REAL United States History

Dr. Thomas Sowell teaches the truth about slavery and our Founding Fathers!

  An Example of Our Religious Heritage America's strong religious heritage can be seen in the 1800s when, for many decades, church services were held in the US Capitol building. The Marine Corps Band even played at some of these meetings! From 1793 through 1800, the Capitol building in Washington, DC was under construction. Congress was finally able to relocate at the end of 1800 and approved the Capitol's use as a church. This was not a new use for this building as a local newspaper noted in 1795 that " public worship is now regularly administered at the Capitol, every Sunday morning ." The Marine Corps Band was established in 1798 during John Adams' administration while the nation's capital was in Philadelphia. Their first concert occurred near the future site of the Lincoln Memorial 221 years ago: August 21, 1800. Thomas Jefferson " constantly attended public worship in the Hall  [the Capitol]" while serving as President. (The congreg...

  An Aquatic Invention & Mission On this day in 1776, the first American submarine called  Turtle  attempted a military maneuver in an effort to help George Washington turn the tide of battle. Invented by David Bushnell, the submersible  Turtle  had a maximum speed of 3 knots (a little less than 3.5 miles per hour). It consisted of a wooden barrel-like body, a brass & glass cap, navigation instruments, oars, and a treadle-powered screw propeller. The three bombs on board were planned to sink the British ship HMS  Eagle  in New York Harbor. Not having a lot of experience operating the submarine, Ezra Lee launched aboard the  Turtle  around 11 pm on September 6, 1776. Reaching his target about two-and-a-half hours later, he attempted to bore through the  Eagle  and deposit the bombs. The hull, however, had a copper layer and Lee was unsuccessful. Forced to retreat with malfunctioning navigation equipment, L...

(From The WallBuilders..)  Constitutional Convention Begins Before the Constitution, America's national government operated under the Articles of Confederation which was a flawed document that went through numerous attempted fixes. In September 1786, delegates from five states met in the Annapolis Convention as part of these efforts. At the end of that convention, they called for a meeting of all the states. This meeting -- which would become known as the Constitutional Convention -- officially began on May 25, 1787. The first several weeks of the Convention were frustrating as the delegates deadlocked over many issues. At the height of this impasse, Benjamin Franklin made his famous appeal for prayer: In this situation of this Assembly, groping, as it were, in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understa...