American chronicles

225 years ago, on Dec. 17, 1777, France became the first major European power to recognize the independence of the 13 English colonies in America. The next day, General George Washington's bedraggled army retreated to Valley Forge for the winter.

200 years ago, on Dec. 6, 1802, in President Thomas Jefferson's annual address to Congress, he urged the federal government to shrink back to its proper role - "a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants." He also asked the sovereign states to take back their power to be more "independent as to everything within themselves."

175 years ago, on Dec. 24, 1827, a group of Congressmen loyal to Andrew Jackson drafted a tariff bill so outrageous that it was later dubbed "The Tariff of Abominations."

125 years ago, on Dec. 6, 1877, the Washington Post published its first edition. On the same day, Thomas Edison applied for a patent on his phonograph. Days later, he demonstrated the machine in the offices of Scientific American magazine, which profiled the machine in their December 22 edition.

100 years ago, on Dec. 14, 1902, the ship "Silverton" set sail from San Francisco to Hawaii, laying the first telephone/telegraph cable between the U.S. and Honolulu. The 2,620-mile wire was laid by Jan. 1, 1903, and the first message was sent on Jan. 3, 1903.

75 years ago, on Dec. 8, 1927, Charles Lindbergh, shortly after his solo transatlantic flight from New York to Paris, received the Langley Medal for Aerodromics from the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents. On Dec. 27, 1927, the first great modern Broadway musical made its debut: Showboat (music by Jerome Kern; lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II).

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Dec 16, 2002
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