George Washington was aFounding Father and the firstpresident of the United States. Born inVirginia, he opposed the perceived oppression of the American colonists by theBritish Crown and wascommander-in-chief of the Continental Army during theAmerican Revolutionary War. After being forced toretreat from New York City, hecrossed the Delaware River and won the battles ofTrenton andPrinceton. Washington led a decisive victory atYorktown, then served as president of theConstitutional Convention that drafted theUS Constitution. As president, he set precedents for theoffice of president, such asrepublicanism, apeaceful transition, and thetwo-term tradition.Washington owned many slaves but opposed the practice near the end of his life. His image is an icon ofAmerican culture and hehas been extensively memorialized. In both popular and scholarly polls, he is consistently considered one of the greatest presidents in American history. (Full article...)
July 4:Independence Day in the United States (1776);Republic Day in the Philippines (1946);Liberation Day in Rwanda (1994)
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TheUnited States Navy began building aseries of battlecruisers in the 1920s, more than a decade after their slower and less heavily armedarmored cruisers had been rendered obsolete by theRoyal Navy'sInvincible-class battlecruisers. At first unconvinced of the importance of the superior speed of the British battlecruisers, the US Navy changed its position after evaluating the new type of ship in fleet exercises andNaval War Collegewargames, and after the Japanese acquisition of fourKongō-class battlecruisers in the early 1910s. When Congress authorized a large naval building program in 1916, sixLexington-class battlecruisers were included. None were completed before the arms-limitingWashington Naval Treaty was ratified in 1922. Two ships in theAlaska class were commissioned in time to serve during the last year of World War II but were decommissioned two years after the war. (Full list...)
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Mount Rushmore National Memorial is centered on acolossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore in theBlack Hills nearKeystone, South Dakota. SculptorGutzon Borglum created the sculpture's design and oversaw the project's execution from 1927 to 1941 with the help of his son,Lincoln Borglum. The sculpture features the 60-foot-tall (18 m) heads of fourUnited States Presidents recommended by Borglum:George Washington (1732–1799),Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826),Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) andAbraham Lincoln (1809–1865), chosen to represent the nation's birth, growth, development and preservation, respectively. Photograph credit:Thomas Wolf Recently featured: |
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