U.S. immigration station Angel Island opens in San Francisco Bay – reminder


U.S. immigration station Angel Island opens in San Francisco Bay

Referred to as the “Ellis Island of the West,” Angel Island in California’s San Francisco Bay opens January 21, 1910, as America’s major port of entry for Asian immigrants. Over the next 30 years, an estimated 100,000 Chinese and 70,000 Japanese are processed through the station. …read more

Erika Lee and Judy Yung, Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America (Oxford University Press, 2010)

History of Angel Island Immigration Station, Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

Richard Lui, “Paper Sons.” CNN, November 14, 2009. 

Citation Information

Article Title

Angel Island Immigration Station

AuthorHistory.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/angel-island-immigration-station

Access Date

January 20, 2023

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

April 20, 2021

Original Published Date

March 26, 2021

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Sources

Erika Lee and Judy Yung, Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America (Oxford University Press, 2010)

History of Angel Island Immigration Station, Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

Richard Lui, “Paper Sons.” CNN, November 14, 2009. 

Citation Information

Article Title

Angel Island Immigration Station

AuthorHistory.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/angel-island-immigration-station

Access Date

January 20, 2023

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

April 20, 2021

Original Published Date

March 26, 2021

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In the Library … The Hobbit by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien – in memory


Cover has a drawing of a winged dragon with a long tail at the bottom. 1937 cover – drawing done by Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973), whose surname is pronounced /?t?lki?n/ (in General American also /?to?lki?n/), was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature there from 1945 to 1959. He was a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972. After his death, Tolkien’s son, Christopher, published a series of works based on his father’s extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. These, together with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, form a connected body of tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about an imagined world called Arda, and Middle-earth within it. Between 1951 and 1955 Tolkien applied the word legendarium to the larger part of these writings. While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien, the great success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings when they were published in paperback in the United States led directly to a popular resurgence of the genre. This has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the “father” of modern fantasy literature—or, more precisely, of high fantasy. Tolkien’s writings have inspired many other works of fantasy and have had a lasting effect on the entire field. In 2008, The Times ranked him sixth on a list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945”.

http://www.readanybook.com/ebook/the-hobbit-17

1956 Martin Luther King Jr.’s home is bombed


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Citation Information

Article Title

Martin Luther King Jr.’s home is bombed

AuthorHistory.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/martin-luther-king-jr-home-bombed-montgomery

Access Date

January 29, 2023

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

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Original Published Date

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1800 US population: 5,308,483; African American population 1,002,037 (18.9%)


The 1800 population census was the First Decennial Census of the United States. Taken every 10 years since 1790, census records provide a snapshot of the nation’s population. 

Frequently Asked Questions About the 1800 Census

Why was the 1800 Census taken?

The U.S. Constitution was ratified September 17, 1787.  Article I, Section 2, established that representation in the U.S. House of Representatives was based on population determined by a census taken at 10 year intervals: “The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they [Congress] shall by Law Direct.”

What was the official census day? 

Monday, August 4, 1800.

When was it taken?

The census began on Monday, August 4, 1800, and was finished within 9 months, under the rules and directions established in an Act of Congress approved February 28, 1800 ( “An Act providing for the second Census or enumeration of the Inhabitants of the United States,” 2 Statutes at Large 11).

Who was counted? 

The law required “That every person whose usual place of abode shall be in any family on [August 4, 1800], shall be returned as of such family, and the name of every person, who shall be an inhabitant of any district or territory, but without a settled place of residence, shall be inserted in the column of the aforesaid schedule, which is allotted for the heads of families, in that division where he or she shall be on [August 4, 1800], and every person occasionally absent at the time of the enumeration, as belonging to that place in which he usually resides in the United States.”

Who was involved?

  • Secretaries of State John Marshall (1800-1801) and James Madison (1801-1809) had general supervision of census operations and tabulating and reporting the results to the President and Congress.
  • The U.S. Marshal for each Federal judicial district was responsible for taking the census in his district with the help of assistant marshals whom he appointed. Each took an oath or affirmation that “I will well and truly cause to be made, a just and perfect enumeration and description of all persons resident within my district or territory, and return the same to the Secretary of State, agreeably to the directions of an act of Congress, intitualed [sic, entitled], ‘An act providing for the enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States,’ according to the best of my ability.”
  • Every free person over age 16 was required to cooperate: “That each and every free person more than sixteen years of age, whether heads of families or not … shall be, and hereby is obligated to render to such assistant of the division, a true account, if required, to the best of his or her knowledge, of all and every person belonging to such family … on pain of forfeiting twenty dollars….”

What questions did the census ask?

  • Name of head of family
  • Number of free white males under 10 years of age
  • Number of free white males of 10 and under 16 years of age
  • Number of free white males of 16 and under 26 years of age
  • Number of free white males of twenty six and under 45 years of age
  • Number of free white males of 45  years of age and upwards
  • Number of free white females under 10 years of age
  • Number of free white females of 10 and under 16 years of age
  • Number of free white females of 16 and under 26 years of age
  • Number of free white females of twenty six and under 45 years of age
  • Number of free white females of 45  years of age and upwards
  • Number of all other free persons, except Indians, not taxed [free African-Americans]
  • Number of slaves