Today's American Minute

Smallpox during the Revolution and Dr. Benjamin Rush - American Minute with Bill Federer

January 04, 2025 • "Smallpox is ten times more terrible!" -Diseases during the Revolution • Dr. Benjamin Rush - American Minute with Bill Federer

On December 15, 1775, Washington wrote to Joseph Reed: "... smallpox is in every part of Boston ... a surety against any attempt of ours to attack. If we escape the smallpox in this camp ... it will be miraculous. Every precaution that can be is taken to guard against this evil."

Battle of Princeton: "Washington advanced so near the enemy's lines that his horse refused to go further" - American Minute with Bill Federer

January 03, 2025 • Battle of Princeton: "Washington advanced so near the enemy's lines that his horse refused to go further"

Sculptor Clark Mills stated the statue's dedication, 1860: "At the Battle of Princeton where Washington, after several ineffectual attempts to rally his troops, advanced so near the enemy's lines that his horse refused to go further ... But while his noble horse is represented thus terror stricken, the dauntless hero is calm and dignified, ever believing himself the instrument in the hand of Providence to work out the great problem of liberty."

How did January 1st become New Year's Day? and How is it connected to Leap Day?

January 01, 2025

As Rome expanded, it was difficult to sync the different calendars of conquered countries. Julius Caesar instituted one unified calendar, based on the Earth's orbit around the sun, 365 days, and a "leap" day every 4th year. Called the Julian Calendar, it was instituted January 1, 45 B.C.

Until We Meet Again - "I know Who holds the future and I know Who holds my hand"-A.B. Smith - American Minute with Bill Federer

December 31, 2024 • "The Captain's Daughter"; "I know Who holds the future and I know Who holds my hand"-A.B. Smith • "Until We Meet Again" & James T. Fields' The Atlantic Monthly

"But his little daughter whispered. As she took his icy hand, 'Isn't God upon the ocean, Just the same as on the land?'"

Carl Sandburg "I see America not in the setting sun ... (but) in the ... rising sun fresh from the ... creative hand of God" - American Minute with Bill Federer

December 30, 2024 • "When a nation goes down ... one condition may always be found; they forgot where they came from" - Carl Sandburg • Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet

Carl Sandburg said, 'I see America not in the setting sun of a black night of despair ... I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative hand of God.'"