As our own year draws to an end, it’s time to reflect on what has passed in Kentucky’s history during this holiday-filled week. And what a way to start – on December 21st, in 1849, the world saw the birth of James Lane Allen, who has been commonly described as “Kentucky’s first important novelist”. 

A Brief Biography
Born near Lexington, Kentucky, Allen’s writing was heavily influenced by his early life during the Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction periods of the region. He graduated from Transylvania University in 1872, delivering his Salutatorian address in Latin. In 1893 Allen moved to New York City, where he lived until his death in 1925. 

A Lasting Legacy
Allen was a contributor to Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, and other popular magazines of the time. His novels included the very popular best seller, The Choir Invisible. His other works exemplify extensive research and dedication to finding the root of things, and appropriately considering the time of year – the origins of the myth of the mistletoe.

-David Ma

Debtors' prisons were created as places to imprison individuals unable to pay back debts, either in the civil sphere or of taxes. Debtors' prisons were notorious for being cruel and unpleasant, with grueling amounts of work to do in labor camps. Many were opposed to the concept of imprisonment as a punishment for bankruptcy, and Kentucky was the first state to legally abolish the practice.

The Fourteenth Amendment, written in 1868 after the Civil War in order to protect the rights of the newly freed African Americans, now legally prohibits the creation and use of debtors' prisons, making Kentucky 47 years early in enacting this kind of legislation

-Joanna Slusarewicz

http://www.historyorb.com/countries/usa/kentucky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debtors'_prison
http://carterandcarterlaw.com/2013/12/debtors-prison-abolished/
https://www.aclu.org/ending-modern-day-debtors-prisons

On the thirteenth of December, 1983, Martha Layne Collins was inaugurated as Kentucky's first female governor, and as of now, the only. Collins was elected to be governor on the eighth of December, defeating Republican Jim Bunning with a 54.50% majority vote. She served as Kentucky's 56th governor, from 1983 to 1987. 

Initiatives forwarded by Gov. Collins include a bill mandating kindergarten education throughout the state and strengthening drunk driving penalties and regulations. In 1984, she presided over the Democratic National Convention, and was vetted for vice presidential nominee under Walter Mondale. She was also able to form a trade deal with Japan, convincing Toyota to open an $800 million plant in Georgetown.

After retiring, she spent a year teaching at the University of Louisville, and was then named a fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics. She went on to become president of the St. Catharine College in Springfield, Kentucky, and was the namesake of Women Leading Kentucky's Martha Layne Collins Leadership Award in 1999.

-Cici Mao 

Sources:
http://www.historyorb.com/date/1983/december/13
http://www.historyorb.com/date/1983/november/8
http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?fips=21&year=1983&f=0&off=5&elect=0