Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th
president of the United States, the last president from the Whig Party.
Born into poverty in the Finger Lakes area of New York state, he became
a prominent attorney in the Buffalo area and was elected to the New York
State Assembly in 1828, and to the U.S. House of Representatives in
1832. As Ways and Means Committee chairman, he helped pass the Tariff of
1842. In 1848, he was elected vice president and succeeded to the
presidency in July 1850 upon the death of President Zachary Taylor.
Fillmore considered slavery an evil, but beyond the powers of the
federal government. He pushed to pass the Compromise of 1850, leading to
a brief truce in the battle over slavery. He also enforced the Fugitive
Slave Act, a controversial part of the Compromise. The Whigs nominated
Winfield Scott in 1852 instead of him. In 1856, he was nominated for
president by the Know Nothing Party, but he finished third, winning only
Maryland.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millard_Fillmore>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1782:
The Bank of North America opened in Philadelphia as the United
States's first de facto central bank.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_North_America>
1940:
Winter War: Outnumbered Finnish troops decisively defeated
Soviet forces at the Battle of Raate Road.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Raate_Road>
2010:
In Nag Hammadi, Egypt, Muslim gunmen opened fire on a crowd of
Coptic Christians leaving church after attending Christmas mass, killing
eight of them, as well as one Muslim bystander.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Hammadi_massacre>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
to say nothing of:
(idiomatic) An apophasis used to mention another important, usually
related, point: not taking into account, not to mention, without
considering.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/to_say_nothing_of>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I accept this idea of democracy. I am all for trying it out. It
must be a good thing if everybody praises it like that. If our
government has been willing to go to war and sacrifice billions of
dollars and millions of men for the idea I think that I ought to give
the thing a trial. The only thing that keeps me from pitching head long
into this thing is the presence of numerous Jim Crow laws on the statute
books of the nation. I am crazy about the idea of Democracy. I want to
see how it feels.
--Zora Neale Hurston
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zora_Neale_Hurston>
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