The Liberty Bell is one of the iconic symbols of American independence.
Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it most likely was rung to mark
the public reading of the American Declaration of Independence on July
8, 1776. The bell was commissioned from the London firm of Lester and
Pack (today the Whitechapel Bell Foundry) in 1752, and was inscribed
with part of a verse from the Book of Leviticus (25:10): "Proclaim
LIBERTY throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." It
originally cracked when first rung after arrival in Philadelphia, and
was twice recast by local workmen John Pass and John Stow, whose last
names appear on the bell. The bell hung for years in the steeple of the
Pennsylvania State House (today known as Independence Hall), and was
used to summon lawmakers to legislative sessions and to alert citizens
to public meetings and proclamations. Bells were rung to mark the
reading of the Declaration on July 8, 1776, and while there is no
contemporary account of the Liberty Bell ringing, most historians
believe it was one of the bells rung. It acquired its distinctive large
crack sometime in the early 19th century—a widespread story claims it
cracked while ringing after the death of Chief Justice John Marshall in
1835. Beginning in 1885, the City of Philadelphia, which owns the bell,
allowed it to go to various expositions and patriotic gatherings. It
was moved from its longstanding home in Independence Hall to a nearby
glass pavilion on Independence Mall in 1976, and then to the larger
Liberty Bell Center adjacent to the pavilion in 2003.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Bell>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
622:
Muhammad and his followers completed their Hijra from Mecca to Medina
to escape religious persecution.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijra_%28Islam%29>
1180:
The Byzantine Empire was weakened by the death of Emperor Manuel I
Komnenos.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_I_Komnenos>
1789:
The First United States Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789,
establishing the U.S. federal judiciary and setting the number of
Supreme Court Justices.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciary_Act_of_1789>
1841:
The Sultan of Brunei granted Sarawak to British adventurer James
Brooke.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Sarawak>
1877:
The Imperial Japanese Army commanded by Kawamura Sumiyoshi defeated
Saigō Takamori and the Satsuma clan samurai at the Battle of Shiroyama
in Kagoshima, the decisive engagement of the Satsuma Rebellion.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shiroyama>
1903:
Alfred Deakin became the second Prime Minister of Australia, succeeding
Edmund Barton who left office to become a founding justice of the High
Court of Australia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Deakin>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
cartographic (adj):
Of or pertaining to the making of maps
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cartographic>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Extremism. It is an almost infallible sign — a kind of death-rattle —
when a human institution is forced by its members into stressing those
and only those factors which are identificatory, at the expense of
others which it necessarily shares with competing institutions because
human beings belong to all of them.
--John Brunner
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Brunner>
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