Holidays
History of John Adams
Reading Time: 5 minutesHISTORY OF THE 4TH OF JULY: JOHN ADAMS Part of the series on America 250, the US Semiquincentennial Podcast version [In my previous article, I discussed Ben Franklin, the most multidimensional Founding Father, a self-made gentleman-scientist who was the most famous American in Europe] efore John Adams became the first Vice President of the…
Read MoreHistory of Ben Franklin: The Original Founding Father?
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Part of the series on America 250, the US Semiquincentennial Podcast version [In my previous article, I discussed Alexander Hamilton, who founded America’s first political party, the Federalist Party.] e know this polymath as a writer, publisher, printer, merchant, scientist, moral philosopher, international diplomat, and inventor. He invented the…
Read MoreHistory of George Washington: Father of the Nation
Reading Time: 8 minutesHISTORY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON: FATHER OF THE NATION Part of the series on America 250, the US Semiquincentennial [In my previous article, I discussed how the Founding Father John Witherspoon, immersed in both the Enlightenment and Presbyterian Christianity, was a professor and college president. Today’s Founding Father never went to college, but had a different kind…
Read MoreHistory of America: 250 Years
Reading Time: 6 minutesHISTORY OF AMERICA: 250 YEARS Part of the series on America 250, the US Semiquincentennial Podcast version he United States of America celebrates its 250th birthday this year… or at least the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It should be noted that the Declaration was essentially a “bill of divorcement” from Great…
Read MoreInterview on – That Shakespeare Life: Midsummer and St. John the Baptist Day
Reading Time: < 1 minuteINTERVIEW ON THAT SHAKESPEARE LIFE: MIDSUMMER AND ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST DAY Cassidy Cash interviewed me for her popular podcast, That Shakespeare Life, to discuss the history and traditions of Midsummer and St. John the Baptist Day, and what it would have been like to celebrate these two simultaneous holidays in Elizabethan England. We…
Read MoreHistory of St. John the Baptist Day: Midsummer
Reading Time: 6 minutesHISTORY OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST DAY Podcast version he Feast of St. John the Baptist, or the Nativity of St John the Forerunner, sometimes called St. John the Baptist Day, is celebrated on June 24 in many places worldwide, though not much in the United States, as we’ll see below. The celebration of…
Read MoreScience of the Summer Solstice: Start of Summer
Reading Time: 3 minutesSCIENCE OF THE SUMMER SOLSTICE olstice comes from the Latin word solstitium, meaning “Sun, standing still.” The Summer Solstice occurs on June 20 at 10:22 PM EDT. But for our European friends and those farther east, it’s on June 21 at 08:25 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time, or Zulu Time, roughly Greenwich Mean Time). Greenwich, England,…
Read MoreHistory of Fathers Day: The Beginning
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF FATHER’S DAY [NOTE: I wrote a longer and more serious version of this article for CBS.com several years ago. It has been published on their network of sites for major cities nationwide. You can find that article here.] Podcast version he celebration of Father’s Day goes back to the beginning, actually to…
Read MoreHistory of Juneteenth: and the Emancipation Proclamation
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF JUNETEENTH: and the Emancipation Proclamation une Nineteenth, or Juneteenth, historically marked the celebration of the emancipation of African-American slaves in Texas in 1865. While the annual celebration started in Texas the following year in 1866, and became an official Texas state holiday there in 1980, this formerly obscure holiday is now observed across…
Read MoreHistory of Flag Day
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF FLAG DAY Part of the series on America 250, the US Semiquincentennial une 14 is Flag Day in the United States. While it is not a federal holiday and may not be as widely celebrated as other American holidays, it is one of the oldest. It was resolved by the Second Continental Congress in…
Read MoreHistory of June
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF JUNE June marks the year’s halfway point, the sixth of the twelve months in the Gregorian calendar we currently use in the West and the earlier Julian calendar, named for Julius Caesar, the namesake of July. Where do we get the name for June? What’s In A Name? Ovid, author of the…
Read MoreHistory of Towel Day: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY OF TOWEL DAY May 25 celebrates Towel Day to honor Douglas Adams, the author of the five (or six) book “trilogy” Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Created in May 2001 to mark the passing of English science fiction humor author Douglas Adams, the day is set aside for fans of his writings to carry a…
Read More