A Fourth of July factoid

On July 4, 2021 By Luther M. SilerIn Geek1 Comment

Many of you probably know this, either because you’re history buffs like me or you’ve seen me mention it here before or you saw it somewhere else today, as this is going to be far from the only place to learn this today.

But!

One of my favorite stupid party tricks is that I can always tell you how old America is without having to do the math. My birthday is tomorrow, and I was born on July 5, 1976, meaning I was born the day after America’s bicentennial. I therefore can determine America’s age by just adding 200 to my own rather than dealing with any piddling subtraction like some sort of heathen.

But I have another trick! I can also, by adding 150 to my age, tell you how many years it has been since both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died. You see, the two men both died on the same day– and not only did they die on the same day, but it was July 4, 1826– in other words, on America’s 50th birthday.

Jefferson’s last words were “Is it the Fourth?”

Adams, who always thought America should celebrate its birthday on July 2 because he was a contrary old bastard like that (hot take: Adams was the Bernie Sanders of the 1700s,) didn’t give a damn about dying on the Fourth, but his last words were “Thomas Jefferson survives.” He was wrong. Jefferson had been dead for a few hours, but, y’know, 1826. I don’t know how long it took for the knowledge of Jefferson’s death to make it from Virginia to Massachusetts, but it was probably at least a week or so, and I imagine it took a minute to determine which man had actually passed away first.

And now you know something about what happened 195 years ago today.

Is it the Fourth?

On July 4, 2015July 4, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Uncategorized5 Comments

ivstxn9zimyx4kkubqud The headline of this piece is Thomas Jefferson’s last words, in case you didn’t know. He died on July 4, 1826, on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which he had mostly written. John Adams, who provided Jefferson with copious notes on the text and could probably fairly be regarded as a co-author, died the same day, a few hours after Jefferson; his last words were “Thomas Jefferson still survives.”

Jefferson had died five hours ago, but Jefferson was in Virginia and Adams was in Massachusetts. It being 1826 and all, the word hadn’t made it up there yet.

I love that story.

It is five o’clock in the morning and I have been up for an hour.

Happy Independence Day, chirren. Tomorrow is my birthday; I missed being born on America’s bicentennial by about fourteen hours, and my mother went into labor during the fireworks. I am therefore more patriotic than you. Read something, in between bouts of blowing stuff up.