July 4, 2026: Trump Makes America 250 All About Himself

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

July 4, 2026: It is the 250th Anniversary of the Continental Congress' approval of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. It should have been a day to celebrate the things that make America great -- and also to reflect on subjects on which it falls short, and how to make up for those things.

The celebration's official logo

Instead, the man chosen by the people -- or, perhaps, by Vladimir Putin and Elon Musk -- to be the country's head of state, and its head of government, chose to make it a day to celebrate himself, and his views, which are diametrically opposed to the visions of America's greatness.

Three major Northeastern cities would be the focal point of the celebrations: New York, the nation's largest city, and its capital of news, finance and popular culture; Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were both written and approved, making it the nation's "birthplace"; and Washington, the nation's political capital.

But, unlike for the Centennial in 1876, and the Bicentennial in 1976, the weather forecast was troublesome: Rain, and possibly even thunderstorms, were predicted. And the 4th was the 4th and last day of a heat wave that would end up claiming 44 lives. It's almost as if God were mad at America for electing a man they knew was a traitor, a rapist, and a fraud on multiple levels: Election fraud, tax fraud, business fraud.

Heather Delaney Reese is a digital content creator and a political commentator. She and her husband run It's A Lovely Life, a luxury family travel and lifestyle platform. Of that day, she wrote:

Trump's America was on full display in a different and more dangerous way. While so many of us were celebrating its 250th birthday, with days at the beach, family cookouts, parades, and coming together for parties all over the country, roughly 400 masked men marched through the streets of the nation's capital carrying Confederate flags and chanting "Reclaim America."

They wore matching uniforms of navy blue shirts, khaki pants, and white face coverings to hide their identities. They carried shields and drums and marched in military formation through Capitol Hill neighborhoods, past Union Station, and toward the U.S. Capitol. They called for the removal of immigrants...

They are a white nationalist, white supremacist organization founded after the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, where a white nationalist drove his car into a crowd of people and killed a woman named Heather Heyer. They call themselves Patriot Front.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, the Anti-Defamation League, and George Washington University’s Program on Extremism all classify them as a hate group. Their logo is modeled after the fasces, the bundled sticks and axe that served as the symbol of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party in Italy. Their manifesto says "democracy has failed this once great nation," and calls for a "hard reset" to return to the traditions of their forefathers, whom they identify exclusively as European settlers...

A former counterterrorism official from the Department of Homeland Security even went so far as to say: "The fact that they feel empowered to engage in public demonstrations during Independence Day provides a stark illustration of the issues this country is dealing with at this time as it relates to white supremacy."

One photograph from Reuters has been circulating all day. It shows a Black woman sitting alone on the D.C. Metro, surrounded by masked Patriot Front members filling the train car around her. It is a photograph that captures two competing visions of America: one rooted in intimidation and racial supremacy, the other in the simple courage of existing without surrendering to fear. It is difficult to imagine a more haunting image to emerge from America's 250th birthday. This is Donald Trump's America.

The fact that they covered their faces shows the cowardice in their movement. They hide their faces because they know what they are doing is wrong. They know it goes against everything this country was built on. They know that if their neighbors, employers, and their families saw them marching through the streets carrying Confederate flags and demanding a white ethnostate, there would be consequences. So they cover their faces.

The founders of this country signed the Declaration of Independence with their real names, knowing it could cost them their lives. That is what courage in service of a belief looks like. Fascist movements have always hidden behind anonymity to do their ugliest work. The Klan wore hoods for the same reason. The cowardice is not incidental to the ideology. It stands in direct contrast to every single one of us who is out here every day, using our real names, showing our real faces, and saying what we believe regardless of the cost.

That is the America Donald Trump is building. Not the one he described in his speech.

It did not escape my notice that she was sitting

at roughly the same point on this subway car

as Rosa Parks' seat in the photo

on the Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955.

Trump had already done so much damage to America and its Presidency that he figured he could damage the White House itself. He literally had the East Wing of the building torn down, to build the "big, beautiful ballroom" that only he seems to think the White House needs. And he tore up Jacqueline Kennedy's Rose Garden to build an Ultimate Fighting Championship ring and seating for it, to use one time. Trump's taste isn't as bad as his behavior, but it's disgustingly bad.

The storm held off long enough for New York and Philadelphia to have their celebrations carried out in full, and both cities had impressive fireworks displays. In particular, New York's included fireworks launched from the Brooklyn Bridge. If Paris can do it from the Eiffel Tower, which was built in 1889, New York could do it from the Brooklyn Bridge, which was built in 1883. Of course, a small fire ended up being started on the Bridge, but it was quickly put out, with no injuries.

But in D.C., the weather was still threatening. Trump told Fox News' Bret Baier that he would deliver his intended speech, no matter what. Baier said there might not be anyone left in the audience. Trump, typically, said, "I don't care. It’s America 250. If they can storm the beaches on D-Day, I can deliver a speech, and we can keep this program going." It wasn't the first time Trump, the draft-dodging coward, compared himself to actual fighting men with actual courage, and it won't be the last.

At 11:15 PM, after hours of delays, Trump finally started talking. He kept going for 38 minutes -- not a long speech by Presidential standards, let alone his -- but he talked more about himself than about the country, which a President should never do.

He placed July 4, 2026, alongside July 4, 1776: "Big dates. That's big dates. Two big ones." He said, "This is bigger... I think, in its own way, it's more beautiful." On the anniversary of a document written in rejection of monarchy and concentrated power, he once again teased the possibility of an unconstitutional 3rd term: "Actually, I should say third term, but I won't do that, because I don't want any controversy." (The hell he doesn't.)

He said, "We are one people. We are one family. With one flag." Tell that to the guys with Confederate Flags, and Gadsden Flags with their snake and their "Don't tread on me" slogan. As Mrs. Reese said, "He never condemned these anti-American thugs. He never acknowledged that one of the country'’s most prominent white supremacist organizations chose the 250th birthday of the United States as the culmination of a years-long recruitment campaign. His silence was his approval."

Then he accused his opponents of being Communists, as if it was early 1954 and Edward R. Murrow and Joseph N. Welch hadn't yet put Senator Joseph McCarthy in his place.

Indeed, McCarthyism was one of the things that America has survived. We have survived our Revolution and the war to which it was a response. We survived the War of 1812, when, given a 2nd chance, Britain almost took us back. We survived slavery and the Civil War it caused. We survived labor strife and the Great Depression and the threat of the Nazis and, yes, the threat of Communism that was very real, but external rather than internal like the McCarthyists wanted us to believe.

We survived the pandemics of the 1918 Spanish Flu, the 1980s AIDS crisis, and the 2020-21 COVID crisis. We survived natural disasters like the Dust Bowl of the 1930s; the Blizzards of 1888, 1947 and 1996; the floods in Pennsylvania in 1889, the Mississippi Valley in 1927 and 1993, and the Ohio Valley in 1937; the earthquakes that hit California in 1906, 1989 and 1994, and Alaska in 1964; and the hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast in 1900, 2005 and 2017, Florida in 1935 and 1992, and the Northeast in 1955, 1972 and 2012.

We survived the struggles to establish rights for women, for nonwhite Americans, for non-Protestant Americans, for LGBT Americans. We survived the divisions caused by the Vietnam War and Watergate. We survived 9/11 and the stupidities that followed both abroad and at home.

As Mrs. Reese put it: "Every one of those chapters left a wound on this country that has never fully healed. But in every one of those chapters, the American spirit was not found in the powerful. It was found in the people who were treated the worst... Those are the people who carried this country for 250 years. Not the man behind the bulletproof glass. Not the men hiding behind masks." Masks they wouldn't wear to protect themselves, let alone others, during COVID.

Since he began his 1st campaign for President in 2015, Trump has used the theme "Make America Great Again," or "MAGA." Saying that it needs to be made great "again" implies that it no longer is, but used to be. He has never come out and said when that was. Hillary Clinton challenged him to say so during one of their 2016 debates, but, like the coward that he is, he didn't answer.

In his 1941 book The Kingdom of God and the American Dream, Sherwood Eddy, a Protestant missionary and teacher, wrote, "America is great because America is good, and if she ceases to be good, she will cease to be great." (The line has been incorrectly attributed to French diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville, in his 1833 book Democracy in America.)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: It's bad enough that Trump did the opposite of what he promised: He made America no longer great, because he rendered America no longer good. But now, he wants to remake America in his image.

America must not let him. We need to make America good again. And then we can get back to work on what John F. Kennedy said in one of his 1960 debates with Richard Nixon: "This is a great country. But I believe it can be an even greater country."

It is highly unlikely that I will still be alive on the 300th Anniversary of American independence, on July 4, 2076. I hope that America herself will still be alive. If she is, it will be because we, as a people, survived yet again -- in no small part because we survived Donald Trump.

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July 4, 2026 was a Saturday. The World Cup was underway, and 2 games of the Round of 16 were played. France beat Paraguay, 1-0 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. And Morocco beat Canada, 3-0 at Reliant Stadium in Houston.

The NFL, the NBA and the NHL were out of season. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Minnesota Twins, 11-4 at Yankee Stadium. Yankee manager Aaron Boone went with a "bullpen game," and it spectacularly failed. Brendan Beck didn't get out of the 4th inning. The Twins hit 6 home runs, including 2 by Josh Bell, who went 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs; and 1 by Kody Clemens, Roger's son.

* The New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves, 14-3 at Truist Park in the Atlanta suburb of Cumberland, Georgia. Chris Sale outpitched Sean Manaea. The Braves got home runs from Eli White, Mauricio Dubón, Mike Yastrzemski (Carl's grandson), Austin Riley and Michael Harris II. The Mets got them from Tyrone Taylor and Mark Vientos. Juan Soto went 1-for-4.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Washington Nationals, 7-1 at Nationals Park in Washington.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Guardians, 3-1 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-5 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 3-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Kyle Leahy pitched 5 innings of 3-hit shutout ball, and 4 relievers completed a 5-hit shutout.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-1 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. The Phils got home runs from J.T. Realmuto, Gabriel Rincones Jr. and Alec Bohm. Kyle Schwarber did not hit a home run, but did go 3-for-4 with a walk.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Texas Rangers, 3-0 at Globe Life Field in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Jack Flaherty allowed 3 hits over 5 2/3rds innings. Tyler Holton got the last out of the 6th. And Kelder Montero went the last 3 innings to finish the 3-hit shutout.

* The Houston Astros beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 10-8 at Daikin Park in Houston.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies, 6-4 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-3 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels, 8-1 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 3-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched 7 innings of 3-hit shutout ball, striking out 10. Three relievers completed a 4-hit shutout.

* The Miami Marlins beat the Sacramento Athletics, 7-2 at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 11-0 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. The only baserunner that Seattle pitching allowed was a single by Yohendrick Pinango in the 5th. Logan Gilbert went 7 1/3rd innings, and Cole Wilcox went the rest of the way to preserve the 1-hit shutout. Randy Arozarena went 3-for-4 with a home run and 4 RBIs, and Cal Raleigh went 1-for-4 with a home run and 3 RBIs.

May 10, 1876: The Centennial Exhibition

Memorial Hall

May 10, 1876: The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, opens in Philadelphia, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in the city, on July 4, 1776.

Officially named the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, it was held in Fairmount Park, along the Schuylkill (SKOOL-kill) River, northwest of what's now known as Center City, on fairgrounds designed by Herman J. Schwarzmann. Nearly 10 million visitors attended the exposition, and 37 countries participated in it. It ran until November 10, when colder weather made keeping it going impractical.

A 1,000-foot Centennial Tower was proposed, but never built. (World's Fairs that did build towers have included the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris with the Eiffel Tower, the 1939 New York World's Fair with the Trylon, and the 1962 Century 21 Exposition in Seattle with the Space Needle.) But the right arm and torch of the still-incomplete Statue of Liberty were on display, and fees collected to stand in the torch and view the fair helped raise money for the Statue's completion.

There was an Agricultural Hall, a Horticultural Hall, a Machinery Hall, a Women's Pavilion, and a few other themed exhibition areas. Among the new products shown for the first time at this fair were Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, the Remington No. 1 typewriter, Heinz ketchup and Hires root beer.

The Exhibition was intended not only to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of American independence, but to show that America was coming out of the economic depression that had been caused by the stock market's Panic of 1873. The celebrations were meant to peak on Centennial Day, July 4, 1876. Unfortunately, that was the day that word reached Philadelphia by telegraph of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where Native American tribes routed the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in the Montana Territory, putting a damper on the big day.

The fair was a mixture of the Gilded Age and the pain of the depression brought about by the Panic of 1873, and the strain that the Wild West was putting on the nation.

One of the few remaining buildings from the Exhibition is Memorial Hall. Since 2005, it has housed the Please Touch Museum, an interactive museum for children.

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May 10, 1876 was a Wednesday. Baseball was America's only professional team sport at the time, and the National League had just begun its 1st season. Only one games was played: The Chicago White Stockings beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-0 at the State Street Grounds in Chicago.

The White Stockings went on to win the NL's 1st Pennant. They went through some name changes until, by 1903, they were known as the Chicago Cubs, and the American League team founded in 1901 had become the Chicago White Sox.

But the team they beat on this day went out of business after the 1879 season. The team known today as the Cincinnati Reds started play in 1882, and has no connection to the earlier Reds, or to the Cincinnati Red Stockings who, in 1869 and 1870, were the first openly professional baseball team. So, when today's Reds claim to be "the oldest professional baseball team," they are lying: The Cubs are, having been established in 1870.

April 13, 1943: The Jefferson Memorial Is Dedicated

April 13, 1943: The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., on the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson.

The native of Shadwell, outside Charlottesville, Virginia, served in the House of Burgesses of Britain's Virginia Colony from 1769 to 1775. That House became the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and is the oldest continuously operating deliberative body in North America. (Like Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, Virginia officially calls itself a "Commonwealth," but, like the other 46 States, those "Commonwealths" are recognized by the federal government as "States.")

As a Burgess, Jefferson responded to the "Intolerable Acts" of 1774 by writing A Summary View of the Rights of British America, which made him a natural to be elected to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. While there, he was selected to write the Declaration of Independence, ratified on July 4, 1776. He served as Governor of Virginia from 1779 to 1781, including writing the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

He then moved into the diplomatic sphere, serving as Minister Plenipotentiary for Negotiating Treaties of Amity and Commerce. From 1785 to 1789, he served as U.S. Minister to France. (Today, we would say, "Ambassador.") He returned to America to become the 1st U.S. Secretary of State, under the 1st President, George Washington. He finished 2nd to John Adams in the Presidential election of 1796, making him, under the wording of the Constitution of that time (changed in 1804 by the 12th Amendment), the 2nd Vice President. In 1800, he defeated Adams to become the 3rd President.

As President, he presided over a vast expansion of the country with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, and an early military victory in the conflict with the Barbary Pirates of North Africa from 1801 to 1805. His 2nd term was beset by economic issues, and his solution, the Embargo Act of 1807, was terribly counterproductive. Someone noticed that "embargo" spelled backwards was "o-grab-me," and that's what it felt like for what passed for big business in America at the time.

At the conclusion of his 2nd term in 1809, he left the Presidency, and founded the University of Virginia, the 1st university in the world not affiliated with any religious establishment.

To put it politely, his record on slavery was mixed. He had slaves, and never freed them, and, after the 1782 death of his wife Martha, with whom he had 6 children, but only 2 daughters survived to adulthood, he is alleged to have fathered up to 6 children with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. But he criticized King George III for his role in the slave trade, a passage the Congress removed from the Declaration of Independence, for fear that the Southern colonies would reject it. And he signed a law prohibiting the importation of slaves into America starting in 1808.

He died on July 4, 1826, the 50th Anniversary of the approval of the Declaration of Independence. He had wanted to live to see it, and, every few hours on July 3, he awoke to ask, "Is this the 4th?" After being told, "No," a few times, the truth finally became, "Yes." He smiled, and went back to sleep, lasting until 12:50 PM on the 4th.

He had reconciled with Adams by mail, though they had never again seen each other in person. That same day, not knowing that Jefferson had already died, Adams passed away at 6:20, saying, "Thomas Jefferson lives. Independence forever."

John Russell Pope designed the Jefferson Memorial, but died in 1937 before construction could begin. Rudulph Evans sculpted the 18-foot statue at the center, which, due to wartime priorities for metal, was not finished until 1947, with a plaster version standing in for it until then.

As with the statue of Abraham Lincoln at his Memorial nearby, panels of Jefferson's memorial are inscribed with words of his. On one panel are selections from the Declaration of Independence, with a slight alteration: While he had written that, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights," the inscription on the memorial reads, "with certain inalienable rights," which has led to a great deal of confusion.

In a letter to another Signer of the Declaration, Dr. Benjamin Rush, dated September 23, 1800, Jefferson wrote, "For I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." Those words are inscribed on his Memorial.

And he hated despots to the end. In a letter to John Langdon, a Signer of the Constitution and 3 times Governor of New Hampshire, on March 5, 1810, he wrote, of, respectively, King Louis XVI of France (1774-1792), King Charles IV of Spain (1788-1808, overthrown by Napoleon), the man who ruled Naples as King Ferdinand IV and Sicily as King Ferdinand III (1759 to 1825), King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia (1773-1796), Queen Maria I of Portugal (known as Maria the Mad, 1777-1816), King Christian VII of Denmark (1766-1806), King Frederick William II of Prussia (1786-1797), King Gustav III of Sweden (1771-1792, assassinated), Emperor Joseph II (reigned over the Holy Roman Empire starting in 1765 and the Austrian Empire starting in 1780, until his death in 1790), King George III of Great Britain (1760-1820, mentally incompetent from 1811 onward with his son, later King George IV, in charge), Empress Catherine II of Russia (a.k.a. Catherine the Great, 1762-1796), and Czar Alexander I of Russia (1801-1825):

While in Europe, I often amused myself with contemplating the characters of the then reigning sovereigns of Europe. Louis the XVI was a fool, of my own knowledge, and in despite of the answers made for him at his trial. The King of Spain was a fool, and of Naples the same. They passed their lives in hunting, and despatched two couriers a week, one thousand miles, to let each other know what game they had killed the preceding days. The King of Sardinia was a fool. All these were Bourbons.

The Queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by nature. And so was the King of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised the powers of government. The King of Prussia, successor to the great Frederick, was a mere hog in body as well as in mind. Gustavus of Sweden, and Joseph of Austria, were really crazy, and George of England, you know, was in a strait-waistcoat. There remained, then, none but old Catharine, who had been too lately picked up to have lost her common sense.

In this state Bonaparte found Europe; and it was this state of its rulers which lost it with scarce a struggle. These animals had become without mind and powerless; and so will every hereditary monarch be after a few generations. Alexander, the grandson of Catharine, is as yet an exception. He is able to hold his own. But he is only of the third generation. His race is not yet worn out. And so endeth the book of Kings, from all of whom the Lord deliver us, and have you, my friend, and all such good men and true, in His holy keeping.

And, despite Napoleon Bonaparte, first as dictator of France (1799-1804) and then as Emperor (1804-1814, with a brief return in 1815), selling him the Louisiana Territory, keeping Britain occupied in such a way as to be unable to win the War of 1812, and being one of the greatest military minds of all time, Jefferson hated his guts, too. On his first fall, Jefferson wrote to John Adams on July 5, 1814:

The Attila of the age dethroned, the ruthless destroyer of ten millions of the human race, whose thirst for blood appeared unquenchable, the great oppressor of the rights and liberties of the world...

Bonaparte was a lion in the field only. In civil life, a cold-blooded, calculating, unprincipled usurper, without a virtue; no statesman, knowing nothing of commerce, political economy, or civil government, and supplying ignorance by bold presumption.

And to Count Antonio Dugnani, who had been Pope Pius VI's "papal nuncio" to France while Jefferson was America's Minister there, he wrote on February 14, 1818, on the subject of Napoleon: "Having been, like him, intrusted with the happiness of my country, I feel the blessing of resembling him in no other point."

There are now 5 Presidents who have memorials on the National Mall in Washington. In chronological order of their service, they are: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Several other Presidents have official memorials, or at least statues, elsewhere in the District of Columbia.

Jefferson would appreciate institutions of learning being named after him, including Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn. On the TV show Happy Days, the fictional Jefferson High was named for him. Also named for him are Thomas Jefferson University, a health-care-themed school, in Philadelphia; Jefferson College of Health Sciences, in Roanoke, Virginia; Washington & Jefferson College, in Washington; Pennsylvania; Thomas Jefferson School of Law, in San Diego; Jefferson Colleges in Washington, Mississippi and Hillsboro, Missouri; and community colleges in Watertown, New York; Louisville, Kentucky; and Birmingham, Alabama. And the Library of Congress' main building, which includes some donations from him, is named the Thomas Jefferson Building.

There are 15 States with cities or towns named for him, including Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri. The Counties that include Denver and Birmingham, Alabama are Jefferson County. There have been 3 ships named the USS Thomas Jefferson: A brig from 1814 to 1825, an attack transport from 1942 to 1955, and a U.S. Navy submarine in service from 1963 to 1985. 

Since 1938, Jefferson has appeared on the nickel, America's 5-cent coin, replacing the "Buffalo Nickel," the one with the "Indian head" on the front and the buffalo on the back. From 1929 to 1966, he was on the $2 bill, which was phased out, and temporarily brought back in 1976 as part of America's Bicentennial celebration.

The last surviving member of Jefferson's Cabinet was Albert Gallatin, who served as Secretary of the Treasury. He lived until 1849.

Among the actors who have played Jefferson: Charlton Heston in The Patriots in 1963, Hugh O'Brian in Swing Out, Sweet Land in 1970, Ken Howard in 1776 in 1972, Jeffrey Jones in George Washington: The Forging of a Nation in 1986, Scott Wilkinson in A More Perfect Union in 1989, Nick Nolte in Jefferson In Paris in 1995, Sam Neill in Sally Hemings: An American Scandal in 2000, Ronald McAdams in National Treasure in 2004, and Stephen Dillane in John Adams in 2008.

In a 2016 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Nice" Peter Shukoff played Jefferson, while actor J.B. Smoove played Frederick Douglass, who challenged him on slavery, including perhaps the baddest zinger in the show's history: "You got a self-evident truth of your own: You let freedom ring, but never picked up the phone!"

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April 13, 1943 was a Tuesday. Baseball season started 7 days later. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And hockey season had ended 5 days earlier, when the Detroit Red Wings clinched the Stanley Cup over the Boston Bruins. So there were no scores on this historic day.

April 5, 1939: The Library of Congress Opens the John Adams Building

April 5, 1939: The Library of Congress opens an annex. It is across 2nd Street SE from the main Library, the Thomas Jefferson Building, and is also bounded by East Capitol Street, 3rd Street SE and Independence Avenue. On June 13, 1980, it was renamed the John Adams Building.

NOTE: My cutoff date for this project is 1869, the year of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, the 1st openly professional baseball team, and the 1st American football game. I had managed to work in references to most pre-1869 Presidents. This was the only way I could think of to do it for both Adamses.

The building is 5 stories in height above ground. It contains 180 miles of shelving, compared to 104 miles in the Jefferson Building, and can hold 10 million volumes. There are 12 tiers of stacks, extending from the cellar to the 4th floor. Each tier provides about 13 acres of shelf space.

John Adams was a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the member of the Continental Congress who recommended to that body that George Washington be named commander of the Continental Army. He served as U.S. Minister of France, and to Britain. He was elected the 1st Vice President of the United States, under Washington, in 1789 and 1792, and the 2nd President in 1796, defeating Jefferson.

He lost to Jefferson in 1800, the men's friendship having been torn apart by the politics of the time. With the prodding of his wife Abigail, Adams began writing to Jefferson, and, although they never met in person again, their correspondence restored their friendship. Adams died at 6:20 PM on July 4, 1826, the 50th Anniversary of the approval of the Declaration of Independence, at Peacefield, his home in Quincy, Massachusetts, outside Boston. His last words were, "Thomas Jefferson still lives. Independence forever."

What he didn't know, due to the means of transmitting information available at the time -- it was 28 years before the invention of the telegraph, 50 years before that of the telephone, and 94 years before the start of radio broadcasting -- was that Jefferson had died earlier in the day. The night before, drifting in and out of consciousness, and determined to make it to the great anniversary, he kept asking, "Is this the fourth?" Late at night on the 3rd, not sure that he would make it to midnight, those around him told him, "Yes." He did not regain consciousness, but lived until 12:50 PM on the 4th.

At the time, the President of the United States was Adams' son, John Quincy Adams, who called the coincidence of their deaths on the nation's anniversary "visible and palpable remarks of Divine Favor."

John Quincy had been America's finest diplomat, having been appointed as U.S. Minister to the Netherlands (at age 27!), Prussia (most of modern Germany), Russia and Britain. He also served Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate, before being appointed Secretary of State by President James Monroe. It was Adams who actually wrote the policy that became known as the Monroe Doctrine.

He was also the earliest President to be photographed,

although it was many years after he left office.

A controversial election in 1824 led to Adams becoming President, but his time in office was one of the most frustrating that any President ever had, and he was overwhelmingly defeated by Andrew Jackson in 1828. In 1830, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and remains the only former President so honored. He became one of the nation's foremost anti-slavery activists, until his death in 1848. He and his wife Louisa, an English native and the only foreign-born First Lady until Melania Trump, are entombed at the same church in Quincy as his parents, John and Abigail.

John Quincy's son, Charles Francis Adams, served a term in Congress, and was U.S. Envoy to Britain during the American Civil War, keeping the British from allying with the Confederate States of America. There was an effort by Republicans unhappy with the corruption in the Administration of Ulysses S. Grant to nominate Charles Francis for President in 1872, but it didn't happen.

His sons included John Quincy Adams II, who served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives; Charles Francis Adams Jr., who never served in public office but whose legal work reformed America's railroad industry, and served as President of the Union Pacific Railroad; and historians Henry Adams and Brooks Adams.

Although the founding owner of the National Hockey League's Boston Bruins was named Charles Francis Adams, he was not a member of this Adams family.

John Marshall served as John Adams' Secretary of State from June 13, 1800 to March 4, 1801. One of Adams' last decisions was to appoint him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, in which he served until his death in 1835, leaving him the last surviving member of the Adams Cabinet.

John McLean was the last surviving member of John Quincy Adams's cabinet. He served as Postmaster General throughout Adams' Presidency, and later as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. He died in 1861.

In 1870, the Stone Library was built on the grounds of Peacefield. It is considered the Presidential Library for both Adamses.

In 2001, Congress authorized the Adams Memorial Foundation, to provide for the construction in the District of Columbia of a memorial for the Adams family and its accomplishments. As of April 5, 2022, the money necessary for such a memorial had not yet been raised, nor had a site been selected.

There are 6 Counties named for John Adams, and there is Adams County in Iowa, which is officially unsure if it was named for the father or the son. There are John Adams High Schools in Queens, New York City (my grandmother went there, but did not graduate); Cleveland; the Detroit suburb of Rochester Hills, Michigan; South Bend, Indiana; Hasting, Nebraska; and Portland, Oregon.

John Adams statue, Quincy, Massachusetts

On the TV show Boy Meets World, the character of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, attends a school named for John Adams, in the suburbs of Philadelphia. For the sequel series Girl Meets World, a now-grown Cory teaches at a New York City school named for John Quincy Adams, attended by his daughter, Riley, played by Rowan Blanchard.

John Quincy Adams statue, Quincy

On Boy Meets World, Cory's teacher, George Feeney, was played by William Daniels. Daniels had played John Adams in the 1969 Broadway musical 1776, and reprised the role in the 1972 film. Adams was also played by Robert Ayres in the 1959 film John Paul Jones, Hal Holbrook in the 1984 CBS TV-movie George Washington, Ivan Crosland in A More Perfect Union in 1989, and Paul Giamatti in the 2008 HBO miniseries John Adams.

Grant Mitchell played John Quincy Adams in the film The Monroe Doctrine in 1939, Anthony Hopkins played him in Amistad in 1997, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach played him in the 2008 John Adams miniseries.

The USS Adams was a frigate launched in 1799, served in the Quasi-War with France, the First Barbary War, and the War of 1812, before it ran ground in Maine and was scuttled in 1814. A separate frigate, the USS John Adams, was also launched in 1799, and remained in service until 1865. Another USS John Adams, officially named for both men, was a submarine in service from 1963 to 1989.

John Adams was the 1st President born in Massachusetts, although whether he remains the greatest one depends on how you feel about John F. Kennedy.

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April 5, 1939 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that Kate Smith's recording of "God Bless America" was released. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the Stanley Cup Finals were between Games 1 and 2. The Boston Bruins would beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4 games to 1. So there were no scores on this historic day.

February 21, 1885: The Washington Monument Is Dedicated

February 21, 1885: The Washington Monument is dedicated, on what will become known as the National Mall in Washington, the District of Columbia. It had been a long time in coming.

George Washington was been Commander of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, winning the War of the American Revolution. He was President of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. And he was the 1st President of the United States, serving from April 30, 1789 to March 4, 1797. He died in 1799, at the age of 67.

(His term was supposed to begin on March 4, 1789, but, due to the transportation links of the time, the 1st Congress had trouble getting together. Once they counted the Electoral Votes, Washington had to get from his home, Mount Vernon, in Alexandria, Virginia, to what was then the national capital, New York.)

Construction of the national memorial to him, in the new capital city that bore his name, across the Potomac River from Alexandria, began in 1848. But in 1854, the committee tasked with building it ran out of money, and it just sat there, about one-third finished, for years. To this day, a close look reveals where construction started again, in 1877, as shown in the photo at the top. 

The Monument is both the world's tallest predominantly stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk. Upon its completion, the National Park Service measured it at 555 feet, 5 1/8th inches high. In 2014, the U.S. National Geodetic Survey measured it at 554 feet 7 11/32 inches, meaning that, probably due to the ground settling, it lost over 9 inches. At the time of its completion in late 1884, it surpassed the Cologne Cathedral in Germany as the tallest structure in the world, and held that title until 1889, when it was surpassed by the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Fifty American flags, one for each State, fly on a large circle of poles centered on the Monument. In 1999 and 2000, it was renovated, and, with its steel scaffold, was the the centerpiece of D.C.'s Millennium Day celebrations. A 2011 earthquake slightly damaged the monument, and it was closed for repairs until 2014.

January 1, 2000, 12:01 AM

On August 21, 1908, helping journalist Preston Gibson win a $500 bet (about $15,700 in 2022 money), Washington Senators catcher Charles "Gabby" Street caught a ball dropped 555 feet from the top of the Monument.

Since its opening, the Washington Monument has been joined by official memorials to Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower; and memorials to those lost in World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars. A World War I memorial is now under construction.

There are also Washington Monuments in Baltimore (a column completed in 1829, before construction on the D.C. one was even planned), Philadelphia (an equestrian statue in front of the Museum of Art), Richmond (equestrian), Milwaukee (a standing statue), and at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York (another equestrian statue).

Newark, New Jersey has 2 prominent statues of Washington, one of him standing next to his horse, in Washington Park, in front of the city's main Public Library and the Newark Museum; and one of him at the head of a massive Wars of America statue in Military Park, downtown.

Washington Park, Newark, New Jersey

On September 27, 2013, 214 years after his death, a Presidential Library for him opened on the grounds of Mount Vernon. He's the only President with a State named after him. Among the other things named for him are 31 Counties or County equivalents, 43 townships in Ohio alone, 5 of them in New Jersey; Mount Washington, in New Hampshire, the highest peak in the Eastern U.S.; Lake Washington, on which the biggest city in the State of Washington, Seattle, sits.

Since 1928, Washington's portrait has appeared on America's $1 bill. Since 1932, the 200th Anniversary of his birth, his left profile has appeared on the quarter, the 25-cent coin.

Also, George Washington University in D.C.; Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania, Washington and Lee University, also named after Robert E. Lee, in Lexington, Virginia; and Washington University in St. Louis. Also, the George Washington Bridge, connecting the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, which includes George Washington High School, with Fort Lee, New Jersey, named for one of his generals who was a relative of Robert E.; and the George Washington Memorial Parkway, connecting D.C. with Mount Vernon.

And 4 ships have been named the USS George Washington: A frigate that sailed from 1798 to 1802, a World War I transport, a submarine in service from 1959 to 1985, and a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, CVN-73, a.k.a. "The Spirit of Freedom," that has been in service since 1992.

Washington was, of course, the 1st President, and thus the 1st President from Virginia. He is usually listed as 1 of the 3 greatest Presidents, along with Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, so he is still the greatest politician from Virginia.

The last surviving member of George Washington's Cabinet was Oliver Wolcott Jr., who served as his Secretary of the Treasury from 1795 to 1797. He lived until 1833.

Among the actors who've played Washington: Will Geer on a 1970 episode of Bewitched, Peter Graves in The Rebels in 1979, Barry Bostwick in 2 CBS TV-movies in the 1980s, Michael McGuire in A More Perfect Union in 1989, Jeff Daniels in The Crossing in 2000, Kelsey Grammer in Benedict Arnold: A Question of Honor in 2003, David Morse in John Adams in 2008, Ian Kahn in Turn: Washington's Spies from 2014 to 2017, Damian O'Hare in Timeless in 2016, and Randall Batinkoff in DC's Legends of Tomorrow in 2017.

In a 2014 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, Washington was played by "Nice" Peter Shukoff, against "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist, playing Scottish hero William Wallace, a.k.a. Braveheart.

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February 21, 1885 was a Saturday. Baseball and football were out of season. Hockey was all-amateur. And basketball hadn't yet been invented. So there were no scores on this historic day.

Not in this country, anyway. In England, 3 of the 4 Quarterfinals of the FA Cup were played. (The Football League wouldn't be founded for another 3 years.) Nottingham Forest beat Old Etonians, 2-0 at the Pococks Lane ground, Eton, Berkshire. Notts County and Queen's Park, of Glasgow, Scotland (at the time, permitted to play in England's premier "football" competition) played to a 2-2 draw at Meadow Lane in Nottingham. And Blackburn Rovers beat West Bromwich Albion, 2-0 at the Four Acres Cricket Ground in West Bromwich, outside Birmingham.

On April 4, at the Kennington Oval in Southeast London, Blackburn would beat Queen's Park in the Final, 2-0.

January 1, 1934: The Franklin Institute Opens In Philadelphia

January 1, 1934: The current building of the Franklin Institute opens in Philadelphia, at 222 North 20th Street, at the northwestern edge of Center City, and along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Rodin Museum and The Academy of Natural Sciences are also along the Parkway.

Dr. Franklin (born January 17, 1706 in Boston; died April 17, 1790 in Philadelphia) was the most famous American before independence in 1776, and arguably the most important figure in the American Revolution, ahead of even George Washington. Even before the Revolution, he was America's leading printer, its first postmaster, its first fire marshal, the founder of the University of Pennsylvania (who have played at a stadium named Franklin Field since 1895), and its greatest scientist.

The story that he "discovered electricity" in 1752 by flying a kite in a storm is ridiculous. Electricity was already known. What he did was suggest that flying a kite in a storm could prove that lightning was electricity, but whether he actually carried the experiment out is unclear. Of course, Ben knew the value of a good story, even if it wasn't true, and did nothing to discourage its telling.

Franklin was one of five men assigned by the Continental Congress to compose The Declaration of Independence in 1776, along with John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston, and the man who did the actual writing, Thomas Jefferson. The other four edited Jefferson's words, some to his objections. During the debate over independence, Franklin, already known for his wisdom and witticisms, told the delegates, "We must all hang together, or, surely, we shall all hang separately."

He then went to France, to enlist their aid against their common enemy, Britain. America would not have won that war without France. He represented America at the signing of the peace treaty, the Treaty of Paris, in 1783.

Six men signed both The Declaration and, in 1787, the Constitution of the United States, both at what is now named Independence Hall in Philadelphia: From Pennsylvania, Franklin, Robert Morris, George Clymer and James Wilson; from Connecticut, Sherman; and from Delaware, George Read.

Washington had been chosen as President of the Constitutional Convention. His chair had the image of half a Sun on it. After the Constitution was approved, Franklin said, "Now, I know: It is a rising, and not a setting, Sun." But when he left the Hall, someone asked him what kind of government was approved. He said, "A republic, if you can keep it."

From 1948 to 1963, Franklin's right profile appeared on the half-dollar, the 50-cent coin. Since 1914, his portrait has appeared on the $100 bill. Since the Roman numeral for 100 is the letter C, $100 bills have been nicknamed C-notes. However, due to Franklin's picture, they have also been called Big Bens, and hip-hop culture has led to them being called Benjamins.

Towns all over America have been named for Franklin, including in Somerset County and Sussex County, New Jersey. There are high schools named for him in East Harlem, Manhattan's East Harlem, New Orleans, and, as you might guess, Philadelphia, on North Broad Street, about a mile from the Institute.

He has been played by Walter Walker in the 1938 film Marie Antoinette, Orson Welles in the 1954 film Affairs at Versailles, Welles again in the 1961 film La Fayette, Howard da Silva in the 1972 film version of the musical 1776, Robert Symonds in the 1976 PBS miniseries The Adams Chronicles, Fredd Wayne in the 1987 film A More Perfect Union, Philip Bosco in the 1997 PBS miniseries Liberty! The American Revolution, Richard Easton in the 2002 PBS miniseries Benjamin Franklin, Tom Wilkinson in the 2008 HBO miniseries John Adams, and Dean Norris in the 2015 History Channel series Sons of Liberty. In another PBS documentary titled Benjamin Franklin, directed by Ken Burns in 2022, he was voiced by Mandy Patinkin. Oddly, while he is mentioned in Lin-Manuel Miranda's 2015 Broadway musical Hamilton, he does not appear onstage as a character.

Given Franklin's penchants for both science humor, it's not surprising that he has featured in time-travel stories and comedies. The TV shows Bewitched, Saturday Night Live and MADtv have all brought him forward in time to comment on what were then current events. John Sumner played him in a 2001 episode of the syndicated TV series Jack of All Trades, showing his proposed submarine as a successful invention, even though the show takes place in 1801, well after his death. "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist played him on a 2011 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, in which he is portrayed as a salesman, fully aware of events since his death, against the late TV commercial pitchman Billy Mays.

Franklin's life and career were key to the plot of the 2004 film National Treasure, which filmed on location at both the Franklin Institute and Independence Hall. The lead character, played by Nicolas Cage, is named Benjamin Franklin Gates. Other notable fictional characters named for him include Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton in the 1904 opera Madama Butterfly, Dr. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce (Alan Alda), on M*A*S*H, baseball star Benjamin Franklin "Benny the Jet" Rodriguez (Mike Vitar) in The Sandlot, and teacher Benjamin Franklin Chang (Ken Jeong) in Community. And the mascot for the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers is a dog named Franklin.

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On February 5, 1824, Samuel Vaughan Merrick and William H. Keating founded The Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts. Within 3 years of its founding, that promotion had already taken place through public lectures, a high school, a library, public exhibitions, and a research journal. Many of these endeavors remain core activities of The Franklin Institute (TFI) to this day.

Since then, The Franklin Institute has played a central, yet constantly evolving, role in meeting America's educational needs in the fields of science and technology. For the organization's 1st century, classes were offered in mechanics, drafting, and engineering, and promoted science and invention.

In 1930, despite the Great Depression, The Franklin Institute and the Poor Richard Club began to seek funds to build a new science museum and memorial hall. In just 12 days, the community contributed $5.1 million, and in 1932, the cornerstone of the new Franklin Institute was laid at 20th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

The Franklin Institute Science Museum opened to the public on January 1, 1934, titling itself a "Wonderland of Science," and was one of the first museums in the nation to offer a hands-on approach to learning about the physical world. Three major capital campaigns (1990, 2003, and 2012) enabled physical and programmatic expansion, resulting in the existing facility, which contains more than 400,000 square feet of exhibit space and two auditoriums.

TFI also operates the Fels Planetarium, the second oldest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere. The museum is home to the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial, which was fully restored in 2010 and is open free to the public. It is one of just a handful of national memorials in the custody of a private institution.

In 2014, the museum opened the 53,000-square-foot Nicholas and Athena Karabots Pavilion, which houses a STEM education and conference center, a climate-controlled traveling exhibition gallery, the award-winning exhibit Your Brain, in which visitors can explore neuroscience and their own senses.

Today, TFI offers three floors of permanent exhibits that provide hands-on learning experiences that introduce and reinforce key science concepts in creative and engaging ways. The museum also hosts renowned traveling exhibits that draw local, national and international visitors to the museum, such as King Tut, the most visited museum exhibit in the world in 2007; and Body Worlds in 2010.

As an American Association of Museums-accredited organization, the museum holds curatorial collections, particularly those related to Franklin and the Wright Brothers, that are considered national treasures.

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January 1, 1934 was a Monday. This was also the date that Columbia University beat Stanford University in a big upset in the Rose Bowl. I have a separate entry for that event.

It would take until the next year for the Orange Bowl and the Sugar Bowl to be first played, and 2 more years for the Cotton Bowl. The NFL season had ended on December 17, with the Chicago Bears beating the New York Giants in the Championship Game. Baseball was in the off-season. And the NBA wouldn't be founded until 1946. There was 1 NHL game played that day: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 2-1 at the Chicago Stadium.

And it was the date on which Alan Berg, the Denver radio show host who was the subject of Eric Bogosian's play and movie Talk Radio, murdered in 1984 for his political views, was born in Chicago.