:: wikimiki.org ::

December 19

December 19

December 19 is the 353rd day of the year (354th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 12 days remaining.

Events

- 324 - Licinius abdicates his position as Roman Emperor.
- 1187 - Pope Clement III elected
- 1732 - Benjamin Franklin publishes Poor Richard's Almanack
- 1777 - George Washington's army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
- 1828 - John C. Calhoun pens South Carolina Exposition and Protest, protesting the Tariff of 1828.
- 1835 - Toledo Blade newspaper begins publishing.
- 1842 - United States recognizes the independence of Hawaii
- 1912 - William H. Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum which killed over 1,000 people was pardoned by President Taft after 3 1/2 years in Sing Sing prison .
- 1916 - The Battle of Verdun ended.
- 1928 - First autogiro flight in the United States
- 1945 - Austria becomes a republic for the second time, the first having been founded in 1918 and interrupted by the Austro-fascist dictatorship from 1934 onwards and the Nazi invasion of Austria in 1938.
- 1946 - Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi
- 1961 - The Indian Army invades the Portuguese province of Estado da India Portuguesa (Portuguese State of India) which will become part of India.
- 1962 - Nyasaland secedes from Rhodesia and Nyasaland
- 1963 - Zanzibar received its independence from the United Kingdom to become a constitutional monarchy under the sultan.
- 1965 - Prisoners Ronald Ryan and Peter Walker escape from Pentridge Prison, Melbourne. During the escape a guard is killed. Ryan would hang for his death, in 1967.
- 1972 - Apollo 17, the last manned lunar flight, returns to Earth.
- 1974 - Australian Prime Minister, Harold Holt is pronounced dead.
- 1974 - The Altair 8800, the first personal computer, goes on sale
- 1978 - John Wayne Gacy is arrested for the killings of 33 boys and young men
- 1980 - Anguilla is made a dependency of the United Kingdom separate from Saint Kitts and Nevis
- 1982 - In Venezuela, the storage tanks of an oil-fired power plant catches fire killing 154 people.
- 1984 - The United Kingdom and People's Republic of China sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which handed Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
- 1988 - Lawn darts are banned from sale in the United States.
- 1997 - A Silkair Boeing 737-300 crashes into the Musi River, in Sumatra, Indonesia killing 104
- 1997 - Titanic (the highest-grossing movie ever as of 2005) opens in U.S. theaters.
- 1998 - The U.S. House of Representatives passes articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton over the Lewinsky scandal.
- 2000 - The Leninist Guerrilla Units attack a party office of the far-right MHP in Istanbul, Turkey. One MHP member is killed and several wounded.
- 2001 - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first film in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, opens in theaters.
- 2001 - A new world-record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) is set at Tosontsengel, Hövsgöl Aymag, Mongolia.
- 2001 - The Argentine economic crisis burst into street riots after the announcement by the economy minister of the measures of holding back the bank deposits.

Births

- 1554 - Philip William, Prince of Orange (d. 1618)
- 1683 - King Philip V of Spain (d. 1746)
- 1699 - William Bowyer, English printer (d. 1777)
- 1714 - John Winthrop, American astronomer (d. 1779)
- 1813 - Thomas Andrews, Irish chemist (d. 1885)
- 1852 - Albert Abraham Michelson, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1931)
- 1865 - Minnie Maddern Fiske, American actress (d. 1932)
- 1885 - Joe "King" Oliver, American musician (d. 1938)
- 1888 - Fritz Reiner, Hungarian conductor (d. 1963)
- 1894 - Ford Frick, baseball commissioner (d. 1978)
- 1901 - Rudolf Hell, German inventor (d. 2002)
- 1903 - George Davis Snell, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1996)
- 1906 - Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet politician (d. 1982)
- 1907 - Jimmy McLarnin, Irish boxer (d. 2004)
- 1910 - Jean Genet, French writer (d. 1986)
- 1915 - Edith Piaf, French singer and actress (d. 1963)
- 1918 - Professor Longhair, American musician (d. 1980)
- 1923 - Gordon Jackson, Scottish actor (d. 1990)
- 1925 - Tankred Dorst, German dramatist
- 1927 - James Booth, English actor and writer (d. 2005)
- 1929 - Bob Brookmeyer, American musician
- 1933 - Cicely Tyson, American actress
- 1934 - Al Kaline, baseball player
- 1935 - Bobby Timmons, American jazz pianist (d. 1974)
- 1940 - Phil Ochs, American singer and songwriter (d. 1976)
- 1941 - Maurice White, American musician
- 1944 - Richard Leakey, British anthropologist
- 1944 - Alvin Lee, English musician
- 1946 - Stan Smith, American tennis player
- 1946 - Robert Urich, American actor (d. 2002)
- 1960 - Mike Lookinland, American actor
- 1961 - Eric Allin Cornell, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1961 - Matthew Waterhouse, British actor
- 1961 - Reggie White, American football player (d. 2004)
- 1963 - Jennifer Beals, American actress
- 1964 - Arvydas Sabonis, Lithuanian basketball player
- 1965 - Chito Martinez, Belizean baseball player
- 1969 - Kristy Swanson, American actress
- 1971 - Tiffany Towers, Canadian actress
- 1972 - Alyssa Milano, American actress
- 1972 - Warren Sapp, American football player
- 1974 - Jake Plummer, American football player
- 1974 - Ricky Ponting, Australian cricketer
- 1975 - Olivier Tebily, Ivory Coast footballer
- 1980 - Jake Gyllenhaal, American actor
- 1980 - Marla Sokoloff, American actress
- 1988 - George Sarell, British musician
- 1989 - Dario, the bahii

Deaths

- 401 - Pope Anastasius I
- 1075 - Edith of Wessex, queen of Edward the Confessor of England
- 1327 - Agnes of France, Duchess of Burgundy
- 1370 - Pope Urban V (b. 1310)
- 1737 - James Sobieski, Crown Prince of Poland (b. 1667)
- 1741 - Vitus Bering, Danish-born explorer (b. 1681)
- 1745 - Jean-Baptiste van Loo, French painter (b. 1684)
- 1749 - Francesco Antonio Bonporti, Italian priest and composer (b. 1672)
- 1751 - Louise of Great Britain, queen of Frederick V of Denmark (b. 1724)
- 1807 - Friedrich Melchior, baron von Grimm, German writer (b. 1723)
- 1819 - Sir Thomas Fremantle, English naval officer and politician (b. 1765)
- 1848 - Emily Brontë, English author (b. 1818)
- 1915 - Alois Alzheimer, German neuroscientist (b. 1864)
- 1932 - Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against Japanese occupation (executed) (b. 1908)
- 1939 - Hans Langsdorff, German naval officer (b. 1894)
- 1953 - Robert Millikan, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
- 1967 - Harold Holt, seventeenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908)
- 1968 - Norman Thomas, American socialist (b. 1884)
- 1989 - Stella Gibbons, English author (b. 1902)
- 1996 - Marcello Mastroianni, Italian actor (b. 1924)
- 1999 - Desmond Llewelyn, Welsh actor (b. 1914)
- 2003 - Peter Carter-Ruck, British lawyer
- 2003 - Hope Lange, American actress (b. 1941)
- 2004 - Herbert C. Brown, English-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
- 2004 - Renata Tebaldi, Italian soprano (b. 1922)

Holidays and observances

- Feast of Saint Boniface
- National Unity Day, declared in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter in honor of the American hostages being held in Tehran, Iran

Fictional Events

- 2003 - the events of the fictional docu-drama The Day Britain Stopped take place.

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/19 BBC: On This Day] ---- December 18 - December 20 - November 19 - January 19 -- listing of all days ko:12월 19일 ms:19 Disember ja:12月19日 simple:December 19 th:19 ธันวาคม

December 19

December 19 is the 353rd day of the year (354th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 12 days remaining.

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

- Feast of Saint Boniface
- National Unity Day, declared in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter in honor of the American hostages being held in Tehran, Iran

Fictional Events

- 2003 - the events of the fictional docu-drama The Day Britain Stopped take place.

External links

Leap year

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing an extra day or month in order to keep the calendar year in sync with an astronomical or seasonal year. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. Leap years (which keep the calendar in sync with the year) should not be confused with leap seconds (which keep clock time in sync with the day).

Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, adds a 29th day to February in all years evenly divisible by 4, except for century years (those ending in -00), which receive the extra day only if they are evenly divisible by 400. Thus 1996 was a leap year whereas 1999 was not, and 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not. The reasoning behind this rule is as follows:
- The Gregorian calendar is designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter (celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the Moon that falls on or after 21 March) remains correct with respect to the vernal equinox.
- The vernal equinox year is currently about 365.242375 days long.
- The Gregorian leap year rule gives an average year length of 365.2425 days. This difference of a little over 0.0001 days means that in around 8,000 years, the calendar will be about one day behind where it should be. But in 8,000 years' time the length of the vernal equinox year will have changed by an amount we can't accurately predict (see below). So the Gregorian leap year rule does a good enough job. Image:Gregoriancalendarleap.png

Which day is the leap day?

The Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar (though from the 5th century BC it no longer followed the real moon) and named its days after three of the phases of the moon: the new moon (calends, hence "calendar"), the first quarter (nones) and the full moon (ides). Days were counted down (inclusively) to the next named day, so 24 February was ante diem sextum calendas martii ("the sixth day before the calends of March"). Since 45 BC, February in a leap year had two days called "the sixth day before the calends of March". The extra day was originally the second of these, but since the third century it was the first. Hence the term bissextile day for 24 February in a bissextile year. Where this custom is followed, anniversaries after the inserted day are moved in leap years. For example, the former feast day of Saint Matthias, 24 February in ordinary years, would be 25 February in leap years. This historical nicety is, however, in the process of being discarded: The European Union declared that, starting in 2000, 29 February rather than 24 February would be leap day, and the Roman Catholic Church also now uses 29 February as leap day. The only tangible difference is felt in countries that celebrate feast days.

Julian calendar

The Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4. This rule gives an average year length of 365.25 days. The excess of about 0.0076 days with respect to the vernal equinox year means that the vernal equinox moves a day earlier in the calendar every 130 years or so.

Revised Julian Calendar

The Revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4, except for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. This rule agrees with the rule for the Gregorian calendar until 2799. The first year that dates in the Revised Julian calendar will not agree with the those in the Gregorian calendar will be 2800, because it will be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar but not in the Revised Julian calendar. This rule gives an average year length of 365.242222… days. This is a very good approximation to the mean tropical year, but because the vernal equinox tropical year is slightly longer, the Revised Julian calendar does not do as good a job as the Gregorian calendar of keeping the vernal equinox on or close to 21 March.

Chinese calendar

The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so a leap year has an extra month, often called an embolismic month after the Greek word for it. In the Chinese calendar the leap month is added according to a complicated rule, which ensures that month 11 is always the month that contains the northern winter solstice. The intercalary month takes the same number as the preceding month; for example, if it follows the second month then it is simply called "leap second month".

Hebrew calendar

The Hebrew calendar is also lunisolar with an embolistic month. In the Hebrew calendar the extra month is called Adar Alef (first Adar) and is added before Adar, which then becomes Adar Sheni (second Adar). According to the Metonic cycle, this is done seven times every nineteen years, specifically, in years, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19. In addition, the Hebrew calendar has postponement rules that postpone the start of the year by one or two days. The year before the postponement gets one or two extra days, and the year whose start is postponed loses one or two days. These postponement rules reduce the number of different combinations of year length and starting day of the week from 28 to 14, and regulate the location of certain religious holidays in relation to the Sabbath.

Hindu Calendar

In the Hindu calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar, the embolismic month is called adhika maas (extra month). It is the month in which the sun is in the same sign of the stellar zodiac on two consecutive dark moons.

Iranian calendar

The Iranian calendar also has a single intercalated day once in every four years, but every 33 years or so the leap years will be five years apart instead of four years apart. The system used is more accurate and more complicated, and is based on the time of the March equinox as observed from Teheran. The 33-year period is not completely regular; every so often the 33-year cycle will be broken by a cycle of 29 or 37 years.

Long term leap year rules

The accumulated difference between the Gregorian calendar and the vernal equinoctial year amounts to 1 day in about 8,000 years. This suggests that the calendar needs to be improved by another refinement to the leap year rule: perhaps by avoiding leap years in years divisible by 8,000. (The most common such proposal is to avoid leap years in years divisible by 4,000 [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22gregorian+calendar%22+error+%22leap+year%22+4000]. This is based on the difference between the Gregorian calendar and the mean tropical year. Others claim, erroneously, that the Gregorian calendar itself already contains a refinement of this kind [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mleapyr.html].) However, there is little point in planning a calendar so far ahead because over a timescale of tens of thousands of years the number of days in a year will change for a number of reasons, most notably: #Precession of the equinoxes moves the position of the vernal equinox with respect to perihelion and so changes the length of the vernal equinoctial year. #Tidal acceleration from the sun and moon slows the rotation of the earth, making the day longer. In particular, the second component of change depends on such things as post-glacial rebound and sea level rise due to climate change. We can't predict these changes accurately enough to be able to make a calendar that will be accurate to a day in tens of thousands of years.

Marriage proposal

There is a tradition, said to go back to Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget in 5th century Ireland, whereby women may only make marriage proposals in leap years.

Saint Patrick and the leap year

:Saint Patrick, having driven the frogs out of the bogs was walking along the shores of Lough Neagh, when he was accosted by Saint Bridget in tears, and was told that a mutiny had broken out in the nunnery over which she presided, the ladies claiming the right of popping the question. :Saint Patrick said he would concede them the right every seventh year, when Saint Bridget threw her arms round his neck, and exclaimed, "Arrah, Pathrick, jewel, I daurn't go back to the girls wid such a proposal. Make it one year in four." Saint Patrick replied, "Bridget, acushla, squeeze me that way again, an' I'll give ye leap-year, the longest of the lot." Saint Bridget, upon this, popped the question to St Patrick himself, who, of course, could not marry: so he patched up the difficulty as best he could with a kiss and a silk gown. (Source: Evans, Ivor H, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988) According to a 1288 law in Scotland, fines were levied if the proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to a silk gown to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to 29 February.

Birthdays

A person who was born on 29 February may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they usually celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March. There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance. Category:Calendars Category:Units of time als:Schaltjahr ko:윤년 ja:閏年 simple:Leap year th:ปีอธิกสุรทิน

324

Events

- July 3 - Battle of Adrianople: Constantine defeats Licinius, forcing Licinius to retreat to Byzantium.
- July - Battle of Hellespont: Crispus, defeats Licinius' naval fleet, allowing his father Constantine the ability to cross over the Bosporus into Licinius' Asian provinces.
- September 18 - Constantine definitely defeats Licinius at the Battle of Chrysopolis, and becomes the sole emperor of the Roman Empire. End of the Tetrarchy as the Roman mode of government.
- St Peter's Church, Rome, founded.
- Eustathius becomes bishop of Antioch Births Deaths
- December 20 - Philogonus, Patriarch of Antioch
- Licinius, former Roman Emperor, executed for treason Category:324 ko:324년

Licinius

:For other Romans of this name, see Licinius (gens). Flavius Galerius Valerius Licinianus Licinius (c. 250 - 325) was Roman emperor from 308 to 324. Of Dacian peasant origin, born in Moesia Superior, Licinius accompanied his close friend the Emperor Galerius on the Persian expedition in 297. After the death of Flavius Valerius Severus, Galerius elevated Licinius to the rank of Augustus on November 11 308. He received as his immediate command the provinces of Illyricum, Thrace and Pannonia. On the death of Galerius, in May 311, Licinius shared the entire empire with Maximinus Daia, the Hellespont and the Bosporus being the dividing line. In March 313 he married Flavia Julia Constantia, half-sister of Constantine, at Mediolanum (now Milan), the occasion for the jointly-issued "Edict of Milan" that restored confiscated properties to Christian congregations though it did not "Christianize" the Empire as is often assumed, although it did give Christians a better name in Rome. In the following month (April 30), Licinius inflicted a decisive defeat on Maximinus at Battle of Tzirallum, after Maximinus had tried attacking him. He then established himself master of the East, while his brother-in-law, Constantine, was supreme in the West. In 316 his jealousy led him to encourage a treasonable enterprise in favor of Bassianus against Constantine. When his actions became known, a civil war ensued, in which he was twice severely defeated— first at battle of Cibalae in Pannonia (October 8, 316), and next in the plain of Mardia in Thrace. The outward reconciliation, which was effected in the following December, left Licinius in possession of Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt, but he later added numerous provinces to Constantine's control. In 324 Constantine, tempted by the "advanced age and unpopular vices" of his colleague, again declared war against him, and, having defeated his army at the battle of Adrianople (July 3, 324), succeeded in shutting him up within the walls of Byzantium. The defeat of the superior fleet of Licinius by Flavius Julius Crispus, Constantine’s eldest son, compelled his withdrawal to Bithynia, where a last stand was made; the battle of Chrysopolis, near Chalcedon (September 18), resulted in his final submission. He was interned at Thessalonica under a kind of house arrest, but when he attempted to raise troops among the barbarians Constantine had him assassinated.

References

External links

- [http://www.roman-emperors.org/licinius.htm De Imperatoribus Romanis website:] Licinius
- [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.ii.iv.iv.html Socrates Scholasticus account of Licinius' end] Category:250s births Category:325 deaths Category:Roman emperors Category:Executed Roman emperors Category:Constantine Dynasty

1187

Events

- May 1 - Battle of Cresson - Saladin defeats the crusaders
- July 4 - Saladin defeats Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, at the Battle of Hattin.
- September 20 - October 2 - Siege of Jerusalem - Saladin captures Jerusalem.
- October 29 - Pope Gregory VIII issues the bull Audita tremendi, proposing the Third Crusade.
- Alexis Branas attempts to seize Constantinople in defiance of his master Isaac II Angelus.
- Cathedral of St. Jacob consecrated in Szczecin, Pomerania
- Destruction of Sigtuna - archbishop is killed
- Knut Eriksson builds a castle in the island of Stockholm
- Compass in Europe
- The Toltecs are deposed at Chichen Itza
- Zen Buddhism comes to Japan
- King of Ankor Vat, Jayavarman VII defeats Cham conquerors
- Ghorin Muhammed conquers Punjab
- Genoa takes Bonifacio (in Corsica) from Pisa

Births

- September 5 - King Louis VIII of France (died 1226)
- Arthur I, Duke of Brittany (died 1203)
- Vladimir III Rurikovich, Grand Prince of Kiev (died 1239)

Deaths

- July 4 - Raynald of Chatillon, Prince of Antioch (executed)
- October 19 - Pope Urban III
- November 9 - Emperor Gaozong of China (b. 1107)
- December 17 - Pope Gregory VIII
- Gerard of Cremona, Italian translator of scientific works
- Roger de Moulins, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller
- Count Raymond III of Tripoli Category:1187 ko:1187년

1732

Events

- February 23 - First performance of Handel's Orlando, in London
- June 9 - James Oglethorpe is granted a royal charter for the colony of Georgia. [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/ga01.htm]
- December 7 - The original Covent Garden Theatre Royal (now the Royal Opera House) is opened
- Genoa regains Corsica
- 139 members of the Paris Parlement are exiled by order of the King, but are eventually triumphant over the Crown, and secure their recall in December
- Cobalt discovered

Births

- January 24 - Pierre de Beaumarchais, French writer (d. 1799)
- February 22 - George Washington, 1st President of the United States (d. 1799)
- March 31 - Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer (d. 1809)
- April 5 - Jean-Honoré Fragonard, French painter (d. 1806)
- September 30 - Jacques Necker, French politician (d. 1804)
- October 6 - Nevil Maskelyne, English Astronomer Royal (died 1811)
- November 13 - John Dickinson, American lawyer and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention (d. 1808)
- December 6 - Warren Hastings, British administrator (d. 1818)
- December 23 - Richard Arkwright, English inventor (d. 1792)
- Abbas III, Shah of Persia

Deaths

- January 12 - John Horsley, British archaeologist
- February 13 - Charles-René d'Hozier, French historian (b. 1640)
- February 17 - Louis Marchand, French organist and harpsichordist (b. 1669)
- February 22 - Francis Atterbury, English bishop and man of letters (b. 1663)
- March 20 - Johann Ernst Hanxleden, German philologist (b. 1681)
- May 20 - Thomas Boston, Scottish church leader (b. 1676)
- July 16 - Woodes Rogers, English privateer and first Royal Governor of the Bahamas
- September 24 - Emperor Reigen of Japan (b. 1654)
- October 31 - Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia (b. 1666)
- December 4 - John Gay, English poet and dramatist (b. 1685) Category:1732 ko:1732년

1777

1777 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar).

Events

- The Cornish language died out
- 2nd edition of Encyclopædia Britannica published
- January 3 - American Revolutionary War: American general George Washington defeats British general Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.
- January 12 - Mission Santa Clara de Asís is founded in what is now Santa Clara, California
- January 16 - Vermont declares its independence from New York becoming an independent country, a status it retained until it joined the United States as the 14th state in 1791
- June 13 - American Revolutionary War: Marquis de Lafayette lands near Charleston, South Carolina to help the Continental Congress train its army.
- June 14 - Stars and Stripes adopted by the Continental Congress as the Flag of the United States.
- August 16 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Bennington - British forces are defeated by American troops.
- September 3 - Cooch's Bridge - Skirmish of American Revolutionary war in New Castle County, Delaware where the Flag of the United States was flown in battle for the first time.
- September 11 - Battle of Brandywine - Major American Revolutionary war victory for British in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
- September 19 - American Revolutionary War: First Battle of Saratoga/Battle of Freeman's Farm/Battle of Bemis Heights.
- October 4 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Germantown- Troops under George Washington are repelled by British troops under Sir William Howe.
- October 17 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Saratoga- American troops defeat the British.
- November 15 - American Revolutionary War: After 16 months of debate, the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation in the temporary American capital at York, Pennsylvania.
- November 17 - Articles of Confederation submitted to the states for ratification.
- November 29 - San Jose, California founded. It is the first pueblo in Spanish Alta California.
- December 24 - Kiritimati discovered by James Cook
- The code duello is adopted at the Clonmell Summer Assizes as the form for pistol duels in Ireland. It is quickly denounced but nevertheless widely adopted throughout the English-speaking world.

Births

- January 2 - Christian Daniel Rauch, German sculptor (d. 1857)
- February 12 - Friedrich de la Motte Fouque, French poet (d. 1843)
- March 17 - Roger Taney, Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1864)
- April 12 - Henry Clay, American statesman (d. 1852)
- April 30 - Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (d. 1855)
- August 14 - Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish physicist and chemist (d. 1851)
- October 16 - Lorenzo Dow, American Methodist preacher (d. 1834)
- October 18 - Heinrich von Kleist, German writer (d. 1811)
- December 4 - Madame Récamier, French writer (d. 1849)
- December 23 - Emperor Alexander I of Russia (d. 1825)
- Benjamin d'Urban, British general and colonial administrator (d. 1849)

Deaths

- January 10 - Spranger Barry, Irish actor (b. 1719)
- January 12 - Hugh Mercer, American Revolutionary War officer (mortally wounded in battle)
- February 9 - Seth Pomeroy, American gunsmith and soldier (b. 1706)
- February 24 - King Joseph I of Portugal (b. 1714)
- March 1 - Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Austrian composer (b. 1715)
- May 11 - George Pigot, Baron Pigot, British governor of Madras (b. 1719)
- May 19 - Button Gwinnett, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1735)
- September 22 - John Bartram, American botanist (b. 1699)
- September 25 - Johann H. Lambert, mathematician, physicist and astronomer (b. 1728)
- October 21 - Samuel Foote, English dramatist and actor (b. 1720)
- November 10 - Cornstalk, Shawnee chief Category:1777 ko:1777년 ms:1777

George Washington

George Washington (February 22 1732 – December 14 1799) was the successful Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and later became the first President of the United States, an office to which he was elected twice (1789-1797). Washington first gained prominence as an officer during the French and Indian War, a war which he inadvertently helped to start. After leading the American victory in the Revolutionary War, he refused to lead a military regime, returning to civilian life at Mount Vernon. In 1787 he presided over the Constitutional Convention that drafted the current U.S. Constitution, and in 1789 was the unanimous choice to become the first President of the United States. His two-term Washington Administration set many policies and traditions that survive today. After his second term expired, Washington again voluntarily relinquished power, thereby establishing an important precedent that was to serve as an example for other future republics. Because of his central role in the founding of the United States, and his enduring legacy, Washington is often called the "Father of his Country". Scholars rank him with Abraham Lincoln among the greatest of presidents.

Early life

According to the Julian calendar, Washington was born on February 11 1731; according to the Gregorian calendar, which was adopted during Washington's life and is used today, he was born on February 22 1732 (Washington's Birthday is celebrated on the Gregorian date). At the time of his birth, the English year began March 25 (Annunciation Day, or Lady Day), hence the difference in his birth year. His birthplace was Pope's Creek Plantation, south of Colonial Beach in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Washington was part of the economic and cultural elite of the slave-owning planters of Virginia. His parents Augustine Washington (1693–April 12 1743) and Mary Ball (1708–August 25 1789) were of English descent. He spent much of his boyhood at Ferry Farm in Stafford County, near Fredericksburg and visited his Washington cousins at Chotank in King George County. He was home schooled and was also trained as a surveyor (obtaining his certificate from the College of William and Mary). He surveyed the Shenandoah Valley for Lord Fairfax, a distant relative, in western Virginia and retained a lifelong interest in western lands. His only foreign trip was a short visit to Barbados in 1751. He survived an attack of smallpox, although his face was scarred by the disease. He was initiated as a Freemason in Fredericksburg on February 4 1752. On brother Lawrence's death in July 1752, he rented and eventually inherited the estate, Mount Vernon in Fairfax County, Virginia (near Alexandria).

French and Indian War and afterwards

Alexandria At twenty-two years of age, George Washington fired some of the first shots of what would become a world war. The trouble began in 1753, when France began building a series of forts in the Ohio Country, a region also claimed by Virginia. Robert Dinwiddie, the governor of Virginia, had young Major Washington deliver a letter to the French commander, asking them to leave. The French refused, and so in 1754 Dinwiddie sent Washington, now promoted to lieutenant colonel in the First Virginia Regiment, on another mission to the Ohio Country. There, Washington and his troops ambushed a French Canadian scouting party. After a short skirmish, Washington's American Indian ally Tanacharison killed the wounded French commander Ensign Jumonville. Washington then built Fort Necessity, which soon proved inadequate, as he was compelled to surrender to a larger French and American Indian force. The surrender terms that Washington signed included an admission that he had "assassinated" Jumonville. (The document was written in French, which Washington could not read.) The "Jumonville affair" became an international incident and helped to ignite the French and Indian War, a part of the worldwide Seven Years' War. Washington was released by the French with the promise not to return to the Ohio Country for one year. Washington was always eager to serve in the British Army, which had a low regard for colonials. His opportunity came in 1755, when he accompanied the Braddock Expedition, a major effort by the British to retake the Ohio Country. The expedition ended in disaster at the Battle of the Monongahela. Washington distinguished himself in the debacle—he had two horses shot out from under him, and four bullets pierced his coat—yet he sustained no injuries and showed coolness under fire in organizing the retreat. In Virginia, Washington was acclaimed as a hero, and he commanded the First Virginia Regiment for several more years, although the focus of the war had shifted elsewhere. In 1758 he accompanied the Forbes Expedition, which successfully drove the French away from Fort Duquesne. Washington's goal at the outset of his military career had been to secure a commission as a regular British officer—rather than staying a mere colonial officer. The promotion did not come, and so in 1759 Washington resigned his commission and married Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy widow with two children. Washington adopted her two children, but never fathered any of his own. The newlywed couple moved to Mount Vernon where he took up the life of a genteel farmer and slave owner. He held local office and was elected to the provincial legislature, the House of Burgesses. By 1774 Washington had become one of the colonies' wealthiest men. In that year, he was chosen as a delegate from Virginia to the First Continental Congress. Although the American Revolution had not yet devolved into open warfare, tensions between the colonies and Great Britain continued to rise, and Washington attended the Second Continental Congress (1775) in military uniform—the only delegate to do so. He strongly supported independence.

American Revolution

American Revolution, 1851, Metropolitan Museum]] The Continental Congress needed to select as commander in chief of its newly formed Continental Army a natural leader with a commitment to the cause, suitable military experience, a commanding personality, and a base in a major colony. Washington was the unanimous selection, and was selected on June 15 1775. The Massachusetts delegate John Adams suggested his appointment, citing his "skill as an officer... great talents and universal character." He assumed command on July 3. During his first great military triumph Washington drove the British forces out of Boston on March 17, 1776, by stationing artillery on Dorchester Heights. The British army, led by General William Howe, retreated to Halifax, Canada. Washington moved his army to New York City in anticipation of a British offensive there. In August the British invaded in overwhelming numbers and Washington led a clumsy retreat that almost failed. He lost the Battle of Long Island on August 22 but managed to move most of his forces to the mainland. However, several other defeats sent Washington scrambling across New Jersey, leaving the future of the Revolution in doubt. On the night of December 25 1776, Washington staged a brilliant comeback. He led the American forces across the Delaware River to smash the Hessian forces in Trenton, New Jersey. Washington followed up the assault with a surprise attack on General Charles Cornwallis' forces at Princeton on the eve of January 2, 1777, eventually retaking the state of New Jersey. The successful attacks built morale among the pro-independence colonists. In summer 1777 the British launched a two-pronged attack, with Burgoyne marching south from Canada while Howe attacked the national capital of Philadelphia. Washington moved south but was badly defeated at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11. An attempt to dislodge the British, the Battle of Germantown, failed as a result of fog and confusion, and Washington was forced to retire to winter quarters at the miserably inadequate Valley Forge. In the face of high rates of disease Washington insisted on vaccinations to protect the soldiers from smallpox, which probably stem impact of that deadly disease over the harsh winter. Washington stood steadfast, demanding supplies from Congress. His men recovered their morale despite the harsh winter conditions. A new system of drill and training was established by Baron Friedrich von Steuben, who had served on the Prussian general staff. Von Steuben improving the army’s fighting capabilities so that it could match the British in the field. Washington attacked the British army moving from Philadelphia to New York at the Battle of Monmouth on June 28 1778, a drawn contest, but the British effort to disrupt the national government had failed. Burgoyne’s invading army, meanwhile, was captured at Saratoga in October, giving the British a crushing defeat. It now seemed likely that the British would never reconquer the new nation, and France signed a formal alliance with the U.S. After 1778 the British made one last effort to split apart the new nation, this time focused on the southern states. Rather than attack them there, Washington's forces moved to West Point New York. In 1779 Washington ordered a fifth of the army to carry out the Sullivan Expedition, an offensive against four of the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy which had allied with the British and attacked American settlements along the frontier. There were no battles but at least forty Iroquois villages were destroyed and the hostile Indians moved permanently to Canada. In October, 1781 American and French forces and a French fleet trapped General Cornwallis at Yorktown in Virginia. Washington quick-marched south, taking command of the American and French forces September 14, and pressed the siege until Cornwallis surrendered. It was the end of significant fighting, though British forces remained in New York City and a few other places until the final peace was ratified in 1783. In March 1783, Washington learned about a conspiracy that was being planned by some of his officers who were upset about back pay in the Continental Army's winter camp at Newburgh, New York. He was able to defuse this plot. Later in 1783, by means of the Treaty of Paris, the British recognized American independence. Washington disbanded his army and on November 2 at Rockingham House in Rocky Hill, New Jersey and gave an eloquent [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mgw3&fileName=mgw3b/gwpage016.db&recNum=347 farewell address] to his soldiers. A few days later the British evacuated New York City, and Washington and the governor took possession of the city; at Fraunces Tavern in the city on December 4, he formally bid his officers farewell.

Activities between Revolution and Presidency

Fraunces Tavern On December 23 1783 General George Washington resigned his commission as Commander in Chief of the Army to the Congress, which was then meeting at the Maryland State House in Annapolis. This action was of great significance for the young nation, establishing the precedent that civilian elected officials, rather than military officers, possessed ultimate authority. Washington was a firm republican, believing that the people are sovereign and that no one should ever come to power in America because of military force, or because of birth in a noble family. At the time of Washington's departure from military service, he was listed on the rolls of the Continental Army as "General and Commander in Chief." (See Retirement, death, and honors section below for more on this topic.) Although the world was at peace in the late 1780s, Washington worried that the fledling nation had such a weak central government that it could not survive a future war. He therefore endorsed plans to create a new constitution. His support guaranteed it would happen and he presided over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. For the most part he did not participate in the debates involved, but his prestige was great enough to maintain collegiality and to keep the delegates at their labors. He adamantly enforced the secrecy adopted by the Convention during the summer. Many believe that the Framers created the Presidency with Washington in mind. After the Convention, his support convinced many, including the Virginia legislature, to support the Constitution. Washington farmed roughly 8,000 acres (32 km²). Like many Virginia planters at the time, he was frequently in debt and never had much cash on hand. In fact, he had to borrow $600 to relocate to New York, then the center of the American government, to take office as president. In 1788–1789, George Washington was elected the first President of the United States. The First U.S. Congress voted to pay Washington a salary of $25,000 a year—a significant sum in 1789. Washington, the wealthiest individual in the nation at the time and whose wealth (all of it in land that could eventually be sold) by some estimates exceeded $500 million in current dollars (as of 2005), refused to accept his salary.

Presidency

Main article: Washington Administration Washington Administration]] George Washington was elected unanimously by the Electoral College in 1789, and remains the only person ever to be elected president unanimously (a feat which he duplicated in 1792). As runner-up with 34 votes, John Adams became Vice President-elect. In 1791 Congress imposed an excise tax on distilled spirits, leading to protests. By 1794, after Washington ordered the protesters to appear in U.S. district court, the protests turning into full-scale riots, and outright rebellion. Washington raised an army, and marched at its head into the rebellious districts. There was no fighting, but Washington's forceful action proved the new government could protect itself. After two terms, Washington issued his "Farewell Adress" (actually a letter), and refused to run for a third term in office. This precedent of two terms was only to be broken successfully by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940 and 1944.

Cabinet

Supreme Court appointments

As the first President, Washington appointed the entire Supreme Court, a feat almost repeated by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his four terms in office (1933–45). Washington appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:
- John Jay - Chief Justice - 1789
- James Wilson - 1789
- John Rutledge - 1790
- William Cushing - 1790
- John Blair - 1790
- James Iredell - 1790
- Thomas Johnson - 1792
- William Paterson - 1793
- John Rutledge - Chief Justice, 1795 (an associate justice since 1790)
- Samuel Chase - 1796
- Oliver Ellsworth - Chief Justice - 1796

Major Presidential Acts

- Signed Judiciary Act of 1789
- Signed Indian Intercourse Acts, starting in 1790
- Signed Residence Act of 1790
- Signed Bank Act of 1791
- Signed Coinage Act of 1792 or Mint Act
- Signed Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
- Signed Naval Act of 1794

States admitted to the Union

- North Carolina (1789)
- Rhode Island (1790)
- Vermont (1791)
- Kentucky (1792)
- Tennessee (1796)

Retirement, death, and honors

Tennessee The Apotheosis of Washington is found in the rotunda of the United States Capitol]] After retiring from the presidency in March 1797, Washington returned to Mount Vernon with a profound sense of relief. He established a distillery there and became probably the largest distiller of whiskey in the nation at the time. In 1798 his distillery produced 11,000 gallons of whiskey and a profit of $7,500. During that year, Washington was appointed Lieutenant General in the United States Army (then the highest possible rank) by President John Adams. Washington's appointment was to serve as a warning to France, with which war seemed imminent. Washington never saw active service, however, and upon his death one year later the U.S. Army rolls listed him as a retired Lieutenant General, which was then considered the equivalent to his rank as General and Commander in Chief during the Revolutionary War. Within a year of this 1798 appointment, Washington fell ill from a bad cold with a fever and a sore throat that turned into acute laryngitis and pneumonia and died on December 14 1799, at his home. Modern doctors believe that Washington died from either a streptococcal infection of the throat or, since he was bled as part of the treatment, a combination of shock from the loss of blood, asphyxia, and dehydration. One of the physicians who administered bloodletting to him was Dr. James Craik, one of Washington's closest friends, who had been with Washington at Fort Necessity, the Braddock expedition, and throughout the Revolutionary War. Washington's remains were buried in a family graveyard at Mount Vernon. Congressman Henry Light Horse Harry Lee, a Revolutionary War comrade, famously eulogized Washington as "a citizen, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." With the exception of Dwight Eisenhower, who held a lifetime commission as General of the Army (five star), George Washington is the only President with military service to reenter the military after leaving the office of President. Even though he had been the highest-ranking officer of the Revolutionary War, having in 1798 been appointed a Lieutenant General (now three stars), it seemed, somewhat incongruously, that all later full (that is, four star) generals in U.S. history (starting with General Ulysses S. Grant), and also all five-star generals of the Army, were considered to outrank Washington. General John J. Pershing had attained an even higher rank of six-star general, General of the Armies (above five star—though the most stars Pershing actually ever wore were four). This issue was resolved in 1976 when Washington was, by Act of Congress, posthumously promoted to the rank of General of the Armies, outranking any past, present, and future general, and declared to permanently be the top-ranked military officer of the United States. [https://www.perscom.army.mil/tagd/tioh/rank/goa.htm]

Summary of Military Career

- 1753: Commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the Virginia Militia
- 1754: Led abortive expedition to Fort Duquesne, later served as aide to General Edward Braddock
- 1755: Promoted to Colonel and named Commander of all Virginia Forces. Commissioned a Brigadier General later that year
- 1758–75: Retired from active military service
- June 1775: Commissioned General and Commander in Chief of the Continental Army
- 1775–81: Commands the Continental Army in over seven major battles with the British
- December 1783: Resigns commission as Commander in Chief of the Army
- July 1798: Appointed Lieutenant General and Commander of the Provisional Army to be raised in the event of a war with France
- 14 December 1799: Dies and is listed as a Lieutenant General (r) on the U.S. Army rolls
- 19 January 1976: Approved by the United States Congress for promotion to General of the Armies
- 11 October 1976: Declared the senior most U.S. military officer for all time by Presidential Order of Gerald Ford
- 13 March 1978: Promoted by Army Order 31-3 to General of the Armies with effective date of rank July 4, 1776

Personal information

Gerald Ford Admirers of Washington circulated an apocryphal story about his honesty as a child. In the story, he wanted to try out a new axe, so he chopped down his father's cherry tree; when questioned by his father, he gave the famous non-quotation: "I cannot tell a lie. It was I who chopped down the cherry tree.". The story first appeared after Washington's death in a naïve "inspirational" children's book by Parson Mason Weems, who had been rector of the Mount Vernon parish (See also George Washington's axe for an elaboration of this story). Parson Weems also fabricated a famous story about Washington praying for help in a lonely spot in the woods near Valley Forge. Nevertheless, Washington was a man of great personal integrity, with a deeply held sense of duty, honor and patriotism. He was courageous and farsighted, holding the Continental Army together through eight hard years of war and numerous privations, sometimes by sheer force of will. Because of Washington's involvement in Freemasonry, some publicly visible collections of Washington memorabilia are maintained by Masonic lodges, most notably the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia. The museum at Fraunces Tavern Museum in New York City includes specimens of Washington's false teeth. Washington was notable for his modesty and carefully controlled ambition. He never accepted pay during his military service, and was genuinely reluctant to assume any of the offices thrust upon him. When John Adams recommended him to the Continental Congress for the position of g