The fragility of our constitutional form of government is the message I get from today's #stampoftheday. A 3-cent stamp, issued on September 17, 1937, it commemorates the 150th anniversary (or the sesquicentennial) of the Constitutional Convention's vote to approve the proposed US Constitution on September 17, 1787. The proposed constitution, which the delegates had been …
Topic: Historical Figures & Events
Delving into the people and events that shaped history
Tonight is the start of Rosh Hashanah, which kicks off a 10-day period that I like to use to reflect on where I am, where I've come from, and where I hope to go. I thought perhaps that today's #stampoftheday would have some powerful metaphor for the journey but I'm not sure that's the case. …
Tonight, the end of the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and a day after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it seems appropriate that today's #stampoftheday honors a Lajos Kossuth, a Hungarian who was one of the world's best known freedom fighters in the mid 1800s. A Hungarian who was born on September 19, 1802, …
Today's #stamoftheday honors the first airmail delivery in the U.S., which was not delayed but did have a mishap and, truth be told, covered a grand total of six miles. The flight occurred on September 23, 1911 when Earle "Ovie" Ovington took 640 letters and 1,280 postcards by air from Garden City, NY to Mineola, NY. …
Stop me if you've heard this one before. Having lost a major election, a waning, lame-duck president and his congressional allies packs the courts with new appointees, including a Supreme Court judge who will vote on whether the effort is constitutional. This frightening scenario is both amazingly current and, as today's #stampoftheday illustrates, a piece …
The people who gave their lives defending and fighting for a 2,200-acre island that was the site of two key battles in World War II are honored by today's #stampoftheday. A 3-cent stamp issued on September 27, 1945, it pictures Corregidor, a tadpole-shaped island at the entrance to Manila Bay about 30 miles from the …
It's late in the evening after Yom Kippur and I'm sitting outside on an unusually pleasant night watching over the lingering flames and dying embers from the fire we made in our fire pit for a small socially distanced break-fast we had with a few neighbors to mark the end of an unusual but deeply …
As I write, the first presidential "debate" is underway and, while the bulk of the debate has, thanks to our president, degenerated into a juvenile schoolyard name-calling contest. Among the many things lost in the president's sadly infantile attacks is the fact that freedom is among the many things at stake in this consequential election. …
Here's a diverting thought experiment for the day after that horrific "debate". Who were the most influential people in the last millennium? The question is germane because Johannes Gutenberg, the subject of today's #stampoftheday, is considered to be among the most important, if not the most important, person on that list. Gutenberg, of course, was the first …