Contributor Posts

The building has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. It became known as the “White House” because because its white-gray freestone contrasted strikingly with the red brick of nearby buildings. 

Designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the neoclassical style. The original construction took place between 1792 and 1800. During the War of 1812, the mansion was set on fire by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed Executive Residence in October 1817... Read more

Cueva de las Manos (Spanish for Cave of Hands) Located in the Valley of the Pinturas River, province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, The art in the cave dates from 13,000 to 9,000 years ago. Bone-made pipes were used for spraying the paint on the wall of the cave to create silhouettes of hands. Read more  --   See more images and learn more 

Where did you go? I would say,
tell me please, when you go away.
You disappear from here in
this week of gloom,
although you sit with me,
in the same room.
An escape for you from
your own mind.
A place of solitude where
people are kind.
Please talk to me now,
for you know,
I want you near me,
until I must go.

Francis Scott Key, an American Lawyer and amateur poet from Maryland, was being held aboard a British ship trying to work out a prisoner release when he observed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814. 
He was inspired upon seeing the American flag still flying over the fort at dawn and wrote the poem titled. "Defence of Fort M'Henry" it was published within a week with the suggested tune of the popular song "To Anacreon in Heaven" written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society a popular gentlemen's club of amateur musicians in London. It slowly gained in popularity as an unofficial anthem, finally achieving official status more than a century later under President Herbert Hoover as the national anthem. The national motto "In God We Trust" from a line in the Poem. Although the poem has four Stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today.

The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song  "To Anacreon in Heaven written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreonic Society, a men's social club in London which with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. This setting, renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner", soon became a well-known U.S. patriotic song. With a range of 19 semitones, it is known for being very difficult to sing.

Francis Scott Key went on to become District Attorney for the District of Columbia  after being nominated by President Andrew Jackson. 
The photo of "The Star-Spangled Banner" handwritten manuscript by Francis Scott Key, 1814 is from the Special Collections Department/Maryland Historical Society.

Nineteen years ago, on this infamous day,
The World changed; so many Souls, gone away.
A series of dastardly deeds, so bizarre.
The pain of loss; near and far,
Losing the lives of so many people,
Will be long remembered, for the toll
And harm coming to First Responder,
Left us here, to weep and wonder
About the hate of this Great Nation,
Brought to us, became an aberration.
God Bless the Souls of those that died
And for all those left who weep and cried.

The Lawrence massacre, also known as Quantrill's raid, was an attack during the American Civil War (1861–65) by Quantrill's Raiders, a Confederate guerrilla group led by William Quantrill, on the Unionist town of Lawrence, Kansas, killing around 150 men and boys....... Read more

By June 1920,  the 19th amendment was ratified by 35 of the necessary 36 state legislatures. On August 18, 1920, Tennessee was the last of the necessary 36 ratifying states to vote and secure adoption.  Representative Harry B Harry Burn, a 24 -year-old Republican, voted yes. Burn said he supported women's suffrage as a "moral right", but had voted against it before because he believed his constituents opposed it. In the final minutes before the vote, he received a note from his mother, urging him to vote yes. 

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"Trump says he wants to protect law-abiding citizens. In 1933, Hitler issued his ‘Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State’ "............Read More

For a generation, Republicans have tried to unravel the activist government under which Americans have lived since the 1930s, when Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt created a government that regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, and invested in infrastructure. From the beginning, that government was enormously popular. Both Republicans and Democrats believed that the principle behind it—that the country worked best when government protected and defended ordinary Americans—was permanent..........Read More

Remembering a rare hero who enlarged the human heart for epochs to come...............  Read More

In 2020 we also honor all who lost their lives to the CoronaVirus epidemic