Freedom from Want is the third of the Four Freedoms series of four oil
paintings by American artist Norman Rockwell (1894–1978, pictured in
his twenties). The works were inspired by U.S. President Franklin D.
Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union Address, known as Four Freedoms.
Until then, freedom from want was not a commonly understood or accepted
universal freedom. The painting was published in the March 6, 1943,
issue of The Saturday Evening Post. It depicts a group of people
gathered around a dinner table for a holiday meal, all of whom were
friends and family of Rockwell; they were photographed individually and
painted into the scene. The painting has become an iconic representation
of the Thanksgiving holiday and family holiday gatherings in general and
has had a wide array of adaptations, parodies, and other uses. Popular
then and now in the U.S., it caused resentment in Europe where the
masses were enduring wartime hardship. Artistically, the work is highly
regarded as an example of mastery of the challenges of white-on-white
painting and as one of Rockwell's most famous works.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_from_Want_(painting)>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1703:
The Great Storm of 1703, one of the severest storms to strike
southern Great Britain, destroyed the first Eddystone Lighthouse off
Plymouth, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddystone_Lighthouse>
1895:
Swedish chemist and industrialist Alfred Nobel signed his last
will and testament, setting aside the bulk of his estate to establish
the Nobel Prize after his death.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Nobel>
1926:
Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg (pictured), a recreation
of a Colonial American city in the Historic Triangle on the Virginia
Peninsula, US, began.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Williamsburg>
1978:
San Francisco mayor George Moscone and openly gay supervisor
Harvey Milk were assassinated by supervisor Dan White.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscone%E2%80%93Milk_assassinations>
1999:
The Labour Party defeated the governing National Party in the
New Zealand general election, making Labour's Helen Clark the first
woman to win the office of Prime Minister at an election.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Clark>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
ace:
(UK, slang) Excellent.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ace>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Today we give our thanks, most of all, for the ideals of honor
and faith we inherit from our forefathers — for the decency of
purpose, steadfastness of resolve and strength of will, for the courage
and the humility, which they possessed and which we must seek every day
to emulate. As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the
highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them. Let us
therefore proclaim our gratitude to Providence for manifold blessings
— let us be humbly thankful for inherited ideals — and let us
resolve to share those blessings and those ideals with our fellow human
beings throughout the world.
--John F. Kennedy
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy>