The 4th of July is on Sunday and once again I become nostalgic to look up facts about our wonderful country. Here are a couple of things that happened on this day years before.
On July 1, 1863 the Battle of Gettysburg began. This battle lasted for 3 days and resulted in deaths and casualties of 51,000 out of the 163,000 soldiers that fought the battle. Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863 and it lasted just 2 minutes.
“Four Scores and seven years ago our father’s brought forth upon this continent a new nation….” I remember memorizing this address in grade school.
Also on July 1, 1971 the law was passed to allow 18 years old the right to vote. (26th Amendment)
I am sure many of you can recite the preamble to the Constitution as well:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common
defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to
ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the
United States of America.”
There are 7 Articles in the Constitution:
Article 1 – Legislative Branch
Article 2 – Executive Branch
Article 3 – Judicial branch
Article 4 – federalism
Article 5 – deal with the Amendment process
Article 6 – the supremacy clause
Article 7 – Ratification of the Constitution
There are 27 Amendments to the Constitution called the Bill of Rights. The last Amendment was in 1992.
I marvel at what we have accomplished and the courage, foresight, strategy and hard ships of a country that is celebrating its 234th anniversary.
