Browsing: October

A Brief History On October 2, 1789, President George Washington sent to the States for ratification a list of Amendments to the Constitution, a list we now refer to as “The Bill of Rights.” Digging Deeper These first 10 Amendments to the US Constitution would eventually be followed by 27 more Amendments that have been ratified by the States, giving us a total of 37 such Amendments. There are an additional 6 proposed Amendments that have not been ratified by the States, of which 4 are still “open.” Amendments to the Constitution are authorized by Article 5 of the Constitution,…

A Brief History On October 1, 1957, for the first time the phrase “In God We Trust” appeared on American paper currency. Although the phrase had appeared on American coins as early as 1864, it had only become the co-motto of the United States in 1956 (the other co-motto being “E Pluribus Unum”). The first bill to bear this pronouncement was the one dollar silver certificate, a move mandated by the passage of a congressional resolution on July 30, 1956 declaring this phrase as our national motto and further legislation ordering its inclusion on currency. Digging Deeper Apparently instigated by…

A Brief History On October 31, 1864, the people of the United States got a big  treat in their Halloween basket, the newly minted State of Nevada, the 36th state of the Union, appropriately known as “The Silver State.”  Right in the middle of the bloodiest war in US history, for good measure. Digging Deeper At the time of admission as a state, Nevada only had about 14,000 people.  Only 4 years earlier the number was a paltry 6857 souls.  For such a large area (the 7th largest state by area) Nevada has for most of its existence been quite…

A Brief History On October 30, 1995, the people of the Canadian province of Quebec voted by the narrow margin of 50.58% to 49.42% to remain a Canadian province.  Quebec, the largest province of Canada by size, was the heart of New France until the British won the Seven Years War in 1763, and with it sovereignty over Quebec. Digging Deeper The Quebecois as the people call themselves maintain their French heritage, and the French language is spoken by the majority of people in the province.  A reminder of this French heritage can be found on their automobile license plates,…

A Brief History On October 29, 1918, a disheartened and disgusted German Navy had enough of the slaughter, mismanagement, and bungling of World War I and mutinied when ordered to sail out for one last ‘glorious’ mission that amounted to a suicide mission when the war was already lost. Digging Deeper The German High Seas Fleet had basically been bottled up in port after the enormous naval Battle of Jutland, in which an outnumbered Imperial German fleet acquitted itself quite well.  Despite many pleas by the Navy for other chances to contribute to the war effort, German leadership kept them…