The market has seldom, if ever, been open on this date, but on July 4, 1817, one of the great early NYSE stocks, the Erie Canal, began construction.  New York Governor DeWitt Clinton turned the first shovelful of dirt on July 4, 1817. 

Everyone thought the project would take decades, but Clinton sounded like JFK in 1961, when he said "the day will come in less than 10 years when we will see Erie water flowing into the Hudson."  The Canal was 363 miles long, falling 555 feet in 83 locks.  It was 40 feet wide and four feet deep and was dug entirely by hand.  The building of the Erie Canal created a mania in canal securities, adding greatly to capital inflow from Europe.

Honoring American on July 4th in the 19th Century

1802: The U.S. Military Academy officially opened (at West Point, NY).

1804: Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of the first classic U.S. novel (The Scarlet Letter) was born.

1828: Construction began on the B&O (Baltimore & Ohio), the first U.S. passenger railroad.

1829: The cornerstone was laid for the first U.S. mint (on Chestnut & Juniper St., Philadelphia)

1836: Wisconsin Territory was formed.

1845: The Texas Congress voted for annexation to the United States.

1863: General Lee's army withdrew from Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Mississippi surrendered.

1881: Tuskegee Institute opened its doors to students who built it with bricks from their own kiln. 

1883: Buffalo Bill Cody presented his first "wild west show," in North Platte, Nebraska.

1884: The Statue of Liberty was presented to the U.S., in a ceremony in Paris, France.

1888: The first organized rodeo competition was held, in Prescott, Arizona.

1898: The U.S. flag was hoisted over Wake Island (in the Spanish-American War).

The Last to States (and planet) added on July 4th

1959: America's new 49-star flag, honoring Alaska statehood, was first unfurled.

1960: America's new 50-star flag honoring Hawaiian statehood, was first unfurled.

1997: Pathfinder landed on Mars, using parachutes and airbags to cushion its impact.

Musical Memories & Presidential Co-incidences

1826: On the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Declaration of Independence, Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died, the same day America's first noted composer was born in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania: Stephen Foster. His first composition: Oh Susanna (1847). 

1831: Another co-incidence, five years later, to the day, the 5th President, James Monroe, died.

1832: The song, "America," was sung in public for the first time, at the Park Street Church in Boston.  Dr. Samuel Francis Smith wrote the words, borrowing a tune from a German songbook. Unknown to Dr. Smith at the time, the melody was the same as the British national anthem.

1895: An alternative national anthem, "America the Beautiful," was first published as a poem in a church newspaper, by Katherine Lee Bates, a Wellesley College professor.

1900: Louis Armstrong claimed to be born on July 4, 1900, but baptismal records indicate that his birthday was most likely August 4, 1901. Another 20th Century patriotic musical icon (George M. Cohan) claimed the 4th of July as his birthday, but he was really born on July 3,1878.

Great Moments in American Literature: 10 Years Apart

1845: Writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau moved into a shack adjacent to Walden Pond, Massachusetts.  During his two-year stay, he kept a journal of his thoughts and encounters with nature, which became the basis for "Walden," a classic in U.S. literature.  

1855: The first edition of "Leaves of Grass," by Walt Whitman, was published in Brooklyn.

1865: "Alice in Wonderland" was published on July 4 in England.  English mathematician and writer Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) wrote it while working at Christ Church, Oxford.

Famous New Yorkers Born on July 4th

1920: Landlady Leona Helmsley.

1927: Playwright Neil Simon.

1930: Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

1946: Super-capitalist Michael Milken and disabled veteran Ron Kovic (subject of the movie, "Born on the Fourth of July," starring Tom Cruise, who was born on the 3rd of July, 1962.)

1918: Real twins, advice columnists Abigail Van Buren and Ann Landers.

Happy Holiday!

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