June 7th is National Chocolate Ice Cream Day!
NEW DAY PROCLAMATION| NATIONAL CALL YOUR DOCTOR DAY – Second Tuesday in June
June 7, 2017 – NATIONAL BOONE DAY – NATIONAL CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM DAY – NATIONAL VCR DAY – NATIONAL RUNNING DAY
On this day:
1776 – Richard Henry Lee presents the “Lee Resolution” to the Continental Congress. The motion is seconded by John Adams and will lead to the United States Declaration of Independence.
The Lee Resolution, also known as the Resolution of Independence, was a three–part resolve by the Second Continental Congress on June 7, 1776, to declare the United Colonies rightfully independent of the British Empire, to establish a plan for ensuing American foreign relations, and to establish a plan of a confederation to unite them officially. The resolution is named for Richard Henry Lee of Virginia who proposed it to Congress, after receiving instructions from the Virginia Convention and its President, Edmund Pendleton. Some sources indicate Lee used, almost verbatim, the language from the instructions in his resolution. Voting on the first part of the resolution was delayed for several weeks while state support and legislative instruction for independence were consolidated, but the press of events indicated the other less-discussed parts should immediately proceed. On June 11 Congress decided to establish three committees to develop the resolution’s parts, and appointed a Committee of Five (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston) to prepare a document to explain the reasons for independence. The following day, another committee of five (John Dickinson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Benjamin Harrison V, and Robert Morris) was appointed to prepare a plan of treaties to be proposed to foreign powers, and the third committee of thirteen members was appointed from each colony to prepare a draft of a constitution for confederation of the states.
The independence portion of the resolution was the first approved by Congress, on July 2, 1776. News of its adoption was published that evening in the Pennsylvania Evening Post and the next day in the Pennsylvania Gazette. The text of the document formally announcing this action, the United States Declaration of Independence, was approved on July 4th, 1776 which is celebrated as Independence Day. However, the document wasn’t signed by all delegates of the United States until August 2nd.
The committee drafting a plan of confederation, chaired by John Dickinson, presented their initial results to Congress on July 12, 1776. Long debates would follow on such issues as sovereignty, the exact powers to be given the confederate government, whether to have a judiciary, and voting procedures.[1] The final draft of the Articles of Confederation were prepared during the summer of 1777 and approved by Congress for ratification by the individual states on November 15, 1777, after a year of debate.[2] Although in use from that time, it would be almost four years before final ratification by all states, on March 1, 1781.
The committee appointed to prepare a plan of treaties made its first report on July 18, largely in the writing of John Adams; while prompt action was planned, it was delayed, and a limited printing of the document was authorized. Over the next five weeks it would be reviewed and amended by Congress. On August 27, the amended plan of treaties was referred back to the committee to develop instructions pursuant to the amendments, and two additional members (Richard Henry Lee and James Wilson) were added to the committee; two days later the committee was empowered to prepare further instructions as deemed proper, and report back to Congress. The formal version of the plan of treaties was adopted on September 17. On September 24, Congress approved negotiating instructions for commissioners to obtain a treaty with France, based on the template provided in the plan of treaties; the next day Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Thomas Jefferson were elected commissioners to the court of France.[3] Alliance with France was considered vital if the war with England was to be won and the newly declared country was to survive.
Born on this day:
1761 – John Rennie the Elder, Scottish engineer (d. 1821)
John Rennie FRSE FRS (7 June 1761 – 4 October 1821) was a Scottish civil engineer who designed many bridges, canals, and docks.
Early years
Rennie, a farmer’s younger son, was born at Phantassie, near East Linton, East Lothian, Scotland, and showed a taste for mechanics at a very early age, and was allowed to spend much time in the workshop of Andrew Meikle, millwright, the inventor of the threshing machine, who lived at Houston Mill on the Phantassie estate. After receiving a rudimentary education at the parish school of Prestonkirk Parish Church, he was sent to the burgh school at Dunbar, and in November 1780 he matriculated at the University of Edinburgh, where he remained until 1783. His older brother George remained to assist in the family agricultural business, achieving notability in this arena.
He seems to have employed his vacations in working as a millwright, and so to have established a business on his own account. At this early date the originality of his mind was exhibited by the introduction of cast iron pinions instead of wooden trundles. In 1784 he took a journey south for the purpose of enlarging his knowledge, visiting James Watt at Soho, Staffordshire. Watt offered him an engagement, which he accepted, and after a short stay at Soho he left for London in 1784 to take charge of the works at the Albion Flour Mills, Blackfriars, for which Boulton & Watt were building a steam-engine. The machinery was all designed by Rennie, a distinguishing feature being the use of iron instead of wood for the shafting and framing. About 1791 he started in business as a mechanical engineer on his own account in Holland Street, Blackfriars, whence he and his successors long conducted engineering operations of vast importance. (In the same year, the Albion Flour Mills were destroyed by arson).
Canals and waterways
In 1791, he moved to London and set up his own engineering business, having by then begun to expand into civil engineering, particularly the construction of canals. His early projects included the Lancaster Canal (started 1792), the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation (1793), the Crinan Canal (1794-1801), Rudyard Lake (1797) and the Rochdale Canal, which passes through difficult country between Rochdale and Todmorden (1799). The Kennet and Avon Canal including the Dundas Aqueduct, Caen Hill Locks and Crofton Pumping Station occupied him between 1794 and 1810. In 1802 he revised the plans for the Royal Canal of Ireland from Dublin to the Shannon near Longford. For many years he was engaged in extensive drainage operations in the Lincolnshire and Norfolk fens (1802–1810), and in the improvement of the River Witham. The Eau Brink Cut, a new channel for the River Ouse, was completed just before his death.[1]
Bridges
Over the next few years Rennie also attained a deserved reputation as a builder of bridges, combining stone with new cast-iron techniques to create previously unheard-of low, wide, elliptical arches, at Leeds Bridge, and in London at Waterloo Bridge (1811–1817), with its nine equal arches and perfectly flat roadway (thought to be influenced by Thomas Harrison’s design of Skerton Bridge over the River Lune in Lancaster). His later efforts in this line also show that he was a skilful architect, endowed with a keen sense of beauty of design. Waterloo Bridge was considered his masterpiece and was the most prestigious bridge project in England, described as ‘perhaps the finest large masonry bridge ever built in this or any other country’.[2] The Italian sculptor Canova called it ‘the noblest bridge in the world’ and said that ‘it is worth going to England solely to see Rennie’s bridge.’[3] London Bridge, built from his design by his sons, though not constructed until after his death, replaced the medieval bridge which was proving a serious impediment to the flow of the river and was eventually moved to Arizona. Southwark Bridge (1815–1819) was built as three cast-iron spans over the river. He also designed the Old Vauxhall Bridge.
Docks and harbours
Rennie was also responsible for designing and building docks at Hull, Liverpool, Greenock, London (London, East India and West India docks), and Leith and improving the harbours and dockyards at Chatham, Devonport, Portsmouth, Holyhead, Ramsgate, Sheerness, Howth and Dunleary. He devoted much time to the preparation of plans for a government dockyard at Northfleet, but they were not carried out. Rennie’s last project was London Bridge, still under construction when he died in 1821 but completed by his son, also John Rennie.
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