One this day in 1620, one week after the Mayflower was anchored
at Plymouth harbor in present-day Massachusetts, construction
of the first permanent European settlement in New England began.  

These dwellings would shelter them through their difficult first 
winter in America.

Shortly after midnight on August 13, 1961, East German soldiers
began laying down barbed wire and bricks as a barrier between
Soviet-controlled East Berlin and the democratic western section
of the city.

After World War II, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet,
American, British and French zones of occupation. The city of
Berlin, though technically part of the Soviet zone, was also split,
with the Soviets taking the eastern part of the city. After a massive
Allied airlift in June 1948 foiled a Soviet attempt to blockade West
Berlin, the eastern section was drawn even more tightly into the
Soviet fold.

Over the next 12 years, cut off from its western counterpart and
basically reduced to a Soviet satellite, East Germany saw between
2.5 million and 3 million of its citizens head to West Germany in
search of better opportunities. By 1961, some 1,000 East Germans,
including many skilled laborers, professionals and intellectuals,
were leaving every day.

On July 7, 1930, construction of the Hoover Dam begins. Over the
next five years, a total of 21,000 men would work ceaselessly to
produce what would be the largest dam of its time, as well as one
of the largest manmade structures in the world.

On December 6, 1884, in Washington, D.C., workers placed a nine-
inch aluminum pyramid atop a tower of white marble, completing
the construction of an impressive monument to the city’s namesake
and the nation’s first president, George Washington. As early as
1783, the infant U.S. Congress decided that a statue of George
Washington, the great Revolutionary War general, should be
placed near the site of the new Congressional building,
wherever it might be.

After then-President Washington asked him to lay out federal
capital on the Potomac River in 1791, architect Pierre L ‘Enfant
left a place for the statue at the western end of the sweeping
National Mall (near the monument’s present location). It wasn’t
until 1832, however–33 years after Washington’s death–that
anyone really did anything about the monument.

On July 7, 1930, construction of the Hoover Dam began. Over the
next five years, a total of 21,000 men would work ceaselessly to
produce what would be the largest dam of its time, as well as one
of the largest manmade structures in the world.

Although the dam took only five years to build, its construction
was nearly 30 years in the making. Arthur Powell Davis, an
engineer from the Bureau of Reclamation, originally had his
vision for the Hoover Dam back in 1902, and his engineering
report on the topic became the guiding document when plans
were finally made to begin the dam in 1922.

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964)