Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2022 i Cobblestone American History and Current Events for Kids and Children

Imagine that you had to dress up for a Fourth of July parade in your town. What would you wear? What colors would you choose? Is there a specific symbol that you feel best captures what being American means to you? Over the course of our nation’s nearly 250-year history, we have identified many different items and places as representative of the United States. They range from mottoes to music, from flags to famous animals, from statues to historic sites, and from memorials to monuments. What makes us “American”? What reminds us of our heritage? What patriotic symbols do we most closely associate with our national identity and culture? Americans have found lots of ways to preserve and celebrate our history and spirit. In this issue, we dig a little…

On November 1, 1800, John Adams became the first president to move into the President’s House. It was cold and drafty, and some rooms and stairs were not finished. Yet beginning with Adams, 45 presidents have lived and worked in the White House. Today, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., is a pretty famous address! As an important symbol of American leadership, the White House has been the setting for many historic events. Presidents have made official announcements, greeted foreign guests, and celebrated special occasions in the house. The building survived two fires, one in 1814 and one in 1929. And almost all of its interior was gutted and rebuilt in the 1950s. Irish-born architect James Hoban designed the original house. Over time, expansive sections such as the West Wing and…

Union brigadier general Montgomery C. Meigs was angry when Robert E. Lee chose to lead a Confederate force in the Civil War (1861–1865). His anger grew deeper as thousands of Union soldiers died fighting Lee’s army. One of Meigs’s responsibilities was burials. In 1864, as other cemeteries ran out of space, Meigs designated a new Union cemetery. The place he selected, Arlington Estate, was the Lee family home. Arlington sat atop a hill in Virginia just across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital. The house looked more like a monument than a home. In fact, it was a monument. Lee’s wife, Mary Custis, was a descendant of Martha Washington. Her family owned Arlington. The Washingtons’ grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, had built it as a museum honoring Martha’s husband,…

Like the American bison in the United States, many countries around the world have become closely identified with a specific native animal. Take a look. THE GREAT EMU One of Australia’s most iconic creatures is the emu. Emus can run up to 30 miles per hour. Standing six feet tall, they defend themselves with powerful kicks. Australian Aboriginal peoples view emus as an important animal. Their mythology describes how the sun was created by throwing an emu’s egg into the sky and how the clouds of the Milky Way form the shape of a giant emu. Although the emu is Australia’s unofficial national bird, it hasn’t always been appreciated. In 1932, the government began the Great Emu War. Farmers were complaining about emus destroying their crops. Soldiers were recruited to…

It is perhaps the most patriotic symbol of our country and one that is recognized around the world. But did you know that the design of the U.S. flag has changed over time to reflect the growing country? For more than 100 years, Great Britain’s flags also represented the American Colonies. But as the colonists moved toward open rebellion in the mid-1700s, they wanted a flag that symbolized them and their fight for representation. The first Colonial flags were created to identify patriot ships at sea during the Revolutionary War (1775–1783). The colonists modified the British flag to create the Continental Colors (or Congress Colors). That flag is referred to as the Grand Union flag. Americans replaced the red field of the British Red Ensign flag with stripes of red…

Can you name our national bird? Can you describe our nation’s Great Seal? Did you know we have a national tree? A national motto? Check out these symbols of the United States. The Bald Eagle After many conversations about appropriate symbols for the new nation, the Founding Fathers selected the bald eagle as the national bird in 1782. Benjamin Franklin, however, believed that the fearsome bird of prey—one that steals food from other birds—was not the best symbol for the young nation. As he wrote in a letter to his daughter, the bald eagle “is a Bird of bad moral Character.” Franklin thought the wild turkey made a more “respectable” choice. He considered the wild turkey a “Bird of Courage.” Today, the bald eagle is on so many American items…

Each year, more than 3 million people visit Arlington National Cemetery. One of the most popular stops is the Tomb of the Unknowns. On November 11, 1921, an unidentified soldier from World War I was interred in a grave. A white marble sarcophagus was placed above the grave. The idea was for that single body to become a symbol of the unidentified and missing soldiers who did not return from the war. Inscribed on the tomb are the words, “HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY AN AMERICAN SOLDIER KNOWN BUT TO GOD.” Over the years, unidentified bodies from World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War also were interred in crypts in the plaza near the World War I soldier. In 1998, the Vietnam soldier’s remains were removed for…

French law professor Édouard de Laboulaye believed that the friendship between the United States and France was special and worth remembering. That friendship dated back to the Revolutionary War (1775–1783). At a dinner party in 1865, Laboulaye shared his idea of a symbolic gift honoring American freedom with Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, a French sculptor. Bartholdi was enthusiastic about the concept, but several years passed before he was awarded the commission for the project. In 1874, Bartholdi visited the United States to look for a suitable location for a monument. He found it in Bedloe’s Island, now named Liberty Island, in New York Harbor. Upon seeing the spot, Bartholdi claimed that he also settled on what he would build. Calling it “Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World,” he vowed that it…

John Quincy Adams: American Statesman On the Frontier Draw a picture or write a poem or a short essay that connects to one of the above COBBLESTONE themes on which we currently are working. All contributions must be your original work. Include a note from a parent or a legal guardian clearly stating: “This is my child’s original work, and COBBLESTONE has permission to publish it with my child’s name, age, and hometown, in print and online.” We will include as many as we can in an upcoming issue. Mail your submission to the address shown here, or email it to cobblestone@cricketmedia.com.…

With its beautiful domed Rotunda, the U.S. Capitol is one of the most recognizable buildings in the world. It is where the members of Congress have debated and passed our nation’s laws for more than two centuries. As such, it is an important symbol of the U.S. government. And to keep up with the growth of the country, the Capitol has undergone its own expansion over the years. In January 1791, French engineer Pierre L’Enfant was asked to design America’s new capital city. L’Enfant submitted his idea to commissioners for a grand vista about a mile long. The city’s “Congress House” would be located at one end. The U.S. government decided to hold a contest to find the best design for the new country’s Capitol. The winner of the $500…

Memorial Day is celebrated on the last Monday in May. In the years following the Civil War (1861–1865), it became a day to remember those who had died in that conflict. After World War I (1914–1918), it became a federal holiday to remember all those who died in service to the country. Independence Day is celebrated on July 4. In July 1776, the delegates to the Second Continental Congress agreed on the text for the Declaration of Independence. That document announced the American Colonies’ decision to separate from Great Britain and become an independent nation. Labor Day is celebrated on the first Monday in September. It began as an unofficial holiday in 1882 in New York City. By 1894, it was a national holiday. It recognizes the contributions of workers…

One who loves, supports, and defends his or her country is called a patriot. The English version of the word derives from the French (patriote), from Late Latin (patriota), from Greek (patritotes). Patriotes comes from the Greek word patrios, which means “of one’s fathers.” Allegiance is “loyalty, or the obligation of loyalty, to a nation, a sovereign, or a cause.” It can also mean the “obligations of a vassal to a lord.” The word derives from the Middle English word alligeaunce and the Old French word ligeance. The root word in ligeance is lige. A liege is a “lord or sovereign to whom service and loyalty are pledged.” A symbol is a “thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract or invisible.” The…

Savannah, Ohio, may have the last living tree planted by this month’s mystery hero. That apple tree is hundreds of years old, but it bears fruit every year! This month’s hero was born on September 26, 1774, in Leominster, Massachusetts. His father was a Revolutionary War (1775–1783) soldier. His mother died when he was young, and his father remarried. Our young hero did not attend school. He helped his father on the family farm. He loved to take long walks in the woods and explore nature. Our hero became an apprentice to an orchardist. That man, Mr. Crawford, raised apple trees. It turned into an important experience in our 13-year-old hero’s life. He began to see a future that incorporated his desire to be out in nature. At age 18,…