The Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln's most famous speech and one of the most quoted political speeches in United States history, was delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863, during the American Civil War, four and a half months after the Battle of Gettysburg. Lincoln's carefully crafted address, secondary to other presentations that day, has ultimately become regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American history. In fewer than three hundred words delivered over two to three minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence and redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the Union, but as a "a new birth of freedom" that would bring true equality to all of its citizens. Ironically, despite the speech's prominent place in the history and popular culture of the United States, the exact wording of the speech is disputed. The five known manuscripts of the Gettysburg Address differ in a number of details and also differ from contemporary newspaper reprints of the speech.
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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1689: The Convention Parliament was convened to determine if James II, the last Catholic king of England, had vacated the throne when he fled to France in 1688. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_II_of_England)
1733: Georgia Day: James Oglethorpe established the city of Savannah and the Province of Georgia, a penal colony for the resettlement of people in debtor's prison in the United Kingdom. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savannah%2C_Georgia)
1818: Led by General Bernardo O'Higgins, Chile formally proclaimed its independence from Spain. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile)
1912: Xuantong Emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty, the last Emperor of China, abdicated. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuantong_Emperor)
2001: NEAR Shoemaker touched down on Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEAR_Shoemaker)
_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:
"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." -- Abraham Lincoln (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln)