American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

Johannes Kepler (December 27, 1571-November 15, 1630) was the German founder of physical astronomy. An attack of smallpox when he was four-years-old left him with crippled hands and poor eyesight. Overcoming those handicaps, he studied Copernicus' works and at age 23 became a professor of astronomy. He discovered the laws governing planetary motion and pioneered the discipline of celestial mechanics, known as Kepler's Laws, which aided Newton in his formulation of the theory of gravitation. He advanced Copernicus' heliocentric theory of the solar system, with the planets revolving around the sun instead of the earth. His publishing of the ephemeris...

William Brewster (1567-April 1644) was a founder of the Plymouth Colony in New England. He helped lead the Separatist movement in England, 1606, allowing the nonconformists to meet for worship at his home in Scrooby, England. He escaped religious persecution by fleeing with the Separatists to Holland, 1608. There he taught at the University of Leiden, Holland, and published religious books which were banned in England. Sailing with the Pilgrims on the Mayflower, he signed of the Mayflower Compact, 1620. Elected a ruling elder of the Plymouth Colony, he performed a major role in the civil and religious affairs of...

Pedro Fernandez de Quiros (1565-1615) was a Spanish explorer. In 1606, he sailed the Pacific Ocean, from Callao, Peru as far as the New Hebrides. In search of a reported southland, he landed on an island, planted a large cross and read the proclamation from which Australia got its name: <I, Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros...hoist this emblem of the Holy Cross on which His person was crucified and whereon He gave His life for the ransom and remedy of all the human race.... On this Day of Pentecost, 14 May 1606....I take possession of all this part of the South...

St. Johns River Settlement, Florida (June 30, 1564) was established by Rene de Laudonniere, who led a group of Huguenots, French Protestant Christians from France, to colonize and build Fort Caroline near present-day Jacksonville, Florida. Rene de Laudonniere recorded: <We sang a psalm of Thanksgiving unto God, beseeching Him that it would please Him to continue His accustomed goodness towards us.> 1564SJ001 This was the first European settlement in North America. U.S Representative Charles E. Bennett sponsored a bill, September 21, 1950, establishing the Fort Caroline National Memorial. In 1989, Rep. Bennett recited the history: <The 425th anniversary of the beginning...

(Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856-February 3, 1924) was the 28th President of the United States, 1913-21; married Edith Bolling Galt, 1915, after death of first wife; Governor of New Jersey, 1911-13; president of Princeton University, 1902-10; professor at Princeton University, 1890-02; professor at Wesleyan University, 1888-90; instructor of history at Bryn Mawr College, 1885-88; married Ellen Louise Axson, 1885; graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, 1883-85; admitted to bar, 1882; graduated from University of Virginia Law School, 1882; and graduated from Princeton University, 1879. In 1911, at a Denver rally, Governor Woodrow Wilson remarked: <A nation which does not remember...