Had the chance to be at the Texas Capitol on Saturday. The weather was beautiful. There were many people there enjoying the grounds taking tours etc. Reminded me on Sundays after going to church with grandmother and walking around the grounds. I have visited about 15 other state capitol buildings and none can hold a candle to Texas. People are are vibrant excited and proud

August 4, 1735 a newspaper publisher in NYC was found not guilty of libel against royal Governor William Cosby this would be an important milestone in right of freedom of the press.

August 3, 1492 Christopher Columbus left Spain for what would worlds unknown
In 1923 in the early morning hours at his family home in Plymouth , Vermont (a really cool place to visit) Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th US president. Warren G. Harding had pasted away the evening before.

August 2, 1990 Iraq invades Kuwait

August 2 commemorates a solemn and somewhat forgotten day in our history. It was on this day in 1776 that the members of Second Continental Congress began signing the the Declaration of Independence. Getting the document written approved and signed was about a two month process. On June 7 Richard Henry Lee presented a resolution That these united colonies ought to be free and independent states....... the motion was tabled and on June 11 a committee of five was named to write a document of separation. July 2 the Lee resolution was adopted with New York abstaining then the wording of what would be called the Declaration Independence was approved on July 4. More than likely only one or two people signed it on that day, John Hancock the president of the Congress and Patterson ,the secretary. From some of the accounts of August 2 we know that they signed in mostly silence knowing the gravity of what they were doing.
So today we salute those 50 plus men who showed moral courage that helped lead to the freedoms we have today.

August 1, 1873 California became the 38th state. Today is also the anniversary of the first census in 1790 with a population of 3,929,214 land area 864,746 for 4.5 people per square mile.
2000 census 281,424,603 with 79.6 people per square mile. Freedom brings growth and prosperity. Let us pray that we continue to live in freedom .

Last week of July

The last week of July ( in non election years that is) can be a time that little happens as The Supreme Court has already recessed and Congress and the President have already left or will soon be leaving town. But here are some interesting events
July 26, 1775 Benjamin Franklin is named the first postmaster general by the First Continental Congress. In 1788 New York finally ratifies the Constitution the 11th state to do so. The FBI was founded in 1908 and Truman in 1947 finalized the creating of the CIA, National Security Council and the Department of Defense and then on the same date in 1949 issued an executive order ending segregation in the military.
July 27, 1953 the armistice ending the the Korean War was signed.
In 1932 July 28 Hoover order the "Bonus Army" to be evicted which was probably another nail in the coffin that led to his defeat in November.
July 30 going way back to 1609 the colonist in Jamestown form the American representative assembly and in 1956 "In God We Trust" became the official US motto

1969 It was a very good year?

There have been many watershed years throughout history and 1969 was certainly one of them. Even as a young teenager, I realized the happenings of that year would have great impact. To me the most exciting was landing on the moon. Being a Texan it was great that the first word from the moon was "Houston". But the other events of especially the summer of 1969 brought great change to our culture. It was the summer of Woodstock and the Manson Family murders.
Another happening was Senator Ted Kennedy's accident at Chappaquiddick. Hurricane Camille hit the Mississippi coast killing 248 and causing over $1 billion in damage.
Richard Nixon was sworn in as our nation's 37th President and then shortly after that Warren Burger was confirmed to replace Earl Warren as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. 250,000 marched on Washington DC to protest the Vietnam War. The first draft since World War II was begun. The Chicago 8 trial began. Golda Meir became Prime Minister of Israel, Yasser Arafat first chairman of the P.L.O. ,Charles de Gaulle resigned as President of France and finally a biggie M. Qauddafi led a bloodless coupe in Libya.
PBS was established and 1969 is the symbolic birthday of the internet (where was Al Gore?). The first ATM machine was installed. John Lennon and Yoko Ono were married and The Beatles held their last public concert. At the movies two that had great cultural impact were Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy also the Stonewall Riots in NYC were considered the beginning of the modern gay rights movement.
Judge for yourself if 1969 was a good or bad year but you can see that technological, political and cultural events that occurred are still impacting our society today.