Today in History, July 4th, Independence Day

50 years to the day exactly, in 1826, former Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die on the same day, the Anniversary of the signing of America's Declaration of Independence. The coincidence of them both dying on the same day, that day, is so stunning that many still believe there was a mutual suicide pact between them. Adams son, John Quincy Adams, a future President himself, put that rumor to rest by describing it as an act of divine providence.
Not coincidentally, Jefferson when President signed into Law the agreement with Napoleon for the Louisiana Purchase on July 4th, 1803, the best accomplishment of his Presidency.
Additionally, July 4th 1817 was the day in which Construction of the Erie Canal began, started officially under President James Monroe, the last of the Founding Fathers of the US to become President, and initially funded by the 2nd National Bank of the US modeled on the first one founded by Alexander Hamilton. New York State gradually assumed control of the project, completed in 1825, under the leadership of Governor DeWitt Clinton. Clinton allied himself with the followers of Benjamin Franklin, such as Nicholas Biddle, Mathew Carey, Joseph Henry, and the Founders of the Philadelphia Franklin Institute. This group utilized the 2nd National Bank for inaugurating an unprecedented era of large scale development in Canals, Rail, development of the Steam Engine, and Economic prosperity in General. This lasted until the Panic of 1837, during the Presidency of Martin Van Buren, but caused by previous President Andrew Jackson's destruction of the National Bank. This is the same Jackson who was the racist Genocidalist responsible for the mass murder known as "The Trail of Tears", the forced relocation of 60,000 Cherokees. The same Andrew Jackson whose portrait was put up to replace the Oval Office portrait of Lincoln by his greatest admirer, Donald Trump, whose statue he defends to this day, and wants to jail people for 10 years who protest its presence in our Capitol.
And, not to omit a decisive moment in the Civil War, the 7 week Siege of Vicksburg came to an end on July 4th, 1863 with the Confederate surrender to General Grant. This, combined with the Union Victory at Gettysburg the day before was a decisive though not final blow to the Confederacy, as it insured that no foreign power such as England or Spain would intervene militarily on the side of the Confederacy.
A lot happened on July 4th in History, besides the obvious. Sometimes the less obvious is the most interesting, no?

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