Pleasant Hill Junior Academy - Torch Yearbook (Pleasant Hill, CA)

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the indomitable American Spirit, the eternal verities? Maybe. but you won't find those here. either. Keep looking somewhere else if you're interested. What we have for you is an America that is usually forgotten, sometimes not even remembered. occasionally best left undisturbed beneath its rock. Your history books have given you the hopes, dreams. promises and realizations of America. For our 200th birthday. we give you a second look. And we give it to you one year early. , XAV - . ..... The Uncle Sam Chronicles -.. ' his to r A' 'i : - ' Benj tmin Fr inklin conducted thc first electric ,Q as E turkey dinner in Philadelphia in 1749 1 to bc killed for our dinner by the electric shock -9 - t ' t . X -:A describing the event by letter: A turkey is -I: .,-A -f - , ind ro isted by the electric tl hi ick. before a fire 5 kindled by the electrified bottle: when the healths of all the famous electricians in England. Holland, France and Germany are to be drank in electrified bumpers. under I the discharge of guns from the electrified battery. This was the beginning of 224 years of profligate use of electric power by Americans, a custom that continued unreversed until 1973. The turkey was served well done. Yankee Doodle was written in 1755 by Dr: Richard Shuckburgh at Albany, New York, as a putdown of straggly federals. Later the 1 song was played at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. L By the time of independence. New York had a Chamber of Commerce. a law school. and a medical college: mustard was being manufactured in Philadelphia. and an inclined railway had been constructed in Lewiston. New York. Two days before independence. QNew Jersey became the first colony to grant lsuffrage to women. Later New Jersey rescinded law, declaring in 1807 that only free. white male citizens could vote. 1785. Dr. John Greenwood introduces the first porcelain false teeth to America and the world. One of Greenwood's first customers is George Washington. October 26, 1785. George Washington imports first jackasses from Spain. 1787. Levi Hutchins invents the alarm clock. Once set, the time of the alarm cannot be changed. September 17, 1787. Constitution is signed. September 13, 1788. New York named capital of United States. April 30, 1789. George Washington inaugurated. John Adams is Vice President. Thomas Jefferson Secretary of State, Alexander Hamilton Secretary of Treasury. September 15, 1789. James Fenimore Cooper born. 1790. James Dearham becomes first black doctor. 1790. George Vancouver explores the Pacific Northwest coast. 1790. John Carroll is consecrated as Bishop of Baltimore, first Catholic bishop in the United States. 1. . i ' . i ,Q ui. i . 1, . 1 March 1, 1790. First census records 3,939,326 Americans. April 17, 1790. Benjamin Franklin dies. 1791. Washington, D.C. is platted. March 4, 1791. Vermont becomes a state. 1792. First Conscription Law passes. Every white male between 18 and 45 is ordered to enroll in the militia and to provide his own weapon and cartridges. No punishment is specified for non-compliance. April 9, 1792. First macadam road between Philadelphia and Lancaster. April 16, 1792. First chuckhole. May 17, 1792. New York Stock Exchange meets at the Merchants Coffee House. October 13, 1792. Architect James Hoban lays cornerstone for White House. . June 20, 1793. Eli Whitney applies for a patent on the cotton gin. September 18, 1793. Cornerstone of Capitol layed. Architect is William Thornton. Capitol completed in 1830. June, 1798. Oliver Evans manufactures the first practical steam engine. December 14, 1799. George Washington dies. December 15, 1799. The Bill of Rights. the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, is passed. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Century. ll

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L I The Uncle Sam Chronicles ' I R , ' ev? vim fri ., ., la r A A . 1976. as all of us know by now. marks the 200th anniversary ' 'L' eek Athi of American independence. The philosopher-historian A fCaoeuGsd9. you IQJNV ?5 f5Yl9fGeorge Santayana warned that those of us who do not -L - ' ' ' ' a '.A ther ., L Q5 ,lf tw, L, 5 Nglftlcca L Lg learn from history are doomed to iepe it it no Xxzxgiif I- V 7 mi ,LO famous man said that while one may not always find truth 718, p- .' ' DV ab 1 5 in history. at least history is truth. by definition. A , bony., gh L tl SQQ- -JCL Fortunately. it is not our task to argue the truth or . QE llxgk,-you 'lfk-L ggomfxtay-f falsehood of pronouncements like these. but merely C V, to explore some of the back alleys of our past in search E .EQ'Qi.3?fecZj,VL K.. of. . .what'? Truth, beauty, meaning. the mysteries of life. ' of ey'-Q f B -af , i 7 X if lt 9 lift American history did not begin in 1776 of course. any more than Columbus discovered the place in 1492. Civilizations flourished fnx . H-. we myxm. - .-5 Y'lU1N'f1'-Wt' t.xia.vm lg , insist s - f E. r r rr A -- ' 31 . Ei I on both continents of the Western Hemisphere centuries before the Nina. the Pinta, and the Santa Maria sailed into the Caribbean. Leif Ericson showed up around 1000 and called the country Vinland. The first baby of European parentage was born in 1007, and they called the kid Snorro. Snorro and his Viking parents did not stay long. America was first used as a name in 1507. after the explorer Amerigo Vespucct. Billiards were introduced to St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565. and ocket ool made it to River City, P P lowa, in 1900. The first beer was brewed in Roanoke. Virginia. in 1587, followed by popcorn in 1630. the same year that the first salt works were built. The first recorded duel took place in 1621, and potatoes were introduced to American soil the following year: Harvard College was established in 1636, and the first Swedes arrived in Delaware in 1638. Slavery was introduced at Jam-estown, Virginia in 1619: and the first corporation. the New York Fishing Company. was in 1675. The first known newspaper advertisement appeared in the Boston 4 ll News Letter in 1704, and golf was flourishing by 1729. - July 4, 1776. Declaration of Independence signed, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There is no indication that Japanese fireworks were set off to commemorate the event. There was no school that day, since it was summer. 1776. First cocktail mixed. A customer asks Betsy Flanagan, a barmaid in Elmsford, New York, for a glass of cocktails, referring to a jar of tailfeathers kept behind the bar for decoration. Betsy obliges by garnishing his drink with a feather, which also becomes the first swizzle stick. 1776. First submarine. Anierfcrm Turtle is built by David Bushnell of Saybrook, Connecticut, and propelled by a hand-turned screw. The Turtle is used successfully to affix a bomb to Admiral Howe's flagship, Eagle. February 6, 1777. France becomes first nation to recognize United States. June, 1778. Secret Service organized. 1780. First slave emancipated.Elizabeth Freeman freed by trial at Barrington, Massachusetts. March 1, 1780. Pennsylvania passes a law calling for the gradual abolition of slavery. October 19, 1781. Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown. . L - September 3, 1783. American independence . , t formally recognized by England at the Peace ' ' of Versailles. October 6, 1783. Benjamin Hanks of Litchfield, Massachusetts takes out a patent on the first perpetual motion machine in the Ni United States. palm .Iuly 17, 1784. Thirteen year-old Edward Warren makes the first balloon flight in America. Edward, who returns to earth safely, is luckier than the balloon's designer, Peter Carnes, who crashes one month later. September. 1784. James Rumsey invents the motor boat.

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The Uncle Sam Chronicles 'Y' 'ite 1799. Jonathan Grout invents and installs a 90-mile semaphore signal system between Boston and Martha's Vineyard. A message and reply took ten minutes, but Grout kept getting a busy signal. March 4, 1801. Thomas Jefferson becomes president. April 3, 1803. United States purchases Louisiana Territory from France for S15 million. May 14, 1804. Lewis and Clark leave St. Louis for the Pacific Coast. July 4th, 1804. Nathaniel Hawthorne born. 1807. First soda pop. Townsend Speakman, great grandfather of the Pepsi generation, adds fruit juice to soda water and sells it as medicine. ' 4 February 27, 1807. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow born. August 7, 1807. Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont makes its first run on the Hudson River. June 18, 1812. United States declares war on Great Britain. August 19, 1812. First woman marine, Ruth Streeter fought aboard the U.S'..S'. Constitution. If anybody knew she was a woman at that time, he wouldn't admit it. December 1, 1813. British forces burn the city of Buffalo. August 24, 1814. British burn Washington, D.C. and the White House. December 24, 1814. The Treaty of Ghent concludes the War of 1812. The United States Army recorded 531,622 enlistments, but some militiamen enlisted as many as ten times. There was a bonus for enlistment. ' .Ianu 8 1815 British defeated at New Orleans . , ary . The war liad been over for more than three weeks but neither side had heard the news. March 4, 1817. James Monroe becomes fifth president. July 12, 1817. Henry David Thoreau bom. August 29, 1809. Oliver Wendell Holmes born. December 13, 1809. Dr. Ephraim McDowell performs the first abdominal operation on Mrs. Jane Todd. She was 45 and lived to be 78. 1811. An anonymous taxpayer returns 55 to the government. which he said he had defrauded. In 1916 the government received an anonymous payment of S54,923.15. I x May 12, 1820. Florence Nightingale born. 0ctober.24, 1820. Spain cedes Florida to the United States. April 27, 1822. Ulysses S. Grant born. December 2, 1823. Monroe Doctrine closes the Americas to foreign colonization. 1824. Natural gas is used to illuminate Freedonia, New York. r .Ianua 19, 1825. Ezra Daggett and Thomas Keffseft invent the tin can. 1826. The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper is published. July 4, 1826. Thomas Jefferson dies. v 1827. Harrison Gray Byar builds a two-mile ' telegraph system at Long Island City 65 years before Edison's patent. 1834. The New York Sun announces that an astronomer has sighted men on the moon. They are described as being four feet high and able to fly with their own wings. Shortly afterwards, the story was admitted to be a hoax. Circulation continued to increase after the admission. 1834. Friction matches are manufacturedin Springfield, Massachusetts. November 30, 1835. Samuel Langhorne Clemens fMark Twainl born. November 25, 1817. Senaa Samma of Madras swallows a sword at Washington Hall. New York, manufactured for him by William Pye. May 21, 1819. The first bicycle is ridden in New York City. Two months later. the city bans them on sidewalks, streets, and in public places. August 2, 1819. Charles Guiee makes the first parachute jump. Ascending in a balloon, he plummets 300 feet before his umbrella-like chute opens, then is put in a holding pattern by the LaGuardia tower but is blown four miles out of New York. In its mythology is the true measure of o notion's strength. For what is notional character if not the sum ofthe people's hopes ond dreams, foilures ond triumphs? Whot does it mutter. recilly, if Johnny Appleseed lived or did not live. Today, in the collective mind of the A ' I , he is mericon peop e every bit os reol ond A os human os Teddy Roosevelt, Charles Lindbergh, or Donold Duck. N x x 1836. Texas declares itself independent of Mexico. February 25, 1836. Samuel Colt invents 1 t r. April 16, 1836. Massachusetts passes the first child labor law, requiring all children to attend school at least three months a year. Six yearslater, children under 12 are prohibited from working more than ten hours a day. 1838. Pierre Maspero, a New Orleans - saloonkeeper offers the country's first recorded free lunch. I