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In July 1815, former President John Adams wrote a letter to his successor, Thomas Jefferson. They had been close allies in the rebellion against Great Britain decades earlier and members of the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence....
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Embedded in our collective memories are certain scenes of our country’s past. Benjamin Franklin capturing electricity with a kite and a key. Patriots disguised as Native Americans tossing tea overboard at the Boston Tea Party. George Washington crossing the...
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Time capsules haven’t been around that long, the earliest known found in Poland, dating to about 1721. Today it is estimated that there are between 10,000 and 15,000 time capsules around the world, each facing two existential issues: preserving their...
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It was warm and humid with intermittent showers as delegates to the Second Continental Congress took their seats in the Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House. Thomas Jefferson, who kept a daily record of the weather, had submitted to Congress several...
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When John Adams first met Abigail Smith, he wasn’t impressed. She was only fifteen years old, and he was eight years her senior. Besides, John had an interest in Hannah Quincy, about whom he wrote in his earliest diary, “That face, those eyes.” About...
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In mid-August 1814, Secretary of State James Monroe, accompanied by a group of twenty-five cavalry men set out to assess whether British troops might attack the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. France and Britain were already at war when the United States...
