Good Morning, and Happy 4th

[msmoon]

Beware, for I am: Awake

 

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On This Day: Tuesday July 4, 2006

This is the 185th day of the year, with 180 days remaining in 2006.

Fact of the Day: America The Beautiful

The national hymn, "America The Beautiful," was published in "The Congregationalist" in 1895. The poem was written by a Wellesley College English literature professor, Katharine Lee Bates, to commemorate the Fourth of July.

Holidays

• United States: Independence Day.
• Feast day of The Martyrs of Dorchester, St. Andrew of Crete, St. Elizabeth of Portugal, St. Ulric of Augsburg, St. Bertha of Blangy, and St. Odo of Canterbury.
• Wisconsin: Indian Rights Day.

Events

• 1776 - The Continental Congress adopted the "Declaration of Independence."
• 1802 - The United States Military Academy officially opened at West Point, New York.
• 1817 - Construction began on the Erie Canal, to connect Lake Erie and the Hudson River.
• 1832 - "America," written by Dr Samuel Francis Smith, was sung in public for the first time, at the Park Street Church in Boston.
• 1845 - Henry David Thoreau began his two-year simple living experiment at Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts.
• 1848 - The "Communist Manifesto" was published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
• 1894 - After seizing power, Judge Stanford B. Dole declared Hawaii a republic.
• 1946 - The United States granted the Philippine Islands their independence.
• 1955 - "The Soupy Sales Show" premiered on TV.
• 1959 - America's 49-star flag, honoring Alaskan statehood, was officially unfurled.
• 1960 - The 50-star flag, to include Hawaii, made its debut, in Philadelphia.
• 1966 - President Lyndon Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act.
• 1970 - Casey Kasem hosted "American Top 40" on the radio for the first time.
• 1997 - NASA's Mars Pathfinder became the first U.S. spacecraft to land on Mars in more than two decades.
• 2003 - Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault after a woman accused him of sexual misconduct. The case is later dismissed (September 1, 2004) and the charges dropped when the accuser says she will no longer cooperate.

Births

• 1804 - Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author.
• 1826 - Stephen Foster, American songwriter.
• 1872 - Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States of America (1923-1929).
• 1883 - Rube Goldberg, American cartoonist.
• 1900 - Louis Armstrong (Satchmo), American jazz trumpeter and singer.
• 1911 - Mitch Miller, American musician, record company executive, producer, arranger.
• 1918 - Ann Landers (Esther Pauline Friedman) and Abigail Van Buren (Pauline Esther Friedman), American advice columnists.
• 1927 - Neil Simon, American award-winning playwright.

Deaths

• 1826 - John Adams, 2nd President of the United States of America.
• 1826 - Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States of America .
• 1831 - James Monroe, 5th President of the United States of America.

 

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MM