December 28, 1861 – The New York Times reports triumphantly that the Louisville Courier, published for the moment at Nashville, is flummoxed at the vagaries of monetary policy in the new Confederacy: “The currency question perplexes us exceedingly. We cannot understand why Confederate Treasury notes or bonds, and Louisiana or Tennessee bank notes, are not worth as much at New-Orleans or Nashville as gold.”
December 28, 1975 – The wagons circle around Nashville's music industry as the middlebrow newspaper insert Family Weekly takes on the movie that all the “big film critics” are cooing about lately: Robert Altman’s Nashville. By presenting a portrait of “self-indulgence, confusion, hypocrisy, insensitivity, violence and greed,” the famed director has raised hackles on Music Row, where such attributes are surely never in evidence. Lynn Anderson announces that she is “personally affronted.” Minnie Pearl says the film’s music is “terrible.” Webb Pierce says if Altman ever comes back to town, “he’ll get hanged.” The movie will go on to be nominated for five Oscars, winning one: Best Music.
December 28, 1906 – Nashville’s City Council passes bond issue of $300,000 to build new high school, subject to a city-wide referendum. The wheels of educational progress will grind slowly, but in 1912 the new building will open on Broadway to house the combined Hume and Fogg Schools.