On this day in 1920, This Side of Paradise by famous St. Paul, Minnesota native F. Scott Fitzgerald, is published. It was the first novel by the author of the more well-known title The Great Gatsby. In fact, Fitzgerald was named after his second cousin, three times removed on his father’s side. That F. Scott is also famous for something he wrote. That side of paradise… Of course, that first F. Scott was none other than Francis […]
On this day in 1765, the British Parliament passed the ill-fated Stamp Act. You may recall from Our March 18 post that Parliament repealed the Stamp Act after just 361 days, in 1766. Again, the Stamp Act was taxation without representation. This policy helped trigger a movement against the British government, which led to the American Revolution within a decade. Sons of Liberty This movement spawned a secret society of tradesmen and landowners from throughout the colonies […]
On this day in 1967, the body of President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent resting site at Arlington National Cemetery, just a few feet from the original site. Kennedy had been assassinated more than three years earlier, on November 22, 1963. Here are the closing words from the luncheon speech he never gave that day: “We in this country, in this generation are, by destiny rather than choice, the watchmen on the walls […]
On this day in 1969, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., then is sentenced to 99 years in prison. Interestingly, Ray was born on this day in 1928. King’s legacy as a leader endures because of Who he followed. The following quotes exemplify the essence of his life and his message: “Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what […]
On this day in 1841, the Supreme Court rules on the mutiny staged by African slaves aboard the Amistad. The had been illegally forced into slavery, and so, are free under American law. John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States (1825-1829) was part of the Africans’ defense team. He argued that they “were entitled to all the kindness and good offices due from a humane and Christian nation.” Read more about that, HERE. It […]
On this day in 1983, President Ronald Reagan publicly refers to the Soviet Union as “an evil empire.” This excerpt is from about halfway through the still relevant speech: “Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged. When our Founding Fathers passed the First Amendment, they sought to protect churches from government interference. They never intended to construct a wall of hostility between government and the concept of […]
On this day in 1820, President James Monroe signs the Missouri Compromise. The bill attempted to equalize the number of slave-holding states and free states in the country. Missouri, and that very Compromise would become pivotal in the Dred Scott Decision, issued also on this day, in 1857. The United States Supreme Court was divided along slavery and antislavery lines, but had a majority of Southern justices. Thus, the Court ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. […]
On this day in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issues his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. His hope was to facilitate reintegration, reorganization and reconstruction in the the postwar South. Also on this day, in 1941, as indicated in Our December 7th post entitled Pearl Harbor: So Help us God, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made an oath on behalf of the United States when he asked Congress to declare war on Japan in response to the […]
On this day in 1952, president-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower makes good on his campaign promise to “go to Korea” to “learn how best to serve the American people in the cause of peace.” While there, he met with the troops, their commanders, and South Korean leaders. Previously, on October 25, in his “I Shall Go to Korea Speech” Eisenhower said he would “forego the diversions of politics and to concentrate on the job of ending the […]
President George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving Proclamation (pictured below). Then, President Lincoln made it a federal holiday with his 1863 Proclamation. With that, he invited American citizens to “set apart… the last Thursday of November… as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” The first presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation First, here is a portion of the Thanksgiving Proclamation Issued by President George Washington on October 3, 1789: […]
On this day in 1789, North Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution, thereby becoming the twelfth state in the Union. First, the date of May 20, 1775 on the Great Seal of the State of North Carolina refers to the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. This debated document was allegedly the first ‘declaration of independence’ adopted during the American Revolution. So, this is the third resolution from that document: “Resolved, That we do hereby declare ourselves a […]