This day in history - June 20

[seamusTX]

1756 - Indian nationalist forces imprisoned British soldiers in a brig called the Black Hole of Calcutta. The details are uncertain, but the name lives on as a place of inhumane brutality.

1819 - The steamship Savannah arrived in Liverpool to become the first steamship to cross an ocean. Her accomplishment has always carried an asterisk, because most of the voyage was under sail.

1863 - West Virginia became the 35th state.

West Virginia is the only state to have broken off from an existing state. The story of its establishment is murky and nearly forgotten: http://www.wvculture.org/hiStory/statehoo.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

1893 - Lizzie Borden was found not guilty of the ax murders of her father and stepmother.

1944 - The Central Intelligence Agency came into existence, replacing the Office of Strategic Services.

1963 - The U.S. and USSR agreed to set up a hot line. Though often depicted as a red telephone, it was a teletype. Voice and fax communications were added later.

1967 - Muhammad Ali was convicted of dodging the draft, at a trial in Houston. His conviction was eventually reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

- Jim

[Skiprr]

1782 - After three earlier design presentations over the course of six years, Congress adopts the fourth design offering as the Great Seal of the United States.

A committee was formed by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and tasked with designing a seal for the new country. The committee members were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Each man proposed a design for the seal.

Adams's idea was based on the "Judgment of Hercules," a painting that depicts a young Hercules choosing between two paths: an easy path of self-indulgence or a rugged path of duty and honor. Franklin preferred a depiction from Exodus that he wrote as being, "Moses standing on the Shore, and extending his Hand over the Sea, thereby causing the same to overwhelm Pharaoh..." The motto was to be: Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God. Jefferson proposed a scene of the children of Israel in the wilderness, led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night.

The committee sought the help of a heraldic artist, Pierre Eugene du Simitiere, to help bring their ideas into a single form for a two-sided seal they could present to Congress. It was de Simitiere who included the "Eye of Providence" (that eye in a glowing triangle that so much has been made of in Dan Brown's books and the National Treasure movies) and the motto "E Pluribus Unum" (Out of Many, One).

That's about all from the original design that was eventually used; throw in MDCCLXXVI, the Roman numeral for 1776, if you want. Congress mumbled about the final result, and on the same day it was presented issued the order that it lie on the table, killing the proposal just like lack of action from the Calendars Committee of the Texas Legislature killed our 2009 CHL bills. But I digress. Ahem.

Jefferson, however, liked the motto Franklin had come up with, and adopted it for his personal seal. As for the Great Seal itself, it continued to lie on the table for over three years. In 1780, a second design committee was formed: William Houston, James Lovell, John Morin Scott, and they also lassoed an artist to help, Francis Hopkinson, who most historians feel did the actual work of this second committee.

Hopkinson came up with two versions, the second of which was presented to Congress. More mumbling, and the design was referred back to committee...which did nothing else with it. As with committee number one, several design elements eventually made it into the seal we have today, among them a shield with 13 stripes representing the original Colonies, and a constellation of 13 stars surrounded by clouds. Of interest is that two years earlier, in 1778, Hopkins had designed a Continental Currency $40 bill that also used the stars-in-clouds...and the Eye of Providence that Hopkins had seen on the first committee's design for the Great Seal.

Fast forward to 1782 and the third committee made up of Elias Boudinot, Arthur Middleton, and John Rutledge, though Arthur Lee unofficially replaced Rutledge almost immediately. The artist they recruited this time was William Barton. In amazingly short five days, the committee had their presentation ready for Congress. There was a small eagle included on the front, but other than that you wouldn't recognize much that ended up on the final seal. On the reverse side, however, is the Eye of Providence riding atop a truncated, 13-step pyramid. Guess where that pyramid first came from? Our buddy Francis Hopkinson again, who also designed a Continental Currency $50 bill in 1778 that used the pyramid.

Congress mumbled and took no action on this third design offering. In June of 1782 they did away with the committee idea and handed the design task off to Charles Thomson, the Secretary of the Congress. Thomson blended several of the previous design elements and, only after he had formulated his basic sketches, did he involve William Barton again to help with some artistic/heraldic refinement (the 13 stripes on the shield were changed from diagonal to vertical; the bald eagle's wings were positioned wingtips up rather than "rising."

Thomson gave his design to Congress on June 20, 1782, and it was accepted the same day. Thomson's design and written explanation remain the official definition of the Great Seal. He remained the custodian of the seal until 1789 when the Federal government was formed. Among the duties of the Secretary of State remains responsibility for the Great Seal of the United States.

For a refresher, you can pull out a $1 bill and see both sides of the Great Seal:



Read more about it: http://www.usa.gov/About/Great_Seal.shtml

[seamusTX]

Wow. I had no idea that bit of history was so complicated.

- Jim

[Skiprr]

Wow. I had no idea that bit of history was so complicated.

That's one nice thing about your "This Day in History" posts. It gives those of us in the peanut gallery a chance to once in a while include a little essay on some item we find of interest.

And I need to go back and make a correction, now that I re-read. Talking about the third design presented, I said the Eye of Providence appeared on the obverse side; that should have read the reverse side.

The Day in History posts are fun; I check 'em all. Thanks!

P.S. It was in the FDR administration that the $1 bill was first graced with the Great Seal. Roosevelt's Secretary of Agriculture, Henry Wallace, recommended to FDR that the mint start producing a coin bearing the seal on obverse and reverse (there; got it right that time). According to Wallace's notes, he saw a document in 1934 that described the Great Seal, and Wallace had never seen the reverse side, the one with the Eye of Providence and the 13-step pyramid. What particularly excited Wallace was the motto in a banner underneath the pyramid: Novus Ordo Seclorum. This translates roughly to "New Order of the Ages" and Wallace immediately homed in on how this sounded like a motto that could have written specifically for FDR's "New Deal."

FDR liked the idea, but chose to put the seal on one side of the $1 bill rather than on a coin. The first design had the front of the seal on the left of the note, the reverse on the right. Which seems pretty logical since English is read left-to-right. But FDR had them switched. So starting in 1935 through to today, the reverse side of the Great Seal appears on the left side of the back of the $1 bill, and the obverse (or front) of the seal appears on the right side. I've never seen a good explanation for why FDR wanted the images of the seal to switched, left-for-right.

It was in 1929 that our paper currency shrunk down to its current size (6.14" x 2.61"). Prior to that there were no size standards, the notes were somewhere around 7.5" x 3.2", and the designs changed pretty frequently.

The design of the $1 bill stayed essentially unchanged from 1923 through 1935, despite the shrinkage in size. The reverse side looked like this:



The first 1935 redesign, to which FDR gave his conditional approval before ordering the images of the Great Seal be swapped, looked like this:

[seamusTX]

You''re welcome. As I've said before, I don't own the topic. I'm interested in some aspects of history and utterly uninterested in others. Everyone is free to post similar topics.

- Jim

[boomerang]

1863 - West Virginia became the 35th state.

West Virginia is the only state to have broken off from an existing state. The story of its establishment is murky and nearly forgotten: http://www.wvculture.org/hiStory/statehoo.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I used to wonder why it was considered wrong for VA to secede but it was acceptable for WV to secede from VA.

Then I grew up and learned about politics and government.

[seamusTX]

Article IV, section 3 of the Constitution allows for the admission of new states and the splitting or unification of existing states. The Constitution is silent on the issue of secession from the United States.

- Jim

[seamusTX]

Audie Murphy was born this day in 1925, in Kingston, Texas. He was one of the most decorated soldiers in U.S. history, earning a Medal of Honor at age 19. After WW II he as a successful actor. He died rather young, at age 45, in a plane crash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He was of Irish descent, though I personally have no involvement in that.

- Jim

[strider67]

I thoroughly enjoy "This day in history"...

1863 - West Virginia became the 35th state.
West Virginia is the only state to have broken off from an existing state. The story of its establishment is murky and nearly forgotten: http://www.wvculture.org/hiStory/statehoo.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I was actually born in West Virginia and moved to Texas when I was 5 (the rest of my family decided to accompany me). My Dad has done extensive genealogy studies on both his and my Mother's sides. It seems we have both Hatfields and McCoys in our tree branches. It was quite confusing watching last year's mini-series and trying to decide who to root for...

1963 - The U.S. and USSR agreed to set up a hot line. Though often depicted as a red telephone, it was a teletype. Voice and fax communications were added later.

I believe the "real" red telephone showed up 3 years later because that was what Batman (Adam West) used to talk to Commissioner Gordon on...

[Oldgringo]

Article IV, section 3 of the Constitution allows for the admission of new states and the splitting or unification of existing states. The Constitution is silent on the issue of secession from the United States.

- Jim

The forebears of the current Mountaineers saw the writing on the wall after the Battle of Gettysburg and wanted to be on the winning side. You know, "Montani Semper Libri" or something like that. West Virginia kept former KKK Imperial Lizard, Robert Byrd, in the U.S. Senate for a half century or so. Research old LIFE, LOOK and COLLIERS magazine articles on Appalachia.

The above having been said, there is some pretty scenery in the northern reaches of the state.

[seamusTX]

History is what it is.

The secession of West Virginia from Virginia had a lot to do with wealthy eastern planters wanting to suppress the political influence of what they considered lower-class western farmers, who owned little land and generally did not own slaves. Some of them were opposed to slavery for religious reasons, but mostly they were too poor to purchase slaves.

At one point, in Virginia, only white men who owned something like 25 acres of land could vote. (This changed over the years, until all white men could vote.)

Attitudes were very different 150 years ago and even 40–50 years ago. Racism was considered a scientifically accurate principle. Discrimination against women, Catholics, and Jews was common and perfectly legal.

I doubt Chicago ever had a KKK coven (or whatever they were called), but there was no shortage of racists and anti-Semites. I worked for a company where the founder (who was an intelligent, educated man) refused to hire blacks. They had to gently ease him into retirement to avoid violating whatever law made that illegal.

- Jim

[ELB]

Article IV, section 3 of the Constitution allows for the admission of new states and the splitting or unification of existing states. The Constitution is silent on the issue of secession from the United States.

- Jim

A lot of people don't realize that. Periodically that provision of the law that annexed Texas to the US, the one that says Texas can split into five states, pops up in various forums, but the posters don't seem to realize that was not a special grant of power, it was a limitation on what Texas could do under Article IV Section 3. I.e. it could split off no more than four new states.

[The Annoyed Man]

Article IV, section 3 of the Constitution allows for the admission of new states and the splitting or unification of existing states. The Constitution is silent on the issue of secession from the United States.

- Jim

A lot of people don't realize that. Periodically that provision of the law that annexed Texas to the US, the one that says Texas can split into five states, pops up in various forums, but the posters don't seem to realize that was not a special grant of power, it was a limitation on what Texas could do under Article IV Section 3. I.e. it could split off no more than four new states.

Not disputing what you've said here, but just seeking understanding....

The text of Article IV, Section 3 says:

New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new States shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.

Source: http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_A4Sec3.html

Where does the limitation occur on how many states can be formed out of one?

[ELB]

TAM,

It was in the US law that annexed Texas to the Union, not in in Constitution. That's why I say it was a limitation on Texas. Think how many states you could make out of Texas if they were all the size of Delaware. (Of course there has to be some reasonable population to go with them.)

Recall this was 1845/46, when the slavery issue was heating up. Apparently some were concerned that if a territory as large as Texas was annexed it could subsequently be split into many states -- perhaps swinging the balance of power between slave and non-slave states. (However, the US's impetus for annexing Texas was not pro- or anti-slavery, but that the British were sniffing around in the west, trying to limit US expansion). So part of the joint resolution of congress that authorized the annexation of Texas limited the number of (additional) states that could be formed to four, with ones below the "Missouri compromise line" able to choose to be free or slave states, and ones north of the line to be free states only.

The text:

Third- New states, of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition to said state of Texas, and having sufficient population, may hereafter, by the consent of said state, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the federal constitution. And such states as may be formed out of that portion of said territory lying south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union with or without slavery, as the people of each state asking admission may desire. And in such state or states as shall be formed out of said territory north of said Missouri compromise line, slavery, or involuntary servitude, (except for crime,) shall be prohibited.

The entire joint resolution is here: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/texan01.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[riiano]

Texas joined the United States by treaty (was never a territory). Went from the republic of Texas to the state of Texas!