On September 18, 1793, George Washington laid the cornerstone
to the United States Capitol building, the home of the legislative
branch of American government. The building would take nearly
a century to complete, as architects came and went, the British
set fire to it and it was called into use during the Civil War.

Today, the Capitol building, with its famous cast-iron dome
and important collection of American art, is part of the Capitol
Complex, which includes six Congressional office buildings
and three Library of Congress buildings, all developed in the
19th and 20th centuries.

The U.S. Congress passed legislation establishing the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),
a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America’s
activities in space, on July 29, 1958. NASA has since
sponsored space expeditions, both human and mechanical,
that have yielded vital information about the solar system
and universe. It has also launched numerous earth-orbiting
satellites that have been instrumental in everything from
weather forecasting to navigation to global communications.

NASA was created in response to the Soviet Union’s October
4, 1957 launch of its first satellite, Sputnik I.

July 28, 1868: Following its ratification by the necessary three-
quarters of U.S. states, the 14th Amendment, granting citizenship 
to all persons born or naturalized in the United States—including formerly enslaved people—was officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution. Secretary of State William Seward issues a
proclamation certifying the amendment. 

William Henry Seward
(May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872)

First-edition cover

George Orwell’s novel of a dystopian future, 1984, was
published on June 8, 1949. The novel’s all-seeing leader,
known as “Big Brother,” became a universal symbol for
intrusive government and oppressive bureaucracy.

George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair ) who was born in India,
the son of a British civil servant.

Eric Arthur Blair
(25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950)

Robert Clifton Weaver (December 29, 1907 – July 17, 1997)

On January 13, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed
the first African American cabinet member, making Robert C.
Weaver (above) head of the Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), the agency that develops and implements
national housing policy and enforces fair housing laws.

In keeping with his vision for a Great Society, Johnson sought
to improve race relations and eliminate urban blight. As many
of the country’s African Americans lived in run-down inner-city
areas, appointing Weaver was an attempt to show his African
American constituency that he meant business on both counts.