On June 20, 1782, Congress adopted the Great Seal of the United
States after six years of discussion.

Charles Thomson was secretary of the Continental
Congress (1774 – 1789). He is also known for co-
designing the Great Seal of the United States.

Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and Richard Dreyfuss.

On June 20, 1975, Jaws, a film directed by Steven Spielberg that
made countless viewers afraid to go into the water, opened in
theaters. The story of a great white shark that terrorizes a New
England resort town became an instant blockbuster and the
highest-grossing film in movie history until it was bested by
1977’s Star Wars.

Jaws was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Picture
category and took home three Oscars, for Best Film Editing,
Best Original Score and Best Sound. The film, a breakthrough
for director Spielberg, then 27 years old, spawned several
sequels.

Jaws put now-famed director Steven Spielberg on the
Hollywood map.

Director Steven Spielberg holding the movie camera,
assisted by camera operator Michael Chapman, during
the filming of Jaws.

Bruce the mechanical shark.

Peter Iredale in Seattle, circa 1900.

Peter Iredale was a four-masted steel barque that ran ashore
October 25, 1906, on the Oregon coast en route to the Columbia
River. She was abandoned on Clatsop Spit near Fort Stevens
in Warrenton about four miles (6 km) south of the Columbia
River channel.       

       
Wreckage is still visible, making it a popular tourist attraction as
one of the most accessible shipwrecks of the Graveyard of the
Pacific.

The ship was named after Peter Iredale, who not only owned the
vessel as part of his shipping fleet, but was also a well-known
figure in Liverpool, England, where his business was
headquartered.   (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)  
    

     

Peter Iredale
     
Iredale retired in 1899 at the age of 76 
and died shortly afterwards on the 26th 
of October the same year.

Peter Iredale shortly after grounding in 1906.

Phillis Wheatley Peters (c. 1753 – December 5, 1784)

Phillis Wheatley, the first published African American poet, used
biblical themes to persuade believers in Christ to abolish slavery.

Born around 1753 in western Africa, Wheatley was sold to a slave
trader at only seven years of age. Quickly distinguishing herself
as a remarkable student, she finally secured her emancipation in
1773.

She once wrote, “In every human Breast, God has implanted a
Principle, which we call Love of Freedom; It is impatient of
Oppression, and pants for Deliverance; and . . . the same
Principle lives in us.”

Statue of Phillis Wheatley in Boston by Meredith Bergmann, dedicated in 2003.

In what is now known as Juneteenth, on June 19, 1865,
Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas with news
that the Civil War was over and slavery in the United
States is abolished.

A mix of June and 19th, Juneteenth has become a day
to commemorate the end of slavery in America. Despite
the fact that President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation
Proclamation was issued more than two years earlier on
January 1, 1863, a lack of Union troops in the rebel state
of Texas made the order difficult to enforce.        
        
       

The holiday is considered the "longest-running African-American holiday"^[ and has been called "America’s second Independence
Day."