Patrick Henry

On this date, in the year of our Lord, 1775, political leader Patrick Henry stood and delivered an extemporaneous speech with which we Americans should be acquainted.
While many of us could say we have heard the phrase, "Give me liberty or give me death!" woefully few have read the entire speech.
Due to the fact thatHenry gave this extemporaneously, there are no notes and/or outline in Henry's own handwriting. What we are blessed with; however, are the writings of two men in attendance that day who,sensing the significance of the speech, wrote it out even as it was being delivered.

READ THIS SPEECH and READ IT TO YOUR CHILDREN!

Luther Burbank

Sunday, March 7th, is the birth date for the American scientist, Luther Burbank. He began growing a garden while still in secondary school to support his widowed mother. His curiosity led him to experiment with plants...

The Burbank potato is named for him. His white blackberry is so transparent that its small seeds can be seen. One of his most interesting creations is the plumcot, offspring of a Japanese plum and the apricot. He produced a plum that tastes like the Bartlett pear. He also developed the pomato by selection from the fruit of the potato. It grows on the potato vine but resembles a small tomato! Burbank's great Shasta daisy probably arouses the most interest of the several hundred new ornamental plants he developed. The Shasta daisy is the offspring of the English daisy, the wild American daisy, and their white Japanese cousin.

Luther Burbank was so well known for his horticultural accomplishment in his adopted state of California, that Arbor Day became known as Burbank Day.

On March 7, 1911, the school children of Santa Rosa made Mr. Burbank a pledge and had it written out and framed for him. It read:

"Today, as part of our Arbor Day exercises and in honor of one who is, we know, a sincere friend of birds and trees, we pledge ourselves to befriend all of God's creatures, to protect the birds, and not to destroy maliciously trees or any of the other beauties of nature."

Boston Massacre

The British troops intended for the defense of the colonies began to arrive in the Colonies. But Massachusetts, along with three other colonies, refused to find them quarters.Everywhere the presence of the soldiers gave great offense; but in Boston the people were less patient than elsewhere. [Boston was the headquarters for the Sons of Liberty,an organization that was headed by Sam Adams, cousin of John Adams.] Bostonians accused the soldiers of corrupting the morals of the town; desecrating the Sabbath with fife and drum; of striking citizens who insulted them; and of using language violent, threatening, and profane.
In this state of feeling, an alarm of fire called the people into the streets[of Boston] on the night of March 5,1770. The alarm was false, and a crowd of men and boys (many sailors and riffraff from the water front) having nothing else to do, amused themselves by taunting a lone British sentry posted in front of the Custom House. The time was shortly after nine. As a throng of several hundred converged at the cobbled square where the building was located, the lone guard was reinforced by eight British soldiers with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets. Shouting and cursing, the crowd pelted the despised "Lobster-backs" with snowballs, chunks of ice, oyster shells, and stones. In the perusing melee the soldiers opened fire, killing five men.
Samuel Adams was quick to call the killings a "bloody butchery" and to distribute a print published by silversmith Paul Revere. Revere's print vividly portrayed the scene as a slaughter of the innocent, and the term "Boston Massacre" was birthed.

Note: John Adams defended the British soldiers and their captain when they came to trial.

"The New Roof"

I found this interesting fact in a 1912 American history book...

The Constitution provided that when nine states had ratified, it should go into effect "between the states so ratifying." While it was under discussion the Federalists, as the friends of the Constitution were so named, began to refer to the Constitution as "the New Roof," which was going to cover the states and protect from political storms.

School History of the United States by John Bach McMaster

First Congress

The first meeting of Congress(under the Constitution) was called to meet this date, in the year of our Lord 1789, in New York City. But when the date came, there was no Senate. Less than a majority of that body had arrived in New York, so no business could be done. When at length the Senate secured a majority, the House was still without one, and remained so until April.

Thomas Edison

Today is the birthday of the Scottish-born inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, who was born in the year of our Lord 1847.

Bell had a deep interest in in the problems of the deaf all his life. In fact, he once told his family he would rather be remembered as a teacher of the deaf than as the inventor of the telephone.
Bell was only 29 when his basic telephone patent was granted in 1876.

Bell developed an electrical apparatus to locate bullets or other metal in the body in a vain effort to save President James Garfield's life. President Garfield had been shot by an assassin in 1881. Bell perfected an electric probe which was used in surgery for several years before the x-ray was discovered. He and his associates developed the method of making phonographs records on wax discs. Bell advocated a method of locating icebergs by detecting echoes from them. He worked on methods to make fresh water from vapor in the air for men adrift at sea in open boats. For 30 years, he directed breeding experiments in an attempt to develop a strain of sheep that would bear more than one lamb at a time.

Alexander Graham Bell became a citizen of the United States in 1882.

A story told bout Bell is that he disliked the telephone because it interrupted his experiments.

Flat Earth

You've probably heard the story that most people of Columbus's day believed that the earth was flat. Supposedly, they thought that ship sailing beyond the horizon would fall off the edge of the earth. The story goes that Columbus single-handily disproved the flat-earth myth, and that he stood alone against the learned men of the day who ridiculed his theory of a round earth. In addition,this legend falsely blames the flat-earth theory on Bible-believing Church leaders.
Interesting reading...yes. Which is the reason that the author included this myth in his biography of Christopher Columbus! This piece of "creative literature" can be traced back to Washington Irving's book on Columbus.

THE BIBLE DOES NOT TEACH THAT THE EARTH IS FLAT.

COLUMBUS WAS NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO BELIEVED THAT THE WORLD WAS ROUND; SO DID ALL THE OTHER EDUCATED PEOPLE OF HIS DAY.

There are no biblical references to a flat earth. Biblical descriptions of the world's "four corners" and "four winds" are poetic phrases. There is nothing unusual or unscientific about depicting the earth as have four corners. The modern compass works in terms of a linear perspective, and flat maps have always been used to plot direction. When was the last time you took a globe on a trip? Why should we expect the Bible to describe reality any differently from the way we do?

What does the Bible say concerning the our planet?
It simply states that God, "stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing." - Job 26:7
"It is He that sits upon the circle of the earth." -Isaiah 40:22

John Glenn

In was on this date, in the year of our Lord 1962, that the first American astronaut, John Glenn, orbited the earth.
The word astronaut is a compilation of two Greek words, astro- + nautes which literally means, "space sailor."

Birthday

On this date, in the year of our Lord 1473, Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun,Poland. In Polish, his name was Mikolaj Kpernik.

It was he who developed the theory that the earth is a moving planet. As a result, he is considered the founder of present-day astronomy. Copernicus skillfully applied his new idea in his masterpiece, Concerning the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres (1543). Copernicus' theory also laid the foundations for the telescopic discoveries of Galileo, the planetary laws of Johannes Kepler, and the gravitation principle of Sir Isaac Newton.

Iwo Jima

On this date, in the year of our Lord 1945, is when the U.S. flag was raised at Iwo Jima. I would suggest reading the book and/or watching the movie Flags of Our Fathers. The taking of the island of Iwo Jima was considered the turning point in the battle of the Pacific Theater.

Christiantiy in Rome A.D. 54-68

Roman rulers initially tolerated the Christian religion as long as they believed it did not challenge the authority of the State. In time; however, this new faith came to be seen as an enemy of the Empire because of Christians' sole allegiance to the Triune God of the Bible and His Law. Pledging allegiance to the God of the Bible instead of to Rome was considered blasphemy.

Emperor Nero (A.D. 54-68) instituted the first full-scale persecution of Christians in A.D. 64. He tortured some followers of Christ by covering them with animal skins and throwing them to packs of savage dogs. Other believers were doused with oil or dipped in tar, suspended on poles, and burned to serve as nightly illumination for Nero's garden parties.

Noah Webster's Spelling Book

The following is a page from Webster's Spelling Book, where in Table XV he told the History of the Creation of the World...

"In six days God made the world, and all things that are in it. He made the sun to shine by day, and the moon to give light by night. He made all the beasts that walk on the earth, all the birds that fly in the air, and all the fish that swim in the sea. Each herb, and plant, and tree, is the work of His hands. All things, both great and small, that live, and move, and breathe in this wide world, to Him do owe their birth, to Him their life. And God saw that all the things He made were good. But as yet there was not a man to till the ground: so God made man of the dust of the earth, and gave him rule over all that He had made. And the man gave names to all the beasts of the field; the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea. But there was not found a helpmeet for man; so God brought on him a deep sleep, and then took from his side a rib, of which He made a wife, and her to the man, and her name was Eve: And from these two came all the sons of man."

This little book made its appearance in October of 1785, in the blue cloth cover, which it wore forever after. It cost the equivalent of 30 cents. The Speller went west in covered wagons, crossed rivers and mountains, stood on a special shelf with the Bible and almanack in country homes; becoming the backbone of American education. In the course of Noah
Webster's lifetime nearly 25,000,000 copies were sold. After he died it continued to sell up to a total of 100,000,000 copies. Probably no book, excepting the Bible, has had a better sale over a period of years.

The President's Cabinet

In 1789, when the Constitution went into effect, Congress passed laws creating the first three executive departments of the new government: Foreign Affairs, Treasury, and War. The head of each department was to be called the "Secretary."
The word "cabinet" came from England, where a private meeting room was often called a cabinet. James Madison, our fourth president,was the first to use this word to refer to the President's advisors.
At first, George Washington consulted with his Cabinet members one at a time, occasionally asking for written opinions. But soon they all met together regularly, in Washington's home on Cherry Street in Philadelphia [then the capital of the United States].
Today, the Cabinet members meet weekly around a big mahogany table in the Cabinet Room next to the President's Oval Office in the West Wing of the White House.
Whenever a member of the Cabinet leaves office the Secretary is traditionally given the leather Cabinet chair, with its brass nameplate on the back, as a memento of service. Members of the Department buy the chair for the outgoing Secretary as a parting gift.

Historical Books of Worth - elementary level

There is a series of books which are worth the investment in order that your elementary-aged children may read historically correct literature. These books first went into print in the 1950's, including both biographies as well as specific historical events. They are - Landmark Books. Whether with or without a dust jacket, you will see the logo at the bottom of the spine, Landmark Books over the outline of the Washington Monument. This series of books is superlatively well done and can play a large role in creating enthusiasm among young readers. (Plus, these provide a quick reference for the Instructor.)

Keeping the Lord's Day Holy

A South Carolina law of 1691 which called for a better observance of the Lord's Day began by pointing out that"...there is nothing more acceptable to Almighty God that the true sincere performance of and obedience to the most divine service and worship...."
-Reformation to Colonization, p. 419

Sir Walter Raleigh

Sir Walter Raleigh loved a good smoke. In fact, he was instrumental in popularizing tobacco in England, even though Europe had already been introduced to tobacco (Spanish and French explorers had picked up the habit from pipe-smoking Indians). Legend goes that when Raleigh's servant first saw him puffing away, he thought that Raleigh was on fire and doused him thoroughly with water. Raleigh's name went down in history not only as the name of a city in North Carolina but as the name of a pipe tobacco.
-Reformation to Colonization (p. 242)

Inventor's Day

Today is, "Inventor's Day." Here's one inventor's story...

When Bill Black, an Austin-area barber, noticed how hair clippings, which fell onto plants near his barber chair, seemingly improved their growth, he did a little research. He learned that hair contained 18 % nitrogen. Further research, on the part of Black, uncovered that plant fertilizers are nitrogen based. Eureka! Those hair clippings he had been throwing into the trash now became the foundation for FertHairLizer -a plant fertilizer product that still being sold today.
(Texas Trivia - Weird,Wacky, and Wild by Prosapio & Wojna)

What's lying on your floor?

Literature and a Nation

"Literature is the living memory of a nation. It preserves and kindles within itself the flame of a country's spend history, in a form that is safe from distortion and slander. In this way, literature, together with language, protects the soul of a nation."
-Alexander Solzhenitsyn