne)  

A large and enthusiastic morning meeting took place in Montgomery, Alabama at the Capitol to nominate delegates to the state's Secession Convention.  Nominated by acclamation were secessionist leader William Lowndes Yancey and the head of the Constitutional Union Party in Alabama, Thomas Hill Watts.  The election of delegates took place on December 24, 1860 and the secession ticket won by 50,000 votes. The one hundred delegates convened on January 7, 1861 and four days later voted 61-39 to take Alabama out of the Union.  (By John Osborne)  

Speaking as if his state had already seceded, Governor William Henry Gist of South Carolina concluded his annual message to the Legislature by saying that in the case of any effort to coerce South Carolina after secession,  "we must accept the issue, and meet it as becomes men and freemen, who infinitely prefer annihilation to disgrace." Gist ended his term as governor the same week that the Secession Convention convened.  South Carolina left the Union on December 20, 1860.  (By John Osborne)

In the state capital of Milledgeville, the Georgia Legislature selected presidential electors for the Electoral College based on the recent general election.  Breckinridge received the lion's share of the votes, 173. The Bell ticket got 54 and Stephen Douglas only eight. Another 70 members abstained from the voting altogether.  (By John Osborne)

A large meeting was held at the Louisville, Kentucky city hall in the evening.  James Guthrie, former Secretary of the Treasury, Democratic presidential candidate, and a slaveholder, told the crowd there was nothing to fear from Abraham Lincoln since he was fettered by the House and Senate. The meeting passed resolutions to support the Union, the Constitution, and to enforce all laws, including the federal Fugitive Slave Act.  (By John Osborne)  

The Louisville to New Orleans steamboat Pacific, carrying around 150 passengers and $100,000 worth of cargo downriver, caught fire after dark and burned to the waterline near Uniontown, Kentucky.  Most of the passengers and crew were able to scramble to shore but eight people, including the vessel's captain, William Lamb of Louisville, were killed in the accident.  (By John Osborne)