A Brief History On February 8, 1879, Scottish Canadian inventor and engineer Sandford Fleming proposed the adoption of Universal Standard Time at The Royal Canadian Institute. Fleming proposed that the world be divided into 24 time zones, each 15 degrees of longitude in breadth and sequentially one hour behind the preceding time zone. All land within each time zone would be set to the same time. Up until this time, clocks in every city and town had been set to local time based on each location’s position on the Earth, creating no standards of keeping time and mass confusion when…
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A Brief History This article contains links to online versions of what we consider the essential primary source readings for students of American History through the Civil War. Please click on the title of the document to read it. Digging Deeper I. Background and Colonial Development, 1500-1763 November 11, 1620: The Mayflower Compact II. Revolutionary Era: Emergency of Democracy, 1763-1800 July 8, 1775: The Olive Branch Petition January 10, 1776: Common Sense July 4, 1776: The United States Declaration of Independence III. Expansion of American Democracy, 1800-1850 IV. Challenge to Democracy, 1850-1865 Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: What is your…
A Brief History On February 7, 1795, the 12th state needed to ratify the 11th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (North Carolina) voted to ratify the Amendment, thus making it part of the law of the land. The 11th Amendment was the first Amendment to be ratified since the adoption of the Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10). Digging Deeper The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of our nation, and all other laws and court decisions must be in accordance with the Constitution. It is the job of the Supreme Court of the US…
A Brief History On February 6, 2018, we stand with the United Nations in recognizing International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. While normally we endorse the right of people to do as they please, horribly mutilating children without the informed consent of that child is not something people should be doing. The archaic practice of female genital mutilation is sexist and a form of abuse/assault on female human beings, sadly, still practiced today in at least 30 countries (but actually many more). Digging Deeper In 2003 the United Nations determined that by insisting on immediate cessation of…
A Brief History On February 5, 1917, the Congress of the United States overrode a veto by President Woodrow Wilson and enacted the Immigration Act of 1917, a law that targeted Asians to prevent their immigration to the US. Today, while immigration reform remains a hotly debated and racially charged topic, we are reminded that the subject of immigration policies based on race or national origin is not unique to this particular point in time. Digging Deeper Sometimes referred to as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, or even the Literacy Act, the point of the Immigration Act of 1917 (we…