During the Swedish emigration to the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries, about 1.3 million Swedes left Sweden for the United States of America. While the virgin land of the U.S. frontier was a magnet for the rural poor all over Europe, some factors encouraged Swedish emigration in particular. The religious repression practiced by the Swedish Lutheran State Church was widely resented, as was the social conservatism and class snobbery of the Swedish monarchy. Population growth and crop failures made conditions in the Swedish countryside increasingly bleak. By contrast, reports from early Swedish emigrants painted the American Midwest as an earthly paradise, and praised American religious and political freedom and undreamed-of opportunities to better one's condition. Swedish migration to the United States peaked in the decades after the American Civil War (1861–65). Most immigrants became classic pioneers, clearing and cultivating the prairie, while others remained in the cities, particularly Chicago. Many established Swedish Americans visited the old country in the later 19th century, their narratives illustrating the difference in customs and manners.
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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1839: The French Academy of Sciences announced the Daguerreotype photographic process, named after its inventor, French artist and chemist Louis Daguerre. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daguerreotype)
1861: The civilian ship Star of the West was fired upon as it attempted to send supplies and reinforcements to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor before the American Civil War. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_the_West)
1878: Umberto I became King of Italy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_I_of_Italy)
1916: World War I: The last British troops evacuated from Gallipoli, as the Ottoman Empire prevailed over of a joint British and French operation to capture Istanbul at the Battle of Gallipoli. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gallipoli)
1923: The autogyro, a type of rotorcraft invented by civil engineer and pilot Juan de la Cierva, made its first successful flight at Cuatro Vientos Airfield in Madrid, Spain. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/autogyro)
1972: RMS Queen Elizabeth, an ocean liner which sailed the Atlantic Ocean for the Cunard White Star Line, was destroyed by fire in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Queen_Elizabeth)
2005: Mahmoud Abbas was elected President of the Palestinian National Authority to replace Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_presidential_election%2C_2005)
_____________________ Wiktionary's Word of the day:
asinine: Failing to exercise intelligence or judgment. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/asinine)
_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:
One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion. -- Simone de Beauvoir (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir)