In 1867, the U.S. formally takes possession of Alaska after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million, or less than two cents an acre. The Alaska purchase comprised 586,412 square miles, about twice the size of Texas, and was championed by William Henry Seward, the enthusiast… read more »

1972 Clean Water Act becomes law,

The Clean Water Act becomes law on October 18, 1972. After centuries of reckless treatment of American rivers, streams, lakes and bays, the landmark act institutes strict regulations on pollution and quality controls for the nation’s waters for the first time in its history.

The ’60s had been marked by some truly horrific revelations regarding water pollution. A 1968 survey revealed that pollution in the Chesapeake Bay resulted in millions of dollars of lost revenue for fisherman, while a 1969 study found that bacteria levels in the Hudson River to be at 170 times the legal limit. The same year, pollution from local food processing plants killed 26 million fish in one lake in Florida, the largest fish kill on record, and an oil slick resulted in an infamous fire on the Cuyahoga River near Cleveland. When President Richard Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, it was clear that water pollution would be one of its top priorities.

1767 Mason and Dixon draw a line, dividing the colonies,

On October 18, 1767, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon complete their survey of the boundary between the colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland as well as areas that would eventually become the states of Delaware and West Virginia. The Penn and Calvert families had hired Mason and Dixon, English surveyors, to settle their dispute over the boundary between their two proprietary colonies, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

In 1760, tired of border violence between the colonies’ settlers, the British crown demanded that the parties involved hold to an agreement reached in 1732. As part of Maryland and Pennsylvania’s adherence to this royal command, Mason and Dixon were asked to determine the exact whereabouts of the boundary between the two colonies. Though both colonies claimed the area between the 39th and 40th parallel, what is now referred to as the Mason-Dixon line finally settled the boundary at a northern latitude of 39 degrees and 43 minutes. The line was marked using stones, with Pennsylvania’s crest on one side and Maryland’s on the other.

1898 U.S. takes control of Puerto Rico Only one year after Spain granted Puerto Rico self-rule, American troops raised the U.S. flag over the Caribbean nation, formalizing U.S. authority over the island’s one million inhabitants. In July 1898, near the end of the Spanish-American War, U.S. forces launched an invasion …read more

Source: history.com and the internet

So, while we do experience and celebrate Heritage Months… Celebrate your Heritage every day!

-Nativegrl77

1739 – Thomas Coram was granted a Royal Charter from George II so a “hospital for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children” in London, England.

1777 – American troops defeated British forces in Saratoga, NY. It was the turning point in the American Revolutionary War.

1787 –  Prince Hall submitted, to the State Legislature of Boston, Massachusetts, a petition asking for equal educational rights. His petition was not granted.

1871 – President Grant suspended the writ of habeas corpus and declared martial law in nine South Carolina counties affected by Klan disturbances.

1888 – Capital Savings Bank of Washigton, D.C., the first Black bank, opened in Washington, D.C. The Savings Bank of the Order of True Reformers (Richmond, Va.) was chartered on March 2, 1888.

1888 – The first issue of “National Geographic Magazine” was released at newsstands.

1931 – Al Capone was convicted on income tax evasion and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was released in 1939.

1933 – “News-Week” appeared for the first time at newsstands. The name was later changed to “Newsweek.”

1933 – Dr. Albert Einstein moved to Princeton, NJ, after leaving Germany.

1945 – Colonel Juan Peron became the dictator of Argentina after staging a coup in Buenos Aires.

1973 – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) began an oil-embargo against several countries including the U.S. and Great Britain. The incident stemmed from Western support of Israel when Egypt and Syria attacked the nation on October 6, 1973. The embargo lasted until March of 1974.

1978 – U.S. President Carter signed a bill that restored full U.S. citizenship rights to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

1979 – Mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1987 – U.S. First Lady Nancy Reagan underwent a modified radical mastectomy at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

1989 – An earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter Scale hit the San Francisco Bay area in California. The quake caused about 67 deaths, 3,000 injuries, and damages up to $7 billion.

1994 – Israel and Jordan initiated a draft peace treaty.

1994 – The Angolan government and rebels agreed to a peace treaty that ended their 19 years of civil war.

1997 – The remains of revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara were laid to rest in his adopted Cuba, 30 years after his execution in Bolivia.

2000 – In New York City, Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum opened to the public. The 42nd Street location joined Tussaud’s other exhibitions already in London, Hong Kong, Amsterdam and Las Vegas.

2000 – Patrick Roy (Colorado Avalanche) achieved his 448th victory as a goalie in the NHL. Roy passed Terry Sawchuck to become the record holder for career victories.

2001 – Israel’s tourism minister was killed. A radical Palestinian faction claimed that it had carried out the assassination to avenge the killing of its leader by Israel 2 months earlier.

2001 – Pakistan placed its armed forces on high alert because of troop movements by India in the disputed territory of Kashmir. India said that the movements were part of a normal troop rotation.

2001 – Italian priest Giuseppe “Beppe” Pierantoni was kidnapped by the terrorist group the “Pentagon.” He was released on April 8, 2002.

2003 – In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration approved a drug, known as memantine, to help people with Alzheimer’s symptoms.

2003 – In Taipei, Taiwan, construction crews finished 1,676-foot-tall-building called Taipei 101. The building was planned to open for business in 2004.

2003 – In northwest England, the Carnforth railway station reopened as a heritage center.

“The historical record shows that European colonial powers, Zionist leadership, the UN, the US, and NATO-aligned states each pursued political agendas that converged into the destruction of Palestinian society. Many members of Congress — across parties and religions — have supported policies that enabled this outcome.”

NATO as an institution did not design the displacement of Palestinians, but NATO member states (the US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, etc.) have been central to the military, diplomatic, and economic power structure that protected Israel from accountability.

They armed Israel

funded Israel

vetoed UN resolutions

provided diplomatic protection

blocked sanctions

framed Israel as a Western strategic asset

treated Palestinian resistance as a “security threat”

Britain created the system.

The UN legitimized it.

Zionist institutions carried out the displacement.

The US protected it.

France and Germany financed and reinforced it as a moral obligation.

This was not a single coordinated plan — but multiple state agendas converging into the same outcome.

6–8 NATO countries consistently take positions critical of Israeli policy.

These include: Turkey, Norway, Iceland, Ireland, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, and sometimes Portugal.

Source: The internet and ai research for information

If this info is inaccurate, please help correct it

On this day in 1854, an obscure lawyer and Congressional hopeful from the state of Illinois named Abraham Lincoln delivers a speech regarding the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which Congress had passed five months earlier.

In his speech, the future president denounced the act and outlined his views on slavery, which he called “immoral.”Under the terms of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, two new territories—Kansas and Nebraska—would be allowed into the Union and each territory’s citizens would be given the power to determine whether slavery would be allowed within the territory’s borders. It was believed that the act would set a precedent for determining the legality of slavery in other new territories. Controversy over the act influenced political races across the country that fall.

Abolitionists, like Lincoln, hoped to convince lawmakers in the new territories to reject slavery.Lincoln, who was practicing law at the time, campaigned on behalf of abolitionist Republicans in Illinois and attacked the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He denounced members of the Democratic Party for backing a law that “assumes there can be moral right in the enslaving of one man by another.” He believed that the law went against the founding American principle that “all men are created equal.” Lincoln was an abolitionist at heart, but he realized that the outlawing of slavery in states where it already existed might lead to civil war. Instead, he advocated outlawing the spread of slavery to new states. He hoped this plan would preserve the Union and slowly eliminate slavery by confining it to the South, where, he believed, “it would surely die a slow death.”Lincoln and his fellow abolitionists were dismayed when Kansans voted a pro-slavery candidate into Congress in November. As Lincoln’s political career picked up momentum over the next several years, he continually referred to the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the seeming inevitability that Kansas should become a slave state as “a violence…it was conceived in violence, passed in violence, is maintained in violence, and is being executed in violence.”Lincoln continued to actively campaign against slavery in Kansas and helped to raise money to support anti-slavery candidates in that state.

Meanwhile he continued his law practice and ran for the U.S. Senate in 1859. Although he lost to Democrat Stephen Douglas, Lincoln began to make a name for himself in national politics and earned increasing support from the North and abolitionists across the nation. It was this constituency that helped him win the presidency in 1860.