TIM MIGUIRE 
                                                    

       

1990

Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts is 58 years young
today.

In a ceremony held in Paris on July 4, 1884, the completed
Statue of Liberty was formally presented to the United
States ambassador as a commemoration of the friendship
between France and the U.S.

The idea for the statue was born in 1865, when the French
historian and abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye proposed
a monument to commemorate the upcoming centennial of
U.S. independence (1876), the perseverance of American
democracy and the liberation of the nation’s slaves.

By 1870, sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi had come up
with sketches of a giant figure of a robed woman holding
a torch—possibly based on a statue he had previously
proposed for the opening of the Suez Canal.

The Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of
France to the people of the United States,was dedicated in
New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland (below).

On June 17, 1885, the dismantled Statue of Liberty, a gift of
friendship from the people of France to the people of America,
arrived in New York Harbor after being shipped across the
Atlantic Ocean in 350 individual pieces packed in more than
200 cases.

The copper and iron statue was reassembled and dedicated
the following year in a ceremony presided over by President
Grover Cleveland. It became known around the world as an
enduring symbol of freedom and democracy.

The Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of
France to the people of the United States, is dedicated in
New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland.