This Month in Colonial History: August

May I present the August edition of interesting and notable happenings during the colonial and early Federal eras ...

1:  Francis Scott Key (1779-1843), composer of “The Star Spangled Banner,” is born.

1:  The first U.S. Census is completed. There are four million people in the U.S. in 1790.

1:  Slavery is abolished in Jamaica, where it had been introduced by the Spanish in 1509. (1838)

2:  Most of the 55 members of the Continental Congress sign the Declaration of Independence, in Philadelphia. (1776)

1490 map by Bartolomeo and Christopher Columbus

3:  “Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos, Spain, with three ships, Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. Seeking a westerly route to the Far East, he instead landed on October 12th in the Bahamas, thinking it was an outlying Japanese island.” (1492)

4:  Dom Perignon invents champagne. (1693)

5:  First British colony in North America claimed by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in the St. John’s harbor area of Newfoundland.

5:  Birth of John Eliot (1604-1690), "Apostle to the Indians." The first Bible printed in America was his translation of the Bible into a native language.

6-10:  The Constitutional Convention’s Great Debate. Outcomes included the establishment of a four-year term of office for the President, granting Congress the right to regulate foreign trade and interstate commerce, and the appointment of a committee to prepare a final draft of the Constitution. (1787)

7:  President Washington creates the Order of the Purple Heart. (1782)

7:  Through an Act of Congress, the Federal Government takes over the creation and maintenance of the nations' lighthouses. (1789)

8:  The Daughters of the American Revolution organization is created. (1890)

10:  The village of Chicago is incorporated. (1833)

12:  Metacom, leader of the Pokanokets, a tribe within the Wampanoag Indian Federation, is assassinated, resulting in the end of a two-year uprising known now as “King Philip's War.” (1676)

16:  The Battle of Bennington in Vermont ... local militiamen and Massachusetts troops wipe out a detachment of 800 German-Hessians sent by British General Burgoyne to seize horses. (1777)

16:  The Battle of Camden in South Carolina ... major defeat for Continentals under General Gates by troops of British General Charles Cornwallis, resulting in 900 Americans killed and 1,000 captured. (1780)

17:  Birth of American frontiersman Davy Crockett (1786-1836) in Hawkins County, Tennessee. Died at the Alamo.

18:  Birth of Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) near Charlottesville, Virginia.

24:  St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in Paris and throughout France. Thousands of Protestant Huguenots died at the hands of Catholics. (1572)

24-25:  The Battle of Bladensburg, in defense of Washington, D.C. The Capitol, White House, and many other buildings, public and private, are burned by the British in retaliation for the American burning of York (Toronto). Participants in the defense of D.C. include a 100-man detachment from the Marines. (1814)

28:  Birth of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, author of the dramatic poem Faust, completed in 1831.

28:  Birth of the first American-born Roman Catholic saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821; born as Elizabeth Ann Bayley) in New York. Founder of the first American Catholic religious order, the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph, and the an elementary school in Baltimore, marking the beginning of the parochial school system in the U.S in 1809.

29:  Birth of John Locke (1632-1704) in Wrington, England. Son of Puritans, this physician, philosopher, and essayist would deeply influence the Whig cause of England and all of Western thought.

29:  Sinking of the British battleship Royal George, resulting in the drowning of 900 men. (1792)

29:  Birth of physician and author Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

30:  Birth of author Mary Shelley (1797-1851) in London.

31:  Beginning of Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts, by ex-Revolutionary War Captain Daniel Shays leading an armed mob, to prevent the Northampton Court from holding a session to try and imprison debtors, mostly poor ex-soldier farmers. (1786)

As always, my thanks to The History Place, Holiday Insights, and Marine Corps University. And Wikipedia. :)