Devils Tower in 1890.
On this day in 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed
Devils Tower, a massive rock formation in Wyoming, the
country’s first national monument.
He called the “lofty and isolated rock” a “natural wonder.”
Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt Jr.
(October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919)
Devils Tower today draws more than half a million visitors
a year.
On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson (above) issued a
presidential proclamation that officially established the first
national Mother’s Day holiday to celebrate America’s mothers.
The idea for a “Mother’s Day” is credited by some to Julia Ward
Howe (1872) and by others to Anna Jarvis (1907), who both
suggested a holiday dedicated to a day of peace.
Many individual states celebrated Mother’s Day by 1911, but it
was not until Wilson lobbied Congress in 1914 that Mother’s
Day was officially set on the second Sunday of every May.
In his first Mother’s Day proclamation, Wilson stated that the
holiday offered a chance to “[publicly express] our love and
reverence for the mothers of our country.”
J. C. Leyendecker painted ‘Pot of Hyacinths’ to be used
on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post’s May 30, 1914
issue.
On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation that officially establishes the first national Mother’s
Day holiday to celebrate America’s mothers.
Anna Maria Jarvis (1864 – 1948) was the
founder of Mother’s Day in the United
States.
On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Attempting to stitch together a nation mired in a
bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln made a last-ditch, but carefully calculated, decision regarding the institution of slavery in America.
On October 3, 1863, expressing gratitude for a pivotal Union Army
victory at Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln announced that
the nation will celebrate an official Thanksgiving holiday on
November 26, 1863.
