March 13, 2020

This Sunday, March 15, is the bicentenary of the northeastern state of Maine. Throughout 2020, bicentennial celebrations and events are commemorating Maine’s entrance to the Union as the 23rd state in 1820.

The beautiful, rocky coast of Maine attracts thousands of vacationers to the state each year. The Portland Head Light, in Cape Elizabeth, is one of the best-known American lighthouses. It was built in 1791. credit: © Shutterstock

A special bicentennial flag is flying above Maine’s public and government buildings in 2020. This Sunday, Statehood Day celebrations in Augusta, the capital, include birthday cake, music, poetry, and speeches. Events later in the year include a bicentennial parade, a sailing ships festival, and the sealing of a time capsule. Special bicentennial programs include a “Maine in the Movies” series, which celebrates the state’s role in Hollywood films, and the mass planting of white pine saplings in new or existing public parks. The state is even publishing The Maine Bicentennial Community Cookbook to showcase the state’s unique culinary traditions.

Maine state map. credit: World Book map; map data (c) MapQuest.com, Inc.

The Maine region was the home of Native Americans for thousands of years before English colonists first settled the area in 1607 (13 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock). Such difficulties as cold weather and a lack of leadership, however, forced the settlers back to England in 1608. Colonists, primarily fishermen, returned to make permanent settlements in Maine in the 1620′s. Maine was a part of Massachusetts throughout its colonial history and for 44 years after the Declaration of Independence established the United States in 1776.

The Maine quarter features a lighthouse on a granite coast and a schooner. The lighthouse is the Pemaquid Point Light, northwest of Portland. The lighthouse dates from the 1820’s and is a popular tourist attraction. Granite is a common feature of Maine’s coastline and one of the state’s leading mined products. The schooner resembles one of Maine’s famous windjammers (sailing ships). credit: U.S. Mint

In 1785, a movement began for the separation of Maine from Massachusetts and for Maine’s admission to the Union as an individual state. Many people in Maine protested heavy taxation, poor roads, the long distance to the capital city of Boston, and other conditions. But before the War of 1812, most voters wanted Maine to remain a part of Massachusetts. The separation movement grew much stronger after the war. Many of those who favored separation won election to the legislature. They swayed many voters to their side. The people voted for separation in 1819, and Maine entered the Union the next year.

The name Maine probably means mainland. Early English fishermen used the term The Main to distinguish the mainland from the offshore islands, where they settled. New Englanders often refer to Maine as Down East. They call people who live in Maine Down Easters or Down Easterners. These terms probably come from the location of Maine east of, or downwind from, Boston. Ships from that port sailed down to Maine, and ships from Maine traveled up to Boston.

The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is from Portland, Maine’s largest city, and the American Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain is from the town of Brewer. The author Stephen King, a native of Portland, sets many of his novels in Maine.

January 17, 2020

Today, January 17, marks 200 years since the birth of the English writer Anne Brontë in 1820. Anne was the youngest and least-known of the literary Brontë sisters. She may have been overshadowed by her older sisters, but both Anne’s novels, Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), are considered classic of English literature.

This painting of the Brontë sisters shows Anne, left, Emily, center, and Charlotte, right. Credit: The Granger Collection

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Anne’s 200th birthday is being celebrated by Brontë200, a program run by the the Brontë Society and the Brontë Parsonage Museum (at the Brontë family home in Haworth, a village in West Yorkshire). A special exhibit, “Anne Brontë: Amid the brave and strong,” is currently at the museum, and a number of Anne Brontë-themed literary lectures and art exhibits are also taking place. Anne’s bicentennial is the final leg of Brontë200, which also marked the 200th birthdays of her sisters Charlotte (in 2016) and Emily (in 2018).

Anne, Charlotte, and Emily (and three other siblings) were brought up by their father, Patrick, and their Aunt Elizabeth, who moved in after the children’s mother died in 1821. The sisters went to several boarding schools, where they received a better education than was usual for girls at that time. But the school atmosphere was harsh.

Few jobs were available for women at that time. The Brontë sisters, except for occasional jobs as governesses or schoolteachers, lived their entire lives at home. They were shy, poor, and lonely. They occupied themselves with music, drawing, reading, and—above all—writing. Their isolation led to the early development of their imaginations. In 1846, under the masculine pen names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, the sisters published a joint volume of poems. Although only two copies were sold, all three sisters soon had their first novels published.

Charlotte Brontë wrote four novels, the most famous of which is Jane Eyre (1847), before dying at age 38 in 1855. Emily Brontë wrote the famous novel Wuthering Heights (1847) before she died at age 30 in 1848. Anne also died young, probably of tuberculosis, at age 29 in 1849.

December 3, 2018

Today, December 3, is the bicentenary of the Midwestern state of Illinois. Throughout 2018, bicentennial celebrations and events commemorated Illinois’s entrance to the Union as the 21st state in 1818.

The official Illinois state flag was adopted in 1915. Credit: © Lickomicko/Shutterstock

A special Illinois bicentennial flag flew throughout the state in the later months of 2018. On August 26, the state’s Constitution Day, a new Bicentennial Plaza was dedicated in Springfield, the state capital, and a bicentennial motorcycle ride took participants to Illinois sites along the famous Route 66 highway, which begins in Chicago. Today, December 3, the Illinois Bicentennial Commission is hosting an official 200th birthday party at Chicago’s United Center. 

The skyscrapers of downtown Chicago form a spectacular reflection in Lake Michigan. Chicago is the largest city in Illinois and the third largest city in the United States. © Shutterstock

The Illinois region was the home of Native Americans for thousands of years before French explorers first arrived in the late 1600’s. In 1717, Illinois became part of the French colony of Louisiana. In 1763, the British  won control of Illinois along with the rest of France’s North American empire. The United States gained control of Illinois during the American Revolution (1775-1783), and in 1787 the region became part of the Northwest Territory. In 1800, Illinois became part of the Indiana Territory. In 1809, the Illinois Territory was created from what is now Illinois and the state of Wisconsin. After statehood in 1818, Illinois voters elected Shadrach Bond, a downstate landowner, as the state’s first governor. The south-central town of Vandalia served as the capital of Illinois until Springfield, just a short distance north, was designated the state capital in 1837.

The Illinois quarter includes images of farmland, Abraham Lincoln, and Chicago. Illinois became the nation’s 21st state 200 years ago on Dec. 3, 1818. Credit: U.S. Mint

July 8, 2016

Tomorrow, July 9, Argentines will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the signing of their nation’s declaration of independence. President Mauricio Macri will lead Nueve de Julio (Ninth of July) ceremonies at the house in northwestern San Miguel de Tucumán where the signing took place on July 9, 1816. Other dignitaries scheduled to attend include former Spanish King Juan Carlos and leaders from several Latin American countries.

Representatives signed Argentina’s declaration of independence at the Congress of Tucumán on July 9, 1816. Credit: © Everett/Shutterstock

Earlier in the week, Argentine lawmakers and political leaders met at Tucumán to commemorate the bicentennial. Emilio Monzó, speaker of the lower house, called the gathering “an unprecedented event in the history of our country that representatives from the National Congress travel to the place where our country was born.” Senate leader Federico Pinedo, Tucumán Governor Juan Manzur, and Argentine Vice President Gabriela Michetti also attended the midweek commemoration.

The 1816 signing of the declaration of independence took place during a turbulent period in Argentina’s history—a period, in fact, before the nation was called Argentina. It was then known as the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, and it covered only the current nation’s northern half above Patagonia. The declaration of independence also came six years after the formation of a government independent of Spain on May 25, 1810, in Buenos Aires. The area had been part of a Spanish colony since the late 1500’s.

After establishing self-rule in 1810, it took awhile to unite Buenos Aires with the various Argentine provinces. Eventually, provincial representatives met at the Congress of Tucumán on July 9, 1816, and declared their nation’s independence. The new nation had a rough go of it, however, suffering through a civil war and decades of dictatorship before the constitution of 1853 established a republic, which was renamed Argentina in 1860. The nation grew to include Patagonia in 1881.