Facts and trivia from American History
On April 6, 1776, America officially opened its doors for international business. It was on this day that the Continental Congress opened American ports to international trade with any part of the world that was not under British Rule.
On March 31 March 2016, the future First Lady, Abigail Adams, pens a letter to her husband asking him to not forget the ladies with this new Declaration of Independence. She asks him to not place unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. She writes, “We are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”
On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel. The man that shot the President was John Hinckley Jr., a man that suffered from mental illness. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the assassination attempt of President Ronald Reagan.
On March 29, 1973, the United States military departs South Vietnam, ending 10 years of military presence in the country.
On March 28, 1774, the British Parliament enacts the Coercive Acts. This is response to the Boston Tea Party and other acts of destruction of British property by colonists. The colonist refer to these laws as the Intolerable Acts.
On March 25, 1774, the British Parliament passed the Boston Port Act. This was in retaliation of the Boston Tea Party. The British wanted their money back from all the tea that was dumped in the harbor on December 16, 1773.
On March 24, 1765, The British Parliament passes the Quartering Act. The Quartering Act outlined the locations and conditions in which British soldiers would find room and board in the American colonies.
On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry spoke the words that would make him a household name.
“I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
The famous quote was spoken in a speech to the second Virginia Convention, in response to the increasingly oppressive British rule over the American colonies.
On March 17, 1776, British forces are forced to evacuate Boston following General George Washington’s successful placement of fortifications and cannons on Dorchester Heights.
In 1966, the city of Orlando responded to a wave of sexual assaults by offering firearms training classes to women. In 1967, Sexual Assaults dropped by nearly 90%.