Americans have long celebrated the February birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln—Washington on February 22, 1732 and Lincoln on February 12, 1809. Washington’s Birthday became a federal holiday in 1885. But in 1971, the third Monday in February replaced Washington’s Birthday by becoming Presidents’ Day.
On September 16, 1620, the Mayflower sails from Plymouth, England, bound for the New World with 102 passengers. The ship was headed for Virginia, where the colonists—half religious dissenters and half entrepreneurs—had been authorized to settle by the British crown. However, stormy weather and navigational errors forced the Mayflower off course, and on November 21 the “Pilgrims”…
The Confederate “Talbot Boys” statue, in Easton, Maryland, remains for the same reason it was erected: not because it is historically accurate or represents the will of the majority but because powerful people support it.
When the Second Continental Congress convened in 1775, firebrands including Samuel Adams of Massachusetts and Patrick Henry of Virginia steered the 13 colonies of the United States toward a complete break with Great Britain. But that sentiment wasn’t universally shared a year earlier by members of the First Continental Congress. Grievances against British government policies were rife in the session which…
Although he could not foresee our present national peril, Abraham Lincoln continually exhorted his own generation to maintain our free Republic. You will find below a small selection of his comments on defending and preserving our country’s liberties. As he wrote in 1861, “The struggle of today, is not altogether for today — it is…
In 1787, when delegates to the Constitutional Convention gathered in Philadelphia to hash out the foundations of their new government, they entirely omitted political parties from the new nation’s founding document.
The Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia on this day in 1776, declared that the name of the newly formed nation fighting for its independence from Great Britain would be “The United States.” This designation replaced the term “United Colonies,” then in general use. Beginning in March 1776, a series of articles — signed by…
Have you ever wondered why Congress opens its sessions in prayer? The reason is traceable to the Pilgrims’ faith in providence which was continued by the men that gathered a century and a half later at the first Continental Congress in 1774. The history of the first prayer in Congress reveals our founding Patriots’ commitment…
William Penn was baptized in All Hallows by the Tower in London on October 23, 1644, as the son of William and Margaret Penn. His father would become an Admiral under Charles II. Raised an Anglican, he attended Christ Church College in Oxford at the age of sixteen. At this time, Penn went to hear…
