Friday, May 29, 2009

Spotlight
With the words "Give me liberty, or give me death!" Patrick Henry secured his place in the collective American heart and memory. A fiery orator, Henry — born on this date in 1736 — was an outspoken critic of British attempts to rule the Thirteen Colonies and a leader of the opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765. Although in his later years he became a Federalist, as Virginia's first governor, Henry opposed the power that the US Constitution gave to the federal government, and was a fierce proponent of the Constitution's Bill of Rights.

Quote
"I know no way of judging of the future but by the past." — Patrick Henry

Question of the Day
What was an Anti-Federalist?
Those people who favored ratifying the new United States Constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation were called Federalists, because the new Constitution created a federal type of government. Those people who did not favor ratification of the new Constitution were called Anti-Federalists. Many well known "founding fathers" were Anti-Federalists. Samuel Adams opposed the new Constitution until the Massachusetts Federalists agreed to demand a national Bill of Rights to be added to the Constitution. Patrick Henry of Virginia was a noted Anti-Federalist, who changed his mind in later years. He became a strong supporter of George Washington, John Adams and the Federalists' cause.

Word of the day
mantissa

The decimal part of a logarithm. In the logarithm 2.95424, the mantissa is 0.95424.

[Latin, makeweight, perhaps of Etruscan origin.]

(© Houghton Mifflin Company)

Today's History

Mount Everest

• Rhode Island: ratified the US constitution; it was the last of the original 13 colonies to do so (1790)
• Wisconsin: became the 30th US state; it leads the country in cheese production (1848)
• Mount Everest: the world's highest peak was summited for the first time, by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (1953)
• Discovery: space shuttle completed the first docking with the International Space Station (1999)

Today's Birthdays

John F. Kennedy

• Charles II (1630-1685): king of England, Scotland, and Ireland
• T.H. White (1906-1964): novelist, The Once and Future King; also, writer G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)
• John F. Kennedy (1917-1963): 35th POTUS; established the Peace Corps
• Al Unser Sr. (70): championship automobile racer
• Rupert Everett (50): actor and Vanity Fair contributing editor; also, entertainers Bob Hope (1903-2003), Helmut Berger (65), Anthony Geary (62), Annette Bening (51) and Tracey Bregman (46)
• Melanie Brown (34): singer, The Spice Girls' "Scary Spice"'; musicians Gary Brooker (64), Danny Elfman (56), LaToya Jackson (53), Melissa Etheridge (48) and Noel Gallagher (42) were also born on this date