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Give me Liberty, or give me Death! - Wikipedia,...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_me_Liberty%2C_or_give_m... Patrick Henry from a speech made to the Virginia House of Burgesses. The speech was given March 23, 1775, at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia, and is credited with having swung the balance in convincing the Virginia House of Burgesses to pass a resolution delivering the Virginia troops to the Revolutionary War. Jossey-Bass::American Heritage Book of Great Am...
www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0... The history of the United States has been characterized by fervent idealism,
intense struggle, and radical change. And for every critical, defining moment in
American history, there were those whose impassioned voices rang out, clear and
true, and whose words compelled the minds and hearts of all who heard them. When
Patrick Henry declared, "Give me liberty, or give me death!", when Martin Luther
King Jr. said, "I have a dream", Americans listened and were profoundly
affected. These speeches stand today as testaments to this great nation made up
of individuals with bold ideas and unshakeable convictions.
Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736 – June 6, 1799)[1] was
a prominent figure in the American Revolution, known and remembered
for his "Give me Liberty, or give me
Death!" speech. Along with Samuel Adams and Thomas Paine, he was one of the most influential
(and radical) advocates of the American Revolution and republicanism, especially in
his denunciations of corruption in government officials and his defense of
historic rights
  George Washington (February 22, 1732[1][2][3] – December 14, 1799) was the first President of the United States, (1789–1797),[4] and led the Continental Army to victory over the Kingdom of Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783).
Washington was chosen to be the commander-in-chief of the American revolutionary forces in 1775. The following year, he forced the British out of Boston, lost New York City, and crossed the Delaware River in New Jersey and defeating the surprised enemy units later that year. Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809–April 15, 1865), the sixteenth President of the United States, successfully led his country through its greatest crisis, the Civil War, only to be assassinated less than a month after the war's end. Before his election as President, Lincoln was a lawyer, a member of the United States House of Representatives, and an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Senate. As an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery in the United States,[1][2] Lincoln won the Republican Party nomination in 1860 and was elected president later that year. During his term, he helped preserve the United States by leading the defeat of the secessionist Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. He introduced measures that resulted in the abolition of slavery, issuing his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and promoting the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865.  John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963.
After Kennedy's military service as commander of the Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 during World War II in the South Pacific, his aspirations turned political, with the encouragement and grooming of his father. Kennedy represented the state of Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat, and in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated then Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. presidential election, one of the closest in American history. He is one of the youngest men and the only practicing Roman Catholic to be president. Theodore Roosevelt was 9 months younger when he first assumed the presidency on September 14, 1901, but he was not elected to the presidency until 1904, when he was 46, therefore making Kennedy the youngest man ever elected to the presidency. Kennedy is also the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize.[1] Events during his administration include the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African American Civil Rights Movement and early events of the Vietnam War. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas  Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945) (ˈfɹæŋklɪn ˈdɛlənoʊ ˈɹoʊzvɛlt), often referred to by his initials FDR, was the thirty-second President of the United States. Elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945 and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms. He was a central figure of the 20th century during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Roosevelt created the New Deal to provide relief for the unemployed, recovery of the economy, and reform of the economic and banking systems.[1] Although recovery of the economy was incomplete until almost 1940, the programs he initiated such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continue to have instrumental roles in the nation's commerce. One of his most important legacies is the Social Security system.  Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was one of the pivotal leaders of the American civil rights movement. King was a Baptist minister, one of the few leadership roles available to black men at the time. He became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956) and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957), serving as its first president. His efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Here he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a national holiday in the United States in 1986. In 2004, King was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.[1]  |