US
History of the Aspens
HISTORY OF THE ASPENS Every year about this time, Fall is ushered in by a flush of Aspen trees as their leaves turn to gold. Where I live in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the particular aspen is called the “trembling” or quaking aspen. The broadleaf and the flattened stem cause them to flutter in…
Read MoreHistory of the Constitution of the United States: 234 Years Ago
HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES On September 17, 1787, the US Constitution was created. Though it would take until June 21, 1788, to be ratified, and until March 4, 1789, to be effective, In a very real sense, it was the founding document of the governmental system of the United States of…
Read MoreHistory of 9/11, Twenty Years Ago: Patriot Day
HISTORY OF PATRIOT DAY: 9/11 Twenty Years Ago On 9/11, twenty years ago, more Americans were killed on American soil in one day than any attack since Pearl Harbor in 1941. A series of terrorist airplane highjacking attacks occurred in New York City, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon… and the world changed. As the events of…
Read MoreHistory of Labor Day
HISTORY OF LABOR DAY Labor Day is the day we celebrate the process our mothers went through to deliver us at birth. Sorry, wrong holiday; Labor Day in the U.S. is the day we celebrate the achievements of the American labor movement. While it is still disputed whether the holiday was first proposed by Peter…
Read MoreHistory of I Have A Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr. — 58 Years Ago
HISTORY OF I HAVE A DREAM SPEECH Today, it was 58 years ago that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. It continues to echo down the halls of history almost six decades later. On August 28, 1963, the occasion for his speech was the March on Washington at…
Read MoreHistory of the 19th Amendment: Women’s Right to Vote, 101 Years Ago
HISTORY OF THE 19TH AMENDMENT: WOMEN’S RIGHT TO VOTE Over a hundred years ago, on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted. This prohibited both the Federal government and State governments from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States based on sex. Effectively, this meant that…
Read MoreHistory of the California Gold Rush
HISTORY OF THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH On August 19, 1848, the New York Herald reported the news along the American East Coast of the California Gold Rush. It was not new news to those further West, as the gold rush had started in January and was publicized in San Francisco in March. However, the New…
Read MoreHistory of Woodstock: Over 50 Years Ago
HISTORY OF WOODSTOCK August 15 marks the anniversary of the “3 Days of Peace & Music” held in 1969 at Max Yasgur’s 600-acre dairy farm in the rural town of Bethel, New York, southwest of the village of Woodstock. This outdoor music event, in spite of thundershowers, gave voice to the counterculture youth generation of…
Read MoreHistory of the 1st Moon Landing – Apollo 11: 52 Years Ago
HISTORY OF THE 1ST MOON LANDING: APOLLO 11 Fifty-two years ago today, at 3:17 Eastern Time, July 20, 1969, the first human stepped out of the Apollo 11 lunar module onto the moon. With the immortal words of the 38-year-old Neil Armstrong: “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.” …the…
Read MoreHistory of James Madison
HISTORY OF JAMES MADISON In this, the last of our articles on the Founding Fathers, we look at James Madison. He has correctly been called “the Father of the Constitution,” and one might think that the Constitution became active on July 5, 1776, but this is not how it happened. The American Constitution didn’t go…
Read MoreHistory of Alexander Hamilton
HISTORY OF THE 4TH OF JULY: ALEXANDER HAMILTON Alexander Hamilton has gained new popularity recently, in large part due to the 2015 Broadway musical “Hamilton” by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Birth of Alexander Hamilton Hamilton was born in Charlestown, Nevis, in the Caribbean, out of wedlock to Rachel Faucette, of British & French Huguenot descent. She…
Read MoreHistory of Ben Franklin: The Original Founding Father?
HISTORY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN We know this polymath as a writer, publisher, printer, merchant, scientist, moral philosopher, international diplomat, and inventor. In music, he invented the glass harmonica, but he also invented the Franklin stove and started the first lending library and fire brigade in Philadelphia. He did experiments in electricity and developed the lightning…
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