1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
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Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and is a part of the Boston metropolitan area. According to the 2010 Census, the population was 105,162. As of July 2014, it was the fifth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Cambridge was one of the two seats of Middlesex County prior to the abolition of county government in 1997, Lowell was the other. The site for what would become Cambridge was chosen in December 1630, because it was located safely upriver from Boston Harbor, Thomas Dudley, his daughter Anne Bradstreet, and her husband Simon, were among the first settlers of the town. The first houses were built in the spring of 1631, the settlement was initially referred to as the newe towne. Official Massachusetts records show the name capitalized as Newe Towne by 1632, the original village site is in the heart of todays Harvard Square. In the late 19th century, various schemes for annexing Cambridge itself to the city of Boston were pursued and rejected, in 1636, the Newe College was founded by the colony to train ministers. Newe Towne was chosen for the site of the college by the Great and General Court primarily—according to Cotton Mather—to be near the popular, in May 1638 the name of the settlement was changed to Cambridge in honor of the university in Cambridge, England. Hooker and Shepard, Newtownes ministers, and the colleges first president, major benefactor, in 1629, Winthrop had led the signing of the founding document of the city of Boston, which was known as the Cambridge Agreement, after the university. It was Governor Thomas Dudley who, in 1650, signed the charter creating the corporation which still governs Harvard College, Cambridge grew slowly as an agricultural village eight miles by road from Boston, the capital of the colony. By the American Revolution, most residents lived near the Common and Harvard College, with farms and estates comprising most of the town. Coming up from Virginia, George Washington took command of the volunteer American soldiers camped on Cambridge Common on July 3,1775, most of the Tory estates were confiscated after the Revolution. On January 24,1776, Henry Knox arrived with artillery captured from Fort Ticonderoga, a second bridge, the Canal Bridge, opened in 1809 alongside the new Middlesex Canal. The new bridges and roads made what were formerly estates and marshland into prime industrial and residential districts, in the mid-19th century, Cambridge was the center of a literary revolution when it gave the country a new identity through poetry and literature. Cambridge was home to some of the famous Fireside Poets—so called because their poems would often be read aloud by families in front of their evening fires, the Fireside Poets—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, and Oliver Wendell Holmes—were highly popular and influential in their day. Cambridge was incorporated as a city in 1846, the citys commercial center began to shift from Harvard Square to Central Square, which became the downtown of the city around this time. The coming of the railroad to North Cambridge and Northwest Cambridge then led to three changes in the city, the development of massive brickyards and brickworks between Massachusetts Ave. For many decades, the citys largest employer was the New England Glass Company, by the middle of the 19th century it was the largest and most modern glassworks in the world
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
American Revolution
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The British responded by imposing punitive laws on Massachusetts in 1774 known as the Coercive Acts, following which Patriots in the other colonies rallied behind Massachusetts. Tensions escalated to the outbreak of fighting between Patriot militia and British regulars at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the conflict then developed into a global war, during which the Patriots fought the British and Loyalists in what became known as the American Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress determined King George IIIs rule to be tyrannical and infringing the rights as Englishmen. The Patriot leadership professed the political philosophies of liberalism and republicanism to reject monarchy and aristocracy, Congress rejected British proposals requiring allegiance to the monarchy and abandonment of independence. The British were forced out of Boston in 1776, but then captured and they blockaded the ports and captured other cities for brief periods, but failed to defeat Washingtons forces. After a failed Patriot invasion of Canada, a British army was captured at the Battle of Saratoga in late 1777, a combined American–French force captured a second British army at Yorktown in 1781, effectively ending the war in the United States. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 formally ended the conflict, confirming the new nations complete separation from the British Empire. The United States took possession of all the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes, with the British retaining control of Canada. Among the significant results of the revolution was the creation of a new Constitution of the United States. Historians typically begin their histories of the American Revolution with the British victory in the French and Indian War in 1763, the lands west of Quebec and west of a line running along the crest of the Allegheny mountains became Indian territory, temporarily barred to settlement. For the prior history, see Thirteen Colonies, in 1764, Parliament passed the Currency Act to restrain the use of paper money which British merchants saw as a means to evade debt payments. Parliament also passed the Sugar Act, imposing customs duties on a number of articles, none did and Parliament passed the Stamp Act in March 1765 which imposed direct taxes on the colonies for the first time. All official documents, newspapers, almanacs, and pamphlets—even decks of playing cards—were required to have the stamps, the colonists did not object that the taxes were high, but because they had no representation in the Parliament. Benjamin Franklin testified in Parliament in 1766 that Americans already contributed heavily to the defense of the Empire, stationing a standing army in Great Britain during peacetime was politically unacceptable. London had to deal with 1,500 politically well-connected British officers who became redundant, in 1765, the Sons of Liberty formed. They used public demonstrations, boycott, violence, and threats of violence to ensure that the British tax laws were unenforceable, in Boston, the Sons of Liberty burned the records of the vice admiralty court and looted the home of chief justice Thomas Hutchinson. Several legislatures called for united action, and nine colonies sent delegates to the Stamp Act Congress in New York City in October 1765, moderates led by John Dickinson drew up a Declaration of Rights and Grievances stating that taxes passed without representation violated their rights as Englishmen. Colonists emphasized their determination by boycotting imports of British merchandise, the Parliament at Westminster saw itself as the supreme lawmaking authority throughout all British possessions and thus entitled to levy any tax without colonial approval
5.
John Adams
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John Adams was an American patriot who served as the second President of the United States and the first Vice President. He was a lawyer, diplomat, statesman, political theorist, and, as a Founding Father and he was also a dedicated diarist and correspondent, particularly with his wife and closest advisor Abigail. He collaborated with his cousin, revolutionary leader Samuel Adams, Adams was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, where he played a leading role in persuading Congress to declare independence. He assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776, as a diplomat in Europe, he helped negotiate the eventual peace treaty with Great Britain, and acquired vital governmental loans from Amsterdam bankers. Adams was the author of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780 which influenced American political theory. Adamss credentials as a revolutionary secured for him two terms as President George Washingtons vice president and also his own election in 1796 as the second president. In his single term as president, he encountered fierce criticism from the Jeffersonian Republicans, as well as the dominant faction in his own Federalist Party, led by his rival Alexander Hamilton. Adams signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, and built up the army, the major accomplishment of his presidency was a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the face of Hamiltons opposition. Due to his strong posture on defense, Adams is often called the father of the American Navy and he was the first U. S. president to reside in the executive mansion, now known as the White House. In 1800, Adams lost re-election to Thomas Jefferson and retired to Massachusetts and he eventually resumed his friendship with Jefferson upon the latters own retirement by initiating a correspondence which lasted fourteen years. He and his wife established a family of politicians, diplomats, Adams was the father of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States. He died on the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Modern historians in the aggregate have favorably ranked his administration, John Adams was born on October 30,1735 to John Adams Sr. and Susanna Boylston. He had two brothers, Peter and Elihu. Adams birthplace was then in Braintree, Massachusetts, and is preserved at Adams National Historical Park, Adams mother was from a leading medical family of present-day Brookline, Massachusetts. His father was a Congregationalist deacon, a farmer, a cordwainer, the Deacon also served as a selectman and supervised the building of schools and roads. Adams often praised his father and recalled their close relationship, though raised in modest surroundings, Adams felt an acute responsibility to live up to his familys heritage of reverence. Journalist Richard Brookhiser wrote that Adams Puritan ancestors believed they lived in the Bible, England under the Stuarts was Egypt, they were Israel fleeing
6.
John Hancock
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John Hancock was an American merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first, before the American Revolution, Hancock was one of the wealthiest men in the Thirteen Colonies, having inherited a profitable mercantile business from his uncle. Hancock began his career in Boston as a protégé of Samuel Adams. As tensions between colonists and Great Britain increased in the 1760s, Hancock used his wealth to support the colonial cause and he became very popular in Massachusetts, especially after British officials seized his sloop Liberty in 1768 and charged him with smuggling. Although the charges against Hancock were eventually dropped, he has often described as a smuggler in historical accounts. Hancock was one of Bostons leaders during the crisis led to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775. He served more than two years in the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, and as president of Congress, was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence, Hancock returned to Massachusetts and was elected governor of the Commonwealth, serving in that role for most of his remaining years. He used his influence to ensure that Massachusetts ratified the United States Constitution in 1788, according to the Gregorian calendar, John Hancock was born on January 23,1737, according to the Julian calendar then in use, the date was January 12,1736. He was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in a part of town eventually became the separate city of Quincy. He was the son of the Reverend John Hancock of Braintree and Mary Hawke Thaxter, as a child, Hancock became a casual acquaintance of young John Adams, whom the Reverend Hancock had baptized in 1735. The Hancocks lived a life, and owned one slave to help with household work. After Hancocks father died in 1744, John was sent to live with his uncle and aunt, Thomas Hancock, Thomas Hancock was the proprietor of a firm known as the House of Hancock, which imported manufactured goods from Britain and exported rum, whale oil, and fish. Thomas Hancocks highly successful business made him one of Bostons richest and he and Lydia, along with several servants and slaves, lived in Hancock Manor on Beacon Hill. The couple, who did not have any children of their own, after graduating from the Boston Latin School in 1750, Hancock enrolled in Harvard College and received a bachelors degree in 1754. Upon graduation, he began to work for his uncle, just as the French, Thomas Hancock had close relations with the royal governors of Massachusetts and secured profitable government contracts during the war. John Hancock learned much about his uncles business during these years and was trained for eventual partnership in the firm, Hancock worked hard, but he also enjoyed playing the role of a wealthy aristocrat and developed a fondness for expensive clothes. From 1760 to 1761, Hancock lived in England while building relationships with customers and suppliers, upon returning to Boston, Hancock gradually took over the House of Hancock as his uncles health failed, becoming a full partner in January 1763. He became a member of the Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew in October 1762, which connected him with many of Bostons most influential citizens
7.
James Bowdoin
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James Bowdoin II was an American political and intellectual leader from Boston, Massachusetts, during the American Revolution and the following decade. He initially gained fame and influence as a wealthy merchant and he served in both branches of the Massachusetts General Court from the 1750s to the 1770s. Although he was supportive of the royal governors, he opposed British colonial policy. From 1775 to 1777 he served as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress executive council and he was elected president of the constitutional convention that drafted the states constitution in 1779, and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1780, losing to John Hancock. In 1785, following Hancocks resignation, he was elected governor, due to the large debts of Massachusetts, incurred from the Revolutionary War, Bowdoin ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility. During his two years in office the combination of economic conditions and his harsh fiscal policy laid down by his government led to the uprising known as Shays Rebellion. Bowdoin personally funded militia forces that were instrumental in putting down the uprising and his high-handed treatment of the rebels may have contributed to his loss of the 1787 election, in which the populist Hancock was returned to office. In addition to his activities, Bowdoin was active in scientific pursuits. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, Bowdoin College in Maine was named in his honor after a bequest by his son James III. James Bowdoin II was born in Boston to Hannah Portage Bowdoin and James Bowdoin and his grandfather, Pierre Baudouin, was a Huguenot refugee from France. Pierre took his family first to Ireland, then to eastern Massachusetts, James Bowdoin I had a modest inheritance from his parents, but greatly expanded his fathers merchant business and land holdings to become one of the wealthiest men in the province. Young James attended the South Grammar School, then graduated from Harvard College in 1745, when his father died in 1747, he inherited a considerable fortune. He married Elizabeth Erving, daughter of his Harvard roommate, in 1748 and that same year, he went back to Harvard to receive his masters degree. Bowdoin may have met Benjamin Franklin as early as 1743, during his Harvard years, he was educated in the sciences by John Winthrop, and developed an interest in electricity and astronomy. In 1750 Bowdoin traveled to Philadelphia to meet with Franklin, Bowdoin was interested in Franklins experiments on electricity, and Franklin solicited his advice on papers he prepared for submission to the Royal Society. Through the offices of Franklin, some of Bowdoins letters were read to the Society, in 1785 he published a series of memoirs arguing against Isaac Newtons theory that light was transmitted by corpuscles, citing both natural observations and Scripture. Bowdoin maintained a lifelong interest in the sciences, in 1780 he was one of the founders of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as its first president until his death and left the society his library, Bowdoin published not only scientific papers, but poetry in both English and Latin
8.
United States Constitution
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The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. The Constitution, originally comprising seven articles, delineates the national frame of government, Articles Four, Five and Six entrench concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments and of the states in relationship to the federal government. Article Seven establishes the procedure used by the thirteen States to ratify it. In general, the first ten amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, offer specific protections of individual liberty, the majority of the seventeen later amendments expand individual civil rights protections. Others address issues related to federal authority or modify government processes and procedures, Amendments to the United States Constitution, unlike ones made to many constitutions worldwide, are appended to the document. All four pages of the original U. S, according to the United States Senate, The Constitutions first three words—We the People—affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens. From September 5,1774 to March 1,1781, the Continental Congress functioned as the government of the United States. The process of selecting the delegates for the First and Second Continental Congresses underscores the revolutionary role of the people of the colonies in establishing a governing body. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first constitution of the United States and it was drafted by the Second Continental Congress from mid-1776 through late-1777, and ratification by all 13 states was completed by early 1781. Under the Articles of Confederation, the governments power was quite limited. The Confederation Congress could make decisions, but lacked enforcement powers, implementation of most decisions, including modifications to the Articles, required unanimous approval of all thirteen state legislatures. The Continental Congress could print money but the currency was worthless, Congress could borrow money, but couldnt pay it back. No state paid all their U. S. taxes, some paid nothing, some few paid an amount equal to interest on the national debt owed to their citizens, but no more. No interest was paid on debt owed foreign governments, by 1786, the United States would default on outstanding debts as their dates came due. Internationally, the Articles of Confederation did little to enhance the United States ability to defend its sovereignty, most of the troops in the 625-man United States Army were deployed facing – but not threatening – British forts on American soil. They had not been paid, some were deserting and others threatening mutiny, spain closed New Orleans to American commerce, U. S. officials protested, but to no effect. Barbary pirates began seizing American ships of commerce, the Treasury had no funds to pay their ransom, if any military crisis required action, the Congress had no credit or taxing power to finance a response. Domestically, the Articles of Confederation was failing to bring unity to the sentiments and interests of the various states
9.
Daedalus (journal)
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Dædalus is a peer-reviewed academic journal founded in 1955 as a replacement for the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the volume and numbering system of which it continues. In 1958 it began publication as The Journal of the American Academy of Arts. The journal is published by MIT Press on behalf of the American Academy of Arts, each issue addresses a theme with essays on the arts, sciences, and humanities. Special features include fiction, poetry, and a notes section, the journal is indexed in Scopus and the Social Sciences Citation Index, among others. Official website American Academy of Arts and Sciences
10.
Benjamin Franklin
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Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a polymath and a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman. As a scientist, he was a figure in the American Enlightenment. As an inventor, he is known for the rod, bifocals. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphias fire department and the University of Pennsylvania, Franklin earned the title of The First American for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation, in the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, In a Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat. To Walter Isaacson, this makes Franklin the most accomplished American of his age, Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette at the age of 23. He became wealthy publishing this and Poor Richards Almanack, which he authored under the pseudonym Richard Saunders, after 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the British policies. He pioneered and was first president of The Academy and College of Philadelphia which opened in 1751 and he organized and was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society and was elected president in 1769. Franklin became a hero in America as an agent for several colonies when he spearheaded an effort in London to have the Parliament of Great Britain repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris and was a figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. His efforts proved vital for the American Revolution in securing shipments of crucial munitions from France, during the Revolution, he became the first US Postmaster General. He was active in community affairs and colonial and state politics, from 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. He initially owned and dealt in slaves but, by the 1750s, he argued against slavery from an economic perspective, Franklins father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler, a soap-maker and a candle-maker. Josiah was born at Ecton, Northamptonshire, England on December 23,1657, the son of Thomas Franklin, a blacksmith-farmer, and Jane White. His mother, Abiah Folger, was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on August 15,1667, to Peter Folger, a miller and schoolteacher, and his wife, Mary Morrill, Josiah Franklin had seventeen children with his two wives. He married his first wife, Anne Child, in about 1677 in Ecton and emigrated with her to Boston in 1683, after her death, Josiah was married to Abiah Folger on July 9,1689 in the Old South Meeting House by Samuel Willard. Benjamin, their child, was Josiah Franklins fifteenth child and tenth
11.
George Washington
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George Washington was an American politician and soldier who served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 and was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He served as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and he is popularly considered the driving force behind the nations establishment and came to be known as the father of the country, both during his lifetime and to this day. Washington was widely admired for his leadership qualities and was unanimously elected president by the Electoral College in the first two national elections. Washingtons incumbency established many precedents still in use today, such as the system, the inaugural address. His retirement from office two terms established a tradition that lasted until 1940 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term. The 22nd Amendment now limits the president to two elected terms and he was born into the provincial gentry of Colonial Virginia to a family of wealthy planters who owned tobacco plantations and slaves, which he inherited. In his youth, he became an officer in the colonial militia during the first stages of the French. In 1775, the Second Continental Congress commissioned him as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, in that command, Washington forced the British out of Boston in 1776 but was defeated and nearly captured later that year when he lost New York City. After crossing the Delaware River in the middle of winter, he defeated the British in two battles, retook New Jersey, and restored momentum to the Patriot cause and his strategy enabled Continental forces to capture two major British armies at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781. In battle, however, Washington was repeatedly outmaneuvered by British generals with larger armies, after victory had been finalized in 1783, Washington resigned as commander-in-chief rather than seize power, proving his opposition to dictatorship and his commitment to American republicanism. Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which devised a new form of government for the United States. Following his election as president in 1789, he worked to unify rival factions in the fledgling nation and he supported Alexander Hamiltons programs to satisfy all debts, federal and state, established a permanent seat of government, implemented an effective tax system, and created a national bank. In avoiding war with Great Britain, he guaranteed a decade of peace and profitable trade by securing the Jay Treaty in 1795 and he remained non-partisan, never joining the Federalist Party, although he largely supported its policies. Washingtons Farewell Address was a primer on civic virtue, warning against partisanship, sectionalism. He retired from the presidency in 1797, returning to his home, upon his death, Washington was eulogized as first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen by Representative Henry Lee III of Virginia. He was revered in life and in death, scholarly and public polling consistently ranks him among the top three presidents in American history and he has been depicted and remembered in monuments, public works, currency, and other dedications to the present day. He was born on February 11,1731, according to the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar was adopted within the British Empire in 1752, and it renders a birth date of February 22,1732. Washington was of primarily English gentry descent, especially from Sulgrave and his great-grandfather John Washington emigrated to Virginia in 1656 and began accumulating land and slaves, as did his son Lawrence and his grandson, Georges father Augustine
12.
Benjamin Thompson
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He served as lieutenant-colonel of the Kings American Dragoons, part of the British Loyalist forces, during the American Revolutionary War. After the end of the war he moved to London, where his talents were recognized when he was appointed a full colonel. A prolific designer, Thompson also drew designs for warships and he later moved to Bavaria and entered government service there, being appointed Bavarian Army Minister and re-organizing the army, and, in 1791, was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire. Thompson was born in rural Woburn, Massachusetts, on March 26,1753, at the age of 13 he was apprenticed to John Appleton, a merchant of nearby Salem. Thompson excelled at his trade, and coming in contact with refined and well educated people for the first time, while recuperating in Woburn in 1769 from an injury, Thompson conducted experiments concerning the nature of heat and began to correspond with Loammi Baldwin and others about them. Later that year he worked for a few months for a Boston shopkeeper and then apprenticed himself briefly, Thompsons prospects were dim in 1772 but in that year they changed abruptly. He met, charmed and married a rich and well-connected heiress named Sarah Rolfe and her father was a minister, and her late husband left her property at Concord, New Hampshire, then called Rumford. They moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and through his wifes influence with the governor, when the American Revolutionary War began Thompson was a man of property and standing in New England and was opposed to the uprising. He was active in recruiting loyalists to fight the rebels and this earned him the enmity of the popular party, and a mob attacked Thompsons house. He fled to the British lines, abandoning his wife, as it turned out, Thompson was welcomed by the British to whom he gave valuable information about the American forces, and became an advisor to both General Gage and Lord George Germain. On the strength of this he arrived in London at the end of the war with a reputation as a scientist, in 1785, he moved to Bavaria where he became an aide-de-camp to the Prince-elector Charles Theodore. He spent eleven years in Bavaria, reorganizing the army and establishing workhouses for the poor and he also invented Rumfords Soup, a soup for the poor, and established the cultivation of the potato in Bavaria. He studied methods of cooking, heating, and lighting, including the costs and efficiencies of wax candles, tallow candles. On Prince Charles behalf he created the Englischer Garten in Munich in 1789 and he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1789. His experiments on gunnery and explosives led to an interest in heat and he devised a method for measuring the specific heat of a solid substance but was disappointed when Johan Wilcke published his parallel discovery first. Thompson next investigated the properties of various materials, including fur, wool. He correctly appreciated that the properties of these natural materials arise from the fact that they inhibit the convection of air. He then made the somewhat reckless, and incorrect, inference that air and, in fact and he further saw this as evidence of the argument from design, contending that divine providence had arranged for fur on animals in such a way as to guarantee their comfort
13.
Harvard University
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Although never formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized during the 18th century, james Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College, Harvards $34.5 billion financial endowment is the largest of any academic institution. Harvard is a large, highly residential research university, the nominal cost of attendance is high, but the Universitys large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages. Harvards alumni include eight U. S. presidents, several heads of state,62 living billionaires,359 Rhodes Scholars. To date, some 130 Nobel laureates,18 Fields Medalists, Harvard was formed in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1638, it obtained British North Americas first known printing press, in 1639 it was named Harvard College after deceased clergyman John Harvard an alumnus of the University of Cambridge who had left the school £779 and his scholars library of some 400 volumes. The charter creating the Harvard Corporation was granted in 1650 and it offered a classic curriculum on the English university model—many leaders in the colony had attended the University of Cambridge—but conformed to the tenets of Puritanism. It was never affiliated with any denomination, but many of its earliest graduates went on to become clergymen in Congregational. The leading Boston divine Increase Mather served as president from 1685 to 1701, in 1708, John Leverett became the first president who was not also a clergyman, which marked a turning of the college toward intellectual independence from Puritanism. When the Hollis Professor of Divinity David Tappan died in 1803 and the president of Harvard Joseph Willard died a year later, in 1804, in 1846, the natural history lectures of Louis Agassiz were acclaimed both in New York and on the campus at Harvard College. Agassizs approach was distinctly idealist and posited Americans participation in the Divine Nature, agassizs perspective on science combined observation with intuition and the assumption that a person can grasp the divine plan in all phenomena. When it came to explaining life-forms, Agassiz resorted to matters of shape based on an archetype for his evidence. Charles W. Eliot, president 1869–1909, eliminated the position of Christianity from the curriculum while opening it to student self-direction. While Eliot was the most crucial figure in the secularization of American higher education, he was motivated not by a desire to secularize education, during the 20th century, Harvards international reputation grew as a burgeoning endowment and prominent professors expanded the universitys scope. Rapid enrollment growth continued as new schools were begun and the undergraduate College expanded. Radcliffe College, established in 1879 as sister school of Harvard College, Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. In the early 20th century, the student body was predominately old-stock, high-status Protestants, especially Episcopalians, Congregationalists, by the 1970s it was much more diversified
14.
Samuel Adams
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Samuel Adams was an American statesman, political philosopher, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a cousin to fellow Founding Father, President John Adams. Adams was born in Boston, brought up in a religious, a graduate of Harvard College, he was an unsuccessful businessman and tax collector before concentrating on politics. His 1768 Massachusetts Circular Letter calling for colonial non-cooperation prompted the occupation of Boston by British soldiers, continued resistance to British policy resulted in the 1773 Boston Tea Party and the coming of the American Revolution. Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774, at which time Adams attended the Continental Congress in Philadelphia which was convened to coordinate a colonial response, Adams returned to Massachusetts after the American Revolution, where he served in the state senate and was eventually elected governor. Samuel Adams later became a figure in American history. Accounts written in the 19th century praised him as someone who had been steering his fellow colonists towards independence long before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. This view gave way to negative assessments of Adams in the first half of the 20th century, both of these interpretations have been challenged by some modern scholars, who argue that these traditional depictions of Adams are myths contradicted by the historical record. Samuel Adams was born in Boston in the British colony of Massachusetts on September 16,1722, an Old Style date that is sometimes converted to the New Style date of September 27. Adams was one of children born to Samuel Adams, Sr. and Mary Adams in an age of high infant mortality. Adamss parents were devout Puritans and members of the Old South Congregational Church, the family lived on Purchase Street in Boston. Adams was proud of his Puritan heritage, and emphasized Puritan values in his political career, Samuel Adams, Sr. was a prosperous merchant and church deacon. Deacon Adams became a figure in Boston politics through an organization that became known as the Boston Caucus. The Boston Caucus helped shape the agenda of the Boston Town Meeting, Deacon Adams rose through the political ranks, becoming a justice of the peace, a selectman, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. In the coming years, members of the party became known as Whigs or Patriots. The younger Samuel Adams attended Boston Latin School and then entered Harvard College in 1736 and his parents hoped that his schooling would prepare him for the ministry, but Adams gradually shifted his interest to politics. After graduating in 1740, Adams continued his studies, earning a degree in 1743. Adamss life was affected by his fathers involvement in a banking controversy
15.
John Bacon (Massachusetts)
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John Bacon was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts. John Bacon was born in Canterbury, Connecticut on April 5,1738, upon graduating from Princeton College he spent some time preaching in Somerset County, Maryland. On 25 September 1771 he and Mr. John Hunt were appointed as colleague pastors over the Old South Church in Boston, Bacon ran into difficulties with his congregation over doctrinal issues and his preaching style, which was described as argumentative. He was dismissed from the Old South Church on 8 February 1775, after leaving the church Bacon moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts. He served as a Magistrate, Representative, Associate and Presiding Judge of the Common Please, Member and President of the State Senate, and Member of Congress. Bacon married Elizabeth, the widow of Alexander Cumming and daughter of Ezekiel Goldthwait, Register of the Deeds for Suffolk County, Bacon is interred in the Stockbridge Cemetery. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, John Bacon at Find a Grave
16.
John Clarke (Congregationalist minister)
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John Clarke was a minister of the First Church in Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 18th century. He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on April 13,1755, to John Clarke and he was educated at the Boston Public Latin School and Harvard University. He joined the ministry of Bostons First Church in January 1778 and he was a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780. He was associated with the Boston Library Society, the Humane Society of Massachusetts, Clarke married Esther Orne, they had four children. He died in Boston on April 2,1798, occasioned by his disingenuous reflexions upon a certain pamphlet, entitled, Salvation for all men. A sermon delivered at the church in Brattle-Street, January 2,1784, at the interment of the Rev. Samuel Cooper, D. D. who expired, a discourse, delivered at the First Church in Boston, February 15,1787. At the interment of the Rev. Charles Chauncy, D. D and its Senior Pastor, who expired, Feb.10,1787. A discourse delivered before the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at the semi-annual meeting, an answer to the question, why are you a Christian. A discourse, delivered at the First Church in Boston, April 19,1795, letters to a student in the University of Cambridge, Massachusetts Sermons by the late Reverend John Clarke, D. D. Minister of the First Church in Boston, Massachusetts, history of the First Church in Boston, 1630–1880
17.
David Cobb (Massachusetts)
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David Cobb was a Massachusetts physician, military officer, jurist, and politician who served as a U. S. Congressman for Massachusettss at-large congressional seat, born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, on September 14,1748, Cobb graduated from Harvard College in 1766. He studied medicine in Boston and afterward practiced in Taunton, Massachusetts and he was a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780. He was elected to the Third United States Congress and his remains were interred in Plain Cemetery. Cobb was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1814, in 1976, David Cobb was honored by being on a postage stamp for the United States Postal Service. Porter, Joseph Whitcomb, Memoir of Gen. David Cobb and family of Gouldsborough, Maine, biographical Directory of the United States Congress
18.
Samuel Cooper (clergyman)
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Samuel Cooper was a Congregational minister in Boston, Massachusetts, affiliated with the Brattle Street Church. He was born in Boston to William Cooper and Judith Sewall, attended the Boston Latin School and he was ordained as a minister on May 21,1746, and served as pastor of the Brattle Street Church, 1747-1783. Members of his parish at the Brattle St, Church included some of the most influential people of the American Revolution, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, John Adams, and others. He corresponded with Benjamin Franklin, Charles Hector dEstaing, Gideon Hawley, Charles Gravier de Vergennes, in 1780, he co-founded the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as chaplain to the General Court 1758-1770 and 1777-1783, around 1783 Harvard College offered Cooper the position of college president, but Cooper declined. In September 1746 he married Judith Bulfinch, they had two daughters, a portrait of Cooper by John Singleton Copley now resides in the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society. A sermon preached to the Ancient and Honourable Artillery Company in Boston, New-England, June 3,1751, Boston, Printed by J. Draper for J. Edwards. A sermon preached in Boston, New-England before the Society for Encouraging Industry, Boston, Printed by J. Draper, for D. Henchman, in Cornhill,1753. 1756 Being the anniversary for the election of His Majestys of the Council for the said province, Boston, New-England, Printed by Green and Russell, by order of the Honourable House of Representatives. Boston massacucetts New-England, Printed by Green & Russell, and Edes & Gill, by order of His Excellency the governour, a sermon preachd April 9,1760, at the ordination of the Reverend Mr. Joseph Jackson, to the pastoral care of the church of Brooklin. Boston, New-England, Printed by John Draper,1760, Boston, Printed by John Draper, printer to His Excellency the governor and the Honorable His Majestys Council,1761. A discourse on the man of sin, delivered in the chapel of Harvard College, in Cambridge, New-England, Boston, Printed and sold at Greenleafs printing-office, in Hanover-Street,1774. Boston, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Printed by T. and J. Fleet, Cooper was a direct ancestor on my mothers side - her father was named after him - Marvin Cooper Taylor. He made his corrections and suggested changes in the margins of the rough draft - many of which were adopted in the final version and they are now in major university collections and at Williamsburg. An Elegy, sacred to the memory of the divine, the Reverend and learned Dr. Samuel Cooper. Boston, Printed and sold by E. Russell, in Essex-Street, the Justice of Americas Cause, Revolutionary Rhetoric in the Sermons of Samuel Cooper. The New England Quarterly, Vol.50, No, the New England Quarterly, Vol.50, No. Religion and the American Revolution, Samuel Cooper and the Brattle Street Church, the William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol.35, No
19.
Thomas Cushing
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Thomas Cushing III was an American lawyer, merchant, and statesman from Boston, Massachusetts. Active in Boston politics, he represented the city in the assembly from 1761 to its dissolution in 1774. Because of his role as speaker, his signature was affixed to many documents protesting British policies, Cushing represented Massachusetts in the First and Second Continental Congresses, but was voted out when he opposed independence. Despite this, he remained active after independence, continuing to serve in the state government. During the war he was a responsible for provisioning the military. He was elected the states first Lieutenant Governor in 1780, Thomas was born in Boston, the capital of the British Province of Massachusetts Bay, on March 24,1725, the second of at least seven children. The Cushing family, with roots in the province, descends from Deacon Matthew Cushing who emigrated from Norfolk, England. Thomas father, also named Thomas, was one of the citys wealthiest merchants, a member of the Old South Church. Thomas Sr. was a frequent moderator of town meetings, and he served in the General Court of Massachusetts from 1731 to 1747, and as its speaker after 1742. His mother, Mary Cushing was also from a prominent Boston family, Thomas got his early education at the Boston Latin School, and then attended Harvard, where he graduated in 1744. He studied law and was admitted to the bar, after which he entered the merchant business. On October 1,1747, he married Deborah Fletcher, with whom he had five children, in 1753 Cushing entered politics, winning election as a Boston selectman. He continued in office until 1763, and was also elected to the General Court in 1761. He became politically associated with Samuel Adams and John Hancock, in part through his attendance at political discussions in Bostons taverns, with Hancock in particular he eventually formed a lifelong relationship in which the charismatic Hancock was always seen to be the dominant political personality. He contributed financially to some of Hancocks political spending, although he preferred to stand in the background, because of this his political opponents in later years often characterized him as little more than Hancocks henchman or proxy. When the French and Indian War came to an end in 1763 the British government sought to recover the costs of posting troops in the colonies by imposing taxes on the colonies. Cushing was an opponent of these taxes, couching his opposition in economic terms. John Adams wrote of Cushing that is steady and constant and busy in the interest of liberty and the opposition, in May 1766 Cushing was chosen to be speaker of the assembly
20.
William Cushing
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William Cushing was one of the original six associate justices of the United States Supreme Court, from September 27,1789, until his death. He was the longest-serving of the Courts original members, sitting on the bench for 20 years,351 days, in 1796 he was nominated by George Washington to become the third Chief Justice, but declined. He was also the last judge in the United States to wear a full wig, Cushing was born in Scituate, Massachusetts, on March 1,1732. The Cushing family had a history in the area, settling Hingham in 1638. Cushings father John Cushing was a magistrate who in 1747 became an associate justice of the Superior Court of Judicature. William Cushings grandfather John Cushing was also a court judge. Cushings mother, Mary Cotton Cushing, was a daughter of Josiah Cotton and they were descended from Rev. John Cotton, the great 17th century Puritan theologian. Josiah Cotton and Richard Fitzgerald, a teacher at a local Latin school, were responsible for young Cushings early education, Cushing graduated from Harvard College in 1751 and became a member of the bar of Boston in 1755. After briefly practicing law in Scituate, he moved to Pownalborough, in 1762 he was called to become a barrister, again the first in Maine. He practiced law until 1772, when he was appointed by Governor Thomas Hutchinson to replace his father on the Superior Court bench, Cushing did not express any opinion on the matter, but declined the crown payment in preference to a provincial appropriation. After the American Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, consequently, it essentially dissolved the Superior Court and reformed it in November 1775. Of all its justices, Cushing was the one retained. The congress offered the seat of Chief Justice first to John Adams, but he never sat, the provincial congress appointed Cushing to be the courts first sitting Chief Justice in 1777. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts. He would sit as Massachusetts Chief Justice until 1789, during which period the court ruled in 1783 that slavery was irreconcilable with the new state constitution, and it was ended in the state. In 1783, Cushing presided over a series of cases involving Quock Walker and this was taken to mean that slavery was incompatible with the state constitution ratified in 1779, and that slavery was therefore ended in the state. The case relied on a 1781 freedom suit brought by slave Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mum Bett, on the same grounds, during Shays Rebellion, Cushing ensured that court sessions continued, despite the aggressive protests of the armed rebels, and later presided over their trials. A year later, in 1788, he served as president of the Massachusetts convention
21.
Tristram Dalton
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Tristram Dalton was an American politician and merchant from Massachusetts. He served a term as one of the first United States Senators. He was for years one of the leading citizens of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Tristram Dalton was born in a part of Newbury, Massachusetts that is now Newburyport and he attended Dummer Academy in Byfield, and graduated from Harvard College in 1755, in a class that also included John Adams. Afterwards, he studied law and was admitted to the bar, daltons father was a ships captain turned merchant, involved in trade with Europe and the West Indies, and was instrumental in securing the separation of Newburyport from Newbury. Upon his fathers death in 1770, Tristram inherited an estate, Dalton was not significantly involved in politics until 1774, when the tensions of the American Revolution were rising but the American Revolutionary War had not yet started. He was elected to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and the Newburyport board of selectmen in 1774 and his contributions included provisioning of ships from his merchant fleet to the Penobscot Expedition of 1780. Dalton served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1782 to 1785 and he served as a Massachusetts state senator from 1786 to 1788. Dalton was elected to the Continental Congress in 1783 and 1784 and he was elected as a delegate to the state convention on the adoption of the United States Constitution, in which he advocated for its adoption. In 1788 he was elected as one of the states first United States Senators, Strong won the draw for the longer of the two terms, leaving Dalton with a short two-year term. He served from March 4,1789 to March 4,1791, in the 1791 election, Dalton ran a distant fourth against George Cabot, the eventual victor, and others. Dalton had married Ruth Hooper, the daughter of a wealthy Marblehead merchant and they had grown fond of the city life in New York City, and moved there, and then Philadelphia. When the site of the capital was selected, Dalton sold off most of his property in Massachusetts. Many of the personal items were lost when the ship carrying them to Washington foundered. Daltons investment was also a failure, as Washington real estate did not appreciate, in order to make ends meet, Dalton was given a patronage appointment as surveyor of the port of Boston, serving from November 1814 until his death on May 30,1817. He is interred in the churchyard of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Newburyport, of their ten children, only three girls survived to adulthood. Dalton was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Tristram Dalton is the namesake of Dalton, Massachusetts, Dalton, New Hampshire and Dalton, biographical Directory of the United States Congress
22.
Francis Dana
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Francis Dana was an American lawyer, jurist, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1777–1778 and 1784 and he signed the Articles of Confederation. His wife Elizabeth was a daughter of Ann Remington and William Ellery and he was also the father-in-law of Washington Allston, a noted painter and poet. Francis was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of lawyer Richard Dana and he was educated at Harvard where he graduated in 1762, then read law and was admitted to the bar, after which he built a successful legal practice in Boston. Being an opponent of the British colonial policy, he became a leader of the Sons of Liberty, in 1775 the Continental Congress dispatched him to England in an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile the differences leading to the Revolutionary War. This committee spent about three months in camp, and assisted Washington in preparing the plan of reorganization which Congress in the main adopted, in this year, he was also a member of a committee to consider Lord Norths offer of conciliation, which he vigorously opposed. Dana left the Congress to accompany John Adams to Paris as a secretary to the diplomatic delegation, in 1780 he was named as American minister to the Russian Empire, and while he never gained official recognition from Catherine the Great, he remained in St. Petersburg until 1783. After his return, he was elected to the national congress in 1784. In 1785 Dana was appointed to the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, in 1792, a company was formed to build a bridge to Cambridgeport over the Charles River. This became the West Boston Bridge, later the site of the Longfellow Bridge that exists today, the bridge was opened in November 1793. Dana generally retired from life in 1806. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780. His son, Richard Henry Dana, Sr. was an important poet and his grandson, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. was a noted lawyer and author who served as U. S. Attorney for Massachusetts and wrote the classic Two Years Before the Mast. Dana died in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is buried in Cambridges Old Burying Ground, Francis Dana, a Puritan diplomat at the court of Catherine the Great. New York, L. MacVeagh, The Dial Press, toronto, Longmans, Green & co,1930 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Dana, Francis. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
