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Today isn’t just Christmas Eve and Ryan Seacrest’s birthday — it’s also the 40th anniversary of the passage of the Home Rule Act.

Signed by President Richard Nixon, the act gave D.C. the ability to elect a mayor and Council while Congress still gets to review the city’s legislation and has authority over our budget. (What’s up, Height Act?)

Here’s a statement from Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) on the anniversary:

Enactment of the Home Rule Act of 1973 was the most significant step forward for democracy for our city since the Civil War. Our struggle to defend and expand home rule has achieved noteworthy success, with all anti home-rule riders eliminated except for the ban on local funds for abortion services for low-income women, which we fully intend to end. Yet expansion of home rule has come in small rather than the giant steps we need. For example, this year, D.C. for the first time refused to shut down when the federal government closed and was not made subject to another short-term continuing resolution, but is now spending its local funds for the entire fiscal year while federal agencies are spending under a temporary continuing resolution only until January 15. However, as the continuous and unrelenting Republican attacks on D.C. home rule demonstrate, statehood must be our ultimate goal.

Indeed, in 2014, D.C. will once again attempt to become the 51st state with a bill, this one co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.