Happy Birthday Thomas Jefferson

April 13, 1743 was this great man's birthday. He could write in Greek with one hand while writing the same in Latin with the other. His Portrait is on the Two $2.00 Dollar Bill.

Here are some facts about his life and quotes from Thomas Jefferson.

At 5, began studying under his cousin's tutor.
At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French.
At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages.
At 16, entered the College of William and Mary.
At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe.
At 23, started his own law practice.
At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.
At 31, wrote the widely circulated "Summary View of the Rights of British America" and retired from his law practice.
At 32, was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress.
At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence.
At 33, took three years to revise Virginia's legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.
At 36, was elected the second Governor of Virginia.
At 40, served in Congress for two years.
At 41, was the American minister to France and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations.
At 46, served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington.
At 53, served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society.
At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and became active head of Republican Party.
At 57, was elected the third president of the United States.
At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase doubling the nation's size.
At 61, was elected to a second term as President.
At 65, retired to Monticello.
At 80, helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine.
 At 81, almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia and served as its first president.
At 83, died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence.

John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the White House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement: "This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." -- Thomas Jefferson

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." -- Thomas Jefferson

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too
much government." --Thomas Jefferson

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." --Thomas Jefferson

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." -- Thomas Jefferson

"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." --Thomas Jefferson

July 4th

Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, died the same day in 1826 as John Adams, second president of the United States, on the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. A few years later, fellow founding father, and fifth President of the United States, James Monroe passed away on July 4th, 1831. Interesting that three of the first five American presidents died on the 4th of July.

Incidentally, The people of France offered the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World to the people of the United States on July 4th, 1884.

Lawyers and Law School

Well-known American lawyers who did not go to law school or who did not finish
Patrick Henry (1736-1799) governor of Virginia
John Jay (1745-1829) first chief justice of the Supreme Court
John Marshall (1755-1835) chief justice of the Supreme Court
Daniel Webster (1782-1852) secretary of State
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) president, did not go
Stephen A. Douglas (1813-1861) representative, senator from Illinois
Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) defense attorney in Scopes trial of 1925, dropped out
Benjamin N. Cardozo (1870-1938) justice of the Supreme Court
Strom Thurmond (1902- ) US senator, governor of South Carolina
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson.

French Fry Facts

The origin of French fries is Belgium. According to some historians, potatoes were being fried by 1680 in the Meuse Valley of Belgium. Locals often ate small fried fish, when the river was frozen they used potatoes as a substitute. They used to cut potatoes lengthwise and fry them in oil to use them as a fish substitute.

Thomas Jefferson gets the credit for introducing French fries to America when he served them at a White House dinner in 1802 after reportedly requesting, "Potatoes, fried in the French manner.

The average American eats thirty pounds of French fries per year.

The earliest known reference to fries in English literature is in A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens refers to, “Husky chips of potato, fried with some reluctant drops of oil”.

In general, potatoes cooked with the skin on are healthier, as most of the nutrients in a potato come from the skin

French fries are eaten all over the world and every culture has its own preferred condiment. Americans dunk them in ketchup, Brits eat their chips with salt and malt vinegar, mayonnaise is a popular accompaniment in Belgium and they look forward to steamed mussels and fries, in Vietnam they serve fries with soft butter and a sprinkling of sugar. "Clams and chips" is a very popular dish in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. French fries served with hot mustard is very popular in Ireland

There is a museum in Belgium entirely devoted to the classic fast-food snack frites.

French Fries in France are known as frites, patates frites, or pommes frites in French. These names are also used in many non-French areas.

About seven per cent of the potatoes grown in the US are sold by McDonald’s. It sells more than one third of all the French fries sold in restaurants in the U.S. each year.

According to the Agricultural Research Service in Navarre, potato skins are packed with 60 phyto-chemicals, many of these are flavonoids which help lower bad cholesterol and keep arteries clear.

Belgians may or may not have invented the French fry, today, they do consume the most French fries per capita of any country in Europe.

Belgians, who are the world’s connoisseurs when it comes to French fries, occasionally will serve French fries with egg as a topping. The raw egg is cracked over the French fries immediately after the fries have been pulled from the fryer. This tends to mostly cook the egg, but leaves the yoke somewhat runny for dipping the fries in.

Seventeen Beer Facts

Much beer is guzzled during the holidays so here are a few beer facts that can be used  to impress the relatives.

After he won the Nobel Prize, Niels Bohr was given a perpetual supply of beer piped into his house. (He lived next to a brewery).

The Code of Hammurabi decreed that bartenders who watered down beer would be executed.

At the Annual Wife Carrying World Championships (in Finland), the first prize is the wife's weight in beer.

The builders of the Great Pyramid of Giza were paid with a daily ration of beer.

The top five states for beer consumption per capita: 1. North Dakota, 2. New Hampshire, 3. Montana, 4. South Dakota, 5. Wisconsin.

Germany is home to a beer pipeline. Taps in Veltsin-Arena are connected by a 5km (3 mile) tube of beer.

Thomas Jefferson wrote parts of the Declaration of Independence in a Philadelphia tavern.

George Washington insisted his continental army be permitted a quart of beer as part of their daily rations.

At spas in Europe, you can literally bathe in beer as a physical and mental therapeutic treatment.

In the 1990s, the Beer Lovers Party ran candidates in Belarus and Russia.

J.K. Rowling, of Harry Potter fame invented Quidditch in a pub.

Beer helped Joseph Priestly discover oxygen. He noticed gases rising from the big vats of beer at a brewery and asked to do some experiments.

A Buddhist temple in the Thai countryside was built with over a million recycled beer bottles.

The moon has a crater named Beer.

Beer soup was a common breakfast in medieval Europe.

At the start of Bavarian Beer Week in Germany, an open-air beer fountain dispenses free beer to the public.

In the 1980s, a beer-drinking goat was elected mayor of Lajitas, TX.

Twelve Famous Firsts

Thomas Jefferson 1801 --- First US president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.

Sam Patch 1829 --- First first known person to survive the jump off of Niagara Falls.

Edward Smith 1831 --- First indicted bank robber in the US. He was sentenced to five years hard labor on the rock pile at Sing Sing Prison.

William Henry Harrison 1841 --- First US president to die in office. At 32 days, he also had the shortest term in office.

Elizabeth Blackwell 1849 --- First woman to receive medical degree in US. (from the Medical Institution of Geneva, N.Y.)

Jefferson Long 1870 --- First African American elected to U.S. House of Representatives, Georgia.

Victoria Woodhall 1872 --- First woman to run for President of the US.

Grover Cleveland 1886 --- First President married inside the White House.

William Kemmler 1890 --- First criminal to be executed by electrocution (in Auburn N.Y. Prison)

Annie Moore 1892 --- First immigrant to pass through Ellis Island. She was 15 years old and from County Cork, Ireland.

Queen Isabella of Spain 1893 --- First woman to appear on a US postage stamp.

John J. McDermott 1897 --- First annual Boston Marathon winner - the first of its type in the US. (Winning time was 2:55:10 vs. 2012 winning time of  2:3:2.

Stephen Collins Foster

July 4 is important to U.S. history and on July 4, 1826, in addition to being the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it was also the date both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died. It was also the birth date of Stephen Collins Foster.

Foster has been often cited as the father of American music and was the pre-eminent songwriter of the 19th century in the United States. He published his first song when he was only 18. His songs remain popular to this day, with such favorites as "Oh! Susanna," "Camptown Races," "Old Folks at Home" (known as "Swanee River"), "My Old Kentucky Home," and "Beautiful Dreamer." Foster was born and lived in what is now Pittsburgh (Lawrenceville). Doo Dah, Doo Dah!

Political Ages

Thomas Jefferson was 33 when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

Theodore Roosevelt was 24 when he was elected to the New York State Legislature and became President at 42. John F. Kennedy was 43 when he was elected President. Ted Kennedy was 30 when he entered the Senate. Andrew Jackson joined the Senate at age 29, created the Democratic party and had a donkey as his personal totem. The party used the donkey symbol in honor of him. Joe Biden joined the Senate at age 29, thirty eight years ago.

Ice Cream

Soon it will be time to sit around the pool and bring out the ice cream. The origins of ice cream can be traced back to at least the 4th century B.C. Early references include the Roman emperor Nero, A.D. 37-68,, who ordered ice to be brought from the mountains and combined with fruit toppings, and King Tang, A.D. 618-97, of Shang, China who had a method of creating ice and milk concoctions. Over time, recipes for ices, sherbets, and milk ices evolved and served in the fashionable Italian and French royal courts.

After the dessert was imported to the United States, it was served by several famous Americans, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The first ice cream parlor in America opened in New York City in 1776.

American colonists were the first to use the term "ice cream". The name came from the phrase "iced cream". The edible ice cream cone made its American debut at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

Founding Fathers Papers

LINK  thousands of unpublished documents from our nation’s founders in a free online resource. Collected over many years by the Founders Documentary Editions, these letters and other papers penned by important figures such as James Madison, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson offer Americans of all ages and interests, a unique view of the early Republic.