Songs, poems, stories, and performances are a regu­lar part of the Christmas season for many families. One well-known poem is “The Night Be­fore Christmas” written by Clement Moore in 1823. American children often listen to this poem before they go to bed on Christ­mas Eve, in anticipation of Santa’s visit. A favorite Christmas story is […]

SECOND MONDAY IN OCTOBER OLUMBUS Day is a legal federal holi­day that commemorates the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, who sailed west from Spain in 1492 and reached the islands of present day Bahamas. This region was little known to Europeans, although it had been explored and inhabited by Native peoples for over 30,000 years. […]

Few celebrations marked the voyage of Columbus until hundreds of years later. In 1792, a ceremony was held in New York honoring Columbus, and a monument was dedicated to him. Soon afterward, the city of Wash­ington was officially named the District of Columbia, and made the capital of the United States. In the next century, […]

JULY 4 y the middle of the 1700s, the thirteen colonies that made up part of England’s empire in the “New World” were growing impatient with the laws and restrictions set by a king 3,000 miles away. They were resentful about taxes imposed upon them; they felt that they should not have to pay British […]

“Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” The sight and sound of a ringing bell on the Fourth of July symbolizes freedom to most Americans and brings to mind the Liberty Bell, which rang out in Phil­adelphia when the new country was born. The Liberty Bell once hung in the Old […]