JUNE 14 — 1777 Flag Day; 1846 — California Bear Flag Revolt; 1946 Happy Birthday President Trump; 1811 Happy Birthday birthday Matti Suuronen, builder of Futuro houses
JUNE 14
1777 – Happy Flag Day!
…The design of the original flag has been modified 26 times officially since 1777.
Originally, the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution which stated that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.
See I told you America’s the greatest! It‘s not just a country, it’s the whole universe. Nicknames for the flag include Stars and Stripes, Old Glory, and the Star Spangled Banner.
Betsy Ross definitely sewed her share of some of the first flags, but she may or may not have come up with the design, but probably not. There’s no evidence to support whether she did or did not, but there is a claim by New jersey Congressman Francis Hopkins.
The original Star Spangled Banner still exists. Yes, the flag that flew at Ft. McHenry during the war of 1812, immortalized in Francis Scott Key’s song, is one of the few remaining specimens of a 15-star, 13-stripe flag. You can check it out at the Smithsonian.
1846 – California’s Bear Flag revolt begins.
…As settlers moved west into California, very few of them bothered to get land titles or deeds, which put the legitimacy of their land ownership in question.
In April of 1846, Mexican Governor Jose Castro proclaimed that the purchase or acquisition of land by foreigners who had not been naturalized as Mexican citizens will be null and void. Rumors about a war brewing between Mexico and the United States started spreading, and settler leaders took their concerns of Mexican aggression up with US Army Captain John C. Fremont at a meeting.
Early in June, Mexican General Mariano Vallejo, commandant of the northern frontier at Sonoma offered 170 horses to Castro, who was then organized at Santa Clara. Once the settlers heard about this, they began to mobilize an armed force to stop the transfer of horses.
This was led by Ezekiel Merritt, aka Stuttering Zeke, an old Rocky Mountain trapper who had a grudge against General Vallejo. On the morning of June 9th, some of the men set out to capture the horses and prevent them from reaching Castro’s forces in Santa Clara.
Merritt’s men accomplished their mission and they brought the horses to Fremont’s camp. Then a force of about 20 men launched an assault on the town of Sonoma, which was General Vallejo’s home. I know, you would think General Vallejo lived in Vallejo. Anyway the rebels captured Sonoma, Vallejo made prisoner and was transported to Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento as a prisoner. The wine fields in Sonoma were fine; no need to panic folks.
The new flag was destined with a grizzly bear, and the insurgents became known as the Bears and their uprising became known as the Bear Flag Revolt.
1946 – Happy birthday #45, Donald J. Trump!
Born and raised in Queens, he got his economics degree from Wharton at the University of Penn. That either must’ve really been a good class, or more likely, Trump had the mindset of a winner since day one. He took over his family’s real estate business in 1971 and expanded to Manhattan and beyond with skyscrapers, golf courses and hotels and other resorts. The Don wrote over a dozen bestselling books, including The Art of the Deal, which remains a business how-to classic. He entered other ventures capitalizing on his last name, purchased the beauty pageants for Miss Universe and Miss USA in 1996, and in 2003 he became a TV personality with his very own game show called the Apprentice. He was married three times and divorced twice. His net worth is $3.1B.
Most American presidents spend their early days in law school, just on a side note. Without any prior military or political experience, Trump jumped into the presidential race on June 16, 2015. Although he had donated to the Republican, Democratic and independent parties throughout the years, it would be the Republican party whose nomination he would accept, and he then proceeded to beat 17 other candidates during the primaries. Make America Great Again was his campaign slogan as he toured the country, empowering the middleclass through his speeches at Hispanic churches in Florida, the rust belt of Detroit, and the inner city schools of Pennsylvania, selling himself as a nationalist, a protectionist, and a populist.
Many Americans, but not all, believed the winner of the presidential race would be Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, but on November 8th when the tally came in, although Hillary would win the popular vote, Trump received the biggest landslide victory in the Electoral College for a Republican in 28 years, as well as receiving 62 million popular and taking 2600 counties, the most for a Republican since Ronald Reagan.
So why did he begin his inauguration with the lowest approval rating since the ratings began? And why all the protests throughout Trump’s presidency thus far? Was it rescinding the individual mandate from Obamacare, all edged Russian tampering with the election, putting a travel ban restricting people from Muslim countries, opening the Arctic refuge for oil drilling, rescinding part of the Dodd-Frank bank controls that were put in place after the 2008 economic crisis, pulling the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations and the Paris Agreements on the climate. Authorizing missile strikes on Syria or pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal?
Will these policies make America great again? At least for the long term, only time will tell. Meanwhile, acting presidential has not been one of Trump’s strong points, with the ruthless name calling of Heartless Hillary, Leaking, sanctimonies or lying, shady or slippery James Comey, Dicky Durbin, Sleeping Joe Donnelly, Al Frankenstein, Sneaky Dianne Feinstein, Rocket Man or Little Rocket Kim Jong-un, Crazy Megan Kelly, etc etc etc. Yet he has nicknames of his own, namely Don the Con.
But he’s not the first to act unpresidential. John Adams, Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams and John Tyler all had personality issues and acted hot-headed and uncharismatic. It’s worth noting that three of those presidents were not invited back to the White House after their first term.
President Trump continues to use Twitter like an Infrared Pod Light that shines a little red dot on the wall, with the media acting like cats to jump to grab the light every time the president simply clicks the button. It’s quite amusing, really.
Happy birthday, Donald!
1834 – Leonard Norcross invents the underwater diving suit
…in Dixfield, Maine. It was a rubber suit, with a tightly fitting helmet and leaden shoes to overcome buoyancy, a rubber hose connected to an air pump.
1834-Isaac Fischer Jr. patents sandpaper
…in Springfield, Vermont. The Chinese used crushed shells, seeds and sand in the 13th century. The English used broken pieces of glass in the 1600s. Sigh. This is another reason the world just needs America.
Sandpaper.
Sand.
Ok?
1933 Happy birthday Matti Suuronen, builder of the Futuro houses.
You can see one of them in Carlisle, Ohio, Rockland, WI, Tampa FL, Rockwall TX about a dozen more places. It looks like two UFO pod things . Matti designed it in 1968 as a portable ski chalet. It was based on the number pi, and the design was prompted by mathematics instead of spaceships and flying saucers, according to Matti. They boasted in the day to house up to 8 people, but looking at these designs it looks like we’re talking two comfortably.
It is not known just how many Futuro houses there are in the world., as they may have been duplicated by fans and or transported from somewhere else. Why, there just might be one right in your very neighbor’s backyard.
1811 – Happy birthday Harriet Beecher Stowe;
…abolitionist and author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.