Americans celebrate the founding of their country every July 4. School children learn that the Second Continental Congress ratified the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, forever changing the world with the establishment of the United States of America.
Since that fateful day in July 1776, many a unique and notable event has occurred in the United States. Some of those events are lesser known than oth-ers, and the following are four unique moments in American history.
- George Washington’s troops are saved from starvation at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-78. According to the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, the Oneida, one of six nations that were part of the Iroquois Confederacy, brought much-needed food and supplies to Ameri-cans at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78 One Oneida, Polly Cooper, even remained at Val-ley Forge throughout the winter, when she served as Washington’s cook and taught troops how to pre-pare white corn and make it edible. Though they were offered payment for their life-saving services during this pivotal winter, the Oneidas declined to accept it.
- Maria Stewart might not be a name that’s well-known by many modern Americans, but she nonetheless is a trailblazer in U.S. history. Stewart was an African American writer and lecturer who spoke before the African-American Female Intelligence Society on April 28, 1832, thus becoming the first American woman on record to address an audience comprised of both men and women and Blacks and whites.
- Henrietta Wood is awarded restitution for hav-ing been enslaved. Wood was born as a slave in Kentucky around 1818, but was ultimately freed as an adult. However, after her emancipation, Wood, living as a free woman in Cincinnati, was kidnapped and sold back into slavery in 1853. Wood lived in slavery until after the American Civil War. In 1869, Wood filed a lawsuit against her kidnapper, Zebu-lon Ward, seeking $20,000 in lost wages and dam-ages. A federal court awarded Wood $2,500, which marks the largest known sum ever awarded as resti-tution for slavery.
- Social Security numbers are integral to modern American life, but they are not even 100 years old. The first Social Security number was issued to 23-year-old John David Sweeney on December 1, 1936. The Social Security Board, which issued the number, was a byproduct of the Great Depression and then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s responses to it.
