Tag: America

Liberty Enlightening the World


Today in History, October 28: 1886 – “Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “GIVE ME YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR,

YOUR HUDDLED MASSES YEARNING TO BREATHE FREE,

THE WRETCHED REFUSE OF YOUR TEEMING SHORE.

SEND THESE, THE HOMELESS, TEMPEST TOST TO ME,

I LIFT MY LAMP BESIDE THE GOLDEN DOOR!”

—Emma Lazarus, 1883

“Liberty Enlightening the World” a statue gifted to America by France in recognition of the two nation’s alliance during the Revolutionary War, is dedicated in New York harbor. The dedication was presided over by President Grover Cleveland.

“There is no Second, Your Majesty”


Today in History, August 22: 1851 – Members of the New York Yacht Club had designed and built a radically new yacht and named it “America”. 

 They sailed it across the Atlantic and challenged the old world sailing experts in The Royal Yacht Squadron’s “One Hundred Guinea Cup”. Seeing her speed, nobody would challenge her until the final day in the final 53 mile race around the Isle of Wight. After she sailed across the finish line 18 MINUTES ahead of her nearest competitor.

Queen Victoria, watching, asked, “Who came in second?”, and was answered with, “There is no second, your Majesty.” The British, rewarding the cup to “The America”, changed the name of the race to “The America’s Cup”. 

 The America would be sold to several different private owners in the coming years, would serve as a combatant for the Confederacy in the US Civil War as a blockade runner, be sunk, raised by the Union, once again renamed America, and serve as a blockade ship, sinking blockade runners. 

 The US Navy would use her as a training ship, she would once again see private hands and then be given back to the Navy. 

 Unfortunately she fell into disrepair and the shed she was kept in collapsed on her in the 1940’s. She and the shed were scrapped. What a shame.

Acadian Migration


Today in History, August 10: 1755 – Upon the orders of Nova Scotia Governor Charles Lawrence, British soldiers begin the process of forcibly expelling French Acadians, French settlers that refused to submit to British rule in Canada, into the 13 Colonies of the Americas. Many of them would settle in what is now Louisiana. Some would attempt to return to Canada eventually, but their lands had been given to British Tories that had been relocated after the Revolutionary War, so they had to settle elsewhere. Nonetheless…We now have CAJUNS thanks to the British actions of the 18th century. 

The Far West – Once Meant What Would Become Kentucky

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Today in History, June 7: 1769 – “Boone Day”. Pioneer Daniel Boone braves the Cumberland Gap, ignoring a British order against westward expansion, to find Kentucky on this date in 1769. Boone would later write, “Not a breeze shook the most tremulous leaf. I had gained the summit of a commanding ridge, and, looking round with astonishing delight, beheld the ample plains, the beauteous tracts below.” He would continue his adventures, settling Boonesborough, Kentucky, becoming a Colonel in the Militia during the Revolutionary War, fighting the British and their allies. He eventually followed his exploring spirit to Missouri, where he died in 1820.

We Shall Never Surrender

“We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
 – Winston Churchill, June 4, 1940. (77 years ago tomorrow)
This was in response to the evacuation of Dunkirk a few days earlier, during which every British boat that could float responded to rescue hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the French coast. 
The British people also survived the Blitz, during which Nazi bombers carried out an extended bombing campaign dropping tons of bombs nightly on British civilians…also terror tactics meant to cause surrender. They failed. 
British and Americans have experienced bombings and attacks long before the war on terror (anarchists, IRA, etc). 
Different faces on the attackers. But Britain, America and our Allies will survive and win.

All We Are Now Began Long Ago…

Today in History, March 5: 1496 – English King Henry VII issues letters patent to Italian navigators John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) and his son Sebastian, sponsoring them for explorations. “…free authority, faculty and power to sail to all parts, regions and coasts of the eastern, western and northern sea, under our banners, flags and ensigns, with five ships or vessels of whatsoever burden and quality they may be, and with so many and with such mariners and men as they may wish to take with them in the said ships, at their own proper costs and charges, to find, discover and investigate whatsoever islands, countries, regions or provinces of heathens and infidels, in whatsoever part of the world placed, which before this time were unknown to all Christians.” John would find Newfoundland in North America, initiating future settlements in North America. The Vikings and Columbus came before the Cabots, but their explorations bore fruit for England.