By Stephen Peck, Web Team Intern On this day, in 1885, the defining landmark of the United States arrived in New York harbor. It had traveled across the Atlantic from France, but that short trip was only a small moment in the winding journey behind the creation of the quintessential icon of liberty and freedom: the statue of Liberty Enlightening the World. 20 years prior, a young sculptor named Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi sat quietly at a dinner party listening to the host, Edouard Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye, speak. The small group of Frenchmen assembled at the party were what many at... Continue reading

By Stephen Peck, Web Team Intern By the time Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the United States Supreme Court on this day in 1967, he had already made his mark on the “highest court in the land.” One of the most influential voices of the African-American civil rights movement, Marshall won more cases before the Supreme Court during his time as chief counsel of the NAACP and as U.S. Solicitor General than any American in history[1]. Nearly all of those cases involved Marshall dismantling the laws of legalized discrimination and creating fairness of opportunities for all. Marshall was born on... Continue reading

By Stephen Peck, Web Team Intern “He snatched the lightning from the sky and the sceptre from tyrants.” — Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, speaking of Benjamin Franklin On this day in 1752, Benjamin Franklin added another chapter to his storied life. All it took was a kite, a key, and a thunderstorm. The iconic experiment in which Franklin proved the electrical nature of lightning took place today, 259 years ago. Franklin had been interested in electricity for some time before his kite took flight. The prevailing thought before the 1740s was that electricity consisted of two different states, vitreous and resinous. Franklin... Continue reading