HISTORY:
unwrapped – August 2008
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August 29, 2008 – America's First Celebrity
 “I was honored with having a few stones, dirt, rotten eggs, and pieces of dead cats thrown at me.” In spite of these distractions, George Whitefield continued to preach for three hours. He had the most recognizable name in America, drawing thousands of listeners wherever he preached. Brutal mobs sometimes attacked Whitefield and his followers, and once he was stoned until nearly dead. He preached in fields rather than churches and even without amplification, could be heard by 30,000 or more. He pushed himself so hard and preached with such intensity, that afterward he often became ill. After preaching at Harvard it was reported that “The College is entirely changed. The students are full of God.” Praised as “the greatest preacher that England has ever produced,” George Whitefield lived each day doing what God had called him to do.
August 28, 2008 – The Dons of San Francisco
 The tale of the 1951 University of San Francisco football team, the Dons, has long been overlooked. This undefeated nationally ranked team was denied a bowl bid because it wouldn’t leave two black teammates at home. But to the athletes’ credit, camaraderie and brotherhood as much as a stand against racism were more important than playing in the Orange Bowl that year. Nine players from that team would make it to the NFL, including one of the black players, who also would be inducted into the Football Hall of Fame. The other black player became the NFL’s first African-American official. The athletes from the 1951 San Francisco team and their spouses were provided an all-expense paid trip to the 2008 Fiesta Bowl where they were honored during a halftime tribute. For these men, brotherhood was more important than a missed bowl game.
August 27, 2008 – Meeting the Final Judge
 Clarence Darrow is remembered as the lawyer who defended teaching evolution in the 1925 case that became known as the “Monkey” Trial. A year earlier, Darrow saved two wealthy students, accused of kidnapping and murder, from the death penalty by arguing that they were products of their environment. When asked how he would sum up his life, Darrow quoted the Bible, a book he had publicly ridiculed most of his life. He then said, “I have lived a life without purpose, without meaning, without direction. I don’t know where I came from. And I don’t know what I’m doing here. And worst of all, I don’t know what’s going to happen to me when I punch out of here.” Darrow’s accomplishments would give him no assurance and comfort when he stood before the Judge of the universe in the only courtroom that mattered.
August 26, 2008 – America's Greatest Mind
 Jonathan Edwards (1703 – 1758) is best remembered for his masterful sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” In addition to his achievements as a pastor, Edwards was a father to eight daughters and three sons, missionary to the Housatonic Indians, revivalist, philosopher, and accomplished scientist. From a very early age, Jonathan was mesmerized by the beauty and order of God’s world. In fact, he was especially fond of studying spiders. So much so that his accurate observations have been preserved and are acknowledged in the scientific community today. Even more remarkable is that these observations were made when he was a boy with no tools, training or body of knowledge with which to compare and test his findings. In his childhood work, “Of Insects,” Jonathan wrote “Multitudes of time I have beheld with wonderment and pleasure the spiders marching in the air from one tree to another… their little shining webs and Glistening Strings of a Great Length and at such a height as that one would think they were tack’d to the Sky by one end were it not that they were moving and floating.” As a young man, Jonathan wrote seventy resolutions. One of these resolutions was, “To live with all my might, while I do live.” That he did. Blessed with a brilliant mind, Jonathan Edwards used his brief 55 years to advance the Kingdom of Christ. Many believe Jonathan Edwards was the greatest mind in American history.
August 25, 2008 – Politically Incorrect Jefferson
 The modern-day image of Jefferson as a social and political liberal would be shattered after a single reading of his Bill for Proportioning Crimes and Punishments. Capital punishment is maintained for murder and treason while rescinded for all other crimes. Even so, other crimes receive some rather harsh and politically incorrect penalties. Consider these examples:
•"If any person commit petty treason, or a husband murder his wife, a parent his child, or a child his parent, he shall suffer death, by hanging, and his body be delivered to Anatomists to be dissected" (Sec. IV).
•"Whosoever committith murder by poisoning, shall suffer death by poison" (Sec. V).
•"Whosoever shall be guilty of rape, polygamy, or sodomy with man or woman, shall be punished; if a man, by castration, a woman, by boring through the cartilage of her nose a hole of one half inch in diameter at the least" (Sec. XIV).
•"Whosoever committith a robbery, shall be condemned to hard labour four years in the public works, and shall make double reparation to the persons injured" (Sec. XX).
•"All attempts to delude the people, or to abuse their understanding by exercise of the pretended arts of witchcraft, conjuration, enchantment, or sorcery, or by pretended prophecies, shall be punished by ducking and whipping, at the discretion of a jury, not exceeding fifteen stripes" (Sec. XXIX).
Ouch! Considering these views, there is no way that Thomas Jefferson could ever run for political office today.
August 22, 2008 – God's Mountain Man
 In 1822, 23-year-old Jedediah Smith set out for the Northwest Territory with a rifle and a Bible. He achieved what no white man had done before—he traveled the entire length of America’s Pacific coast. Smith and his party explored the far side of the Rocky Mountains. Not even a grizzly could stop Smith. With his skull laid bare and one of his ears torn from his head, Smith focused on Psalm 23 until he could give directions on how to stitch his gaping wounds to one of his men. Smith began to prepare his invaluable journals and maps for publication, but he was killed by Indians before their completion. His journals, letters, and maps disappeared, and his contributions to exploration did not come to light until the mid 1960s. This remarkable hero deserves to be restored to the first rank of American explorers.
August 21, 2008 – Explorer Finally Receives Recognition
 Henry Hudson’s voyage came to be regarded as the start of European exploration of New York, but 85 years earlier, Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed into New York Bay. Born and educated in Italy, Verrazzano moved to France where the king provided two ships for the Italian explorer to discover the westward passage to Asia. In 1524, he arrived off the coast of North Carolina and continued northward. He was the first European explorer to name North American discoveries after people and places in the Old World. Verrazzano was raised from obscurity by the Italian Historical Society of America during the 1950s and 60s. Through the Society’s efforts, a number of landmarks have been named for Verrazzano, including a bridge and a ferry.
August 20, 2008 – Will The Real Columbus Please Stand Up?
 Theories of the national heritage of Columbus abound. Columbus has been called an Islamic merchant from North Africa, a Jewish convert to Christianity, an Englishman, Portuguese, Corsican, a Spaniard, a French pirate named Coullon, a black from Africa, and even an American Indian who had stumbled across the ocean and wanted to return home. The best supported theory is that he was Italian, from the city of Genoa. As famous as Columbus is today, no one painted his portrait during his lifetime. Although we do not know exactly what Columbus looked like, some of his contemporaries described him as “A man of good size and appearance, taller than most . . . eyes lively and other features of the face in good proportion, the hair chestnut brown, and the face somewhat ruddy.” Columbus might have remained a footnote in history if Washington Irving, the author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” had not published a three-volume biography (1828–1831) of the “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” as a later biographer described him. Although Irving established Columbus’ rightful place in history, he also told a few fibs about the explorer, the most egregious being the claim that Columbus wanted to prove the Earth was round when everyone believed it was flat. The truth is, all the scientists and cartographers in the fifteenth century believed the Earth was round. The dispute was how big around the Earth was. On this point, Columbus was wrong and his critics right. Columbus charted his way to the Indies partly using an ancient map of the world drawn by a Greek astronomer, Claudius Ptolemy. Ptolemy had drawn his map in the second century, and although he accounted for the world being round, he made the major mistake of leaving out a huge land mass that he did not know was there: today’s North and South America.
August 19, 2008 – Hot Off The Press
 In the book, "1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium," Johannes Gutenberg (1394?–1468), inventor of the printing press, is first on the list. The first book that came off his press was the Bible.The process of preparing a press for printing a book has not always been as easy as it is today. By the tenth century, the Chinese were printing books using carved wooden blocks. Medieval European printers followed a similar method. This was a long and tedious process. The Chinese tried to speed up the process by making ceramic characters. Since thousands of such characters were needed, the project was abandoned. Gutenberg’s printing press was revolutionary because it featured movable metal type that kept its shape after numerous impressions. Individual letters were cast from master molds and could be put together in any combination to form any word. The type was then inked and pressed down onto paper with a large wooden screw. Although still a slow process (by today's standards), Gutenberg's press paved the way for modern mass media, although almost no one today uses hard type to typeset books. Most if not all books are typeset electronically. Gutenberg captured the true significance of his invention with these words: “Religious truth is captive in a small number of little manuscripts, which guard the common treasures instead of expanding them. Let us break the seal which binds these holy things; let us give wings to truth that it may fly with the Word, no longer prepared at vast expense, but multiplied everlastingly by a machine which never wearies—to every soul which enters life.”
August 18, 2008 – Georgia on His Mind
 General James Oglethorpe (1696–1785) conceived a plan to provide a refuge for persecuted Protestants of Europe. On June 9, 1732, he was granted a charter by George II to establish a new colony. Oglethorpe named his colony Georgia. He was motivated primarily from strong Christian principles, which are evident in his denouncement of slavery. In London, in 1734, he praised Georgia for its anti-slavery policy:
Slavery, the misfortune, if not the dishonor, of other plantations, is absolutely proscribed. Let avarice defend it as it will, there is an honest reluctance in humanity against buying and selling, and regarding those of our species as our wealth and possessions. . . . The name of slavery is here unheard, and every inhabitant is free from unchosen masters and oppression. . . . Slavery is against the gospel as well as the fundamental law of England. We refused, as trustees, to make a law permitting such a horrid crime. But, Oglethorpe’s words were not heeded. The “horrid crime” of slavery was soon introduced to Georgia. “In 1750 the law prohibiting slavery was repealed and Georgia became a slave-worked plantation colony like its neighbor, South Carolina.”
In keeping with the original charter which gave the colonists of Georgia “a liberty of conscience” to worship God, the 1777 Constitution retains its essential religious character. Article VI states that “The representatives shall be chosen out of the residents in each county . . . and they shall be of the Protestant religion.” Article LVI declares that “All persons whatever shall have the free exercise of their religion; provided it be not repugnant to the peace and safety of he State.” Like many of the state constitutions, the Georgia constitution prohibited clergymen from holding seats in the legislature.
August 15, 2008 – The Fugitive Translator 
If England were ever to be evangelized, William Tyndale was convinced that it would take place only if people could read the Bible in their own language. His efforts to get permission to translate Scripture failed, so Tyndale left England. He settled in Antwerp where he worked translating the Bible. When his English Bibles were smuggled into England, Tyndale became a hunted man. For seven years Tyndale eluded his pursuers who eventually tracked him down. At his trial, Tyndale was condemned to die. But the story does not end there. After his death, the king was presented with one of Tyndale’s New Testaments and he proclaimed without realizing the translation’s source, “In God’s name let it go abroad among the people.” Two years later, every church in England displayed one book of the whole Bible in English as directed by the king.
August 14, 2008 – The First American Bible
 In 1777, Congress issued an official resolution instructing the Committee on Commerce to import 20,000 copies of the Bible. With the outbreak of war with England, the sea lanes had been cut off to the colonies. This meant that goods that were once common in the colonies were no longer being imported—including Bibles printed in England. Congress decided to act.
The legislation of Congress on the Bible is a suggestive Christian fact, and one which evinces the faith of the statesmen of that period in its divinity, as well as their purpose to place it as the corner-stone in our republican institutions. The breaking out of the Revolution cut off the supply of "books printed in London." The scarcity of Bibles also came soon to be felt. Dr. Patrick Allison, one of the chaplains to Congress, and other gentlemen, brought the subject before that body in a memorial, in which they urged the printing of an edition of the Scriptures.
The committee approved the importing of 20,000 copies of the Bible from Scotland, Holland, and elsewhere. Congressmen resolved to pass this proposal because they believed that "the use of the Bible is so universal, and its importance so great."2 Even though the resolution passed, action was never taken. Instead, Congress began to put emphasis on the printing of Bibles within the United States. In 1777 Robert Aitken of Philadelphia published a New Testament. Three additional editions were published in 1789, 1779, and 1781. The edition of 1779 was used in schools. Aitken's efforts proved so popular that he announced his desire to publish the whole Bible; he then petitioned Congress for support.
August 13, 2008 – The Constitution and the Bible
Using celebrities to endorse products is common practice today. Find some famous sports or movie stars, put them in front of a camera, and watch them do their magic with the new product. Before radio and television, the only way to communicate was through oratory and print media. Then there’s the issue of what’s worth pitching and how to pay for it. In colonial America, British law prohibited Bibles from being printed without permission of the crown. Editions of the Bible in the Indian and German languages were permitted, but English translations were verboten. All printing had to take place in England. This all changed after the success of the War for Independence. In 1791, the year the Bill of Rights was adopted and ratified, John Brown’s Self-Interpreting Bible was published in New York. Editions of Brown’s Bible had sold well in England. It was only natural to bring its publication to America. Brown, a Scottish Presbyterian minister, selected portions from several well-known commentaries, including those of Matthew Henry’s multi-volume set, to help the general reader better understand the text.
 Funds were raised for the project through private “subscriptions” (contributions), and the names of the subscribers were listed alphabetically at the beginning of the volume, along with their occupation and the town where they lived. They came from all walks of life: shoemaker, baker, tailor, butcher, minister, lawyer, and many others. The name heading the list is “GEORGE WASHINGTON, Esq. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.” The prestige of Washington’s name associated with the Bible’s publication was a fat endorsement that was sure to attract other subscribes and buyers. Also listed as “subscribers” are Henry Knox (Secretary of War), Alexander Hamilton (Secretary of the Treasury), and John Jay (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court), and numerous other notable founders. The Frontispiece offers a perspective on how the Constitution was viewed in light of the Bible. There is an engraving of a female figure holding an open Bible illuminating another female the Constitution rolled up in her hand. Between them stands a woman holding a pole with a Liberty Cap. In the background, the façade of a building includes these words: “Sacred to Liberty, Justice, and Peace.”
August 12, 2008 – The Hessians are Coming
 Many of the 29,000 involuntary volunteers hired out to the British by German princes and sent to America to fight in the War for Independence were described as spendthrifts, loose livers, drunkards, arguers, restless people, political troublemakers, not more than sixty years old and of fair health and stature. Students on their way to university and young men plowing the fields were abducted and forced to serve as well. One young man, a theological student, was “recruited” amid his many protestations while on his way to Paris. The mixed rabble and honest young men were forced to serve in a far off country whose citizens viewed them as soldiers who fought only for money. No one was safe from the grip of the seller of souls. The troops were called Hessians due to the treaty made between Britain and the mercenary German princes, one of them being from Hesse. The Hessians pay went to the German princes. Thousands of the soldiers stayed in America after the war and became, in the end, citizens of the country they were sent to destroy.
August 11, 2008 – Leap'n Beamon
 The 1968 Summer Olympic Games were held in the rarified air of Mexico City—7400 feet above sea level. Athletes and trainers were concerned that performances by distance runners would be affected by the thin atmosphere. Higher altitudes meant less oxygen, and if there is one thing runners need, it’s lots of oxygen. But it was the unexpected that made these Games memorable. Some of the black athletes put on a political demonstration. Tommie Smith and John Carlos, winning gold and silver in the 200 meters, accepted their medals in bare feet (to bring attention to the poverty of the African-American community), wearing beads (in honor of blacks murdered as victims of slavery or racism), and holding black-gloved fists in the air (the “Black Power” salute).
But over at the finals of the long jump, something historic was about to happen. A lanky jumper from New York was bounding down the runway, and almost no one noticed. Most of the photographers were waiting at the finish line where Lee Evans was expected to finish the 400 meters in record time. This race had excitement written all over it. Jumping records at the Olympic level are broken by inches. In 1936, Jesse Owens owned the long jump record at 26’ 5 ¼. It took 24 years to break it, and only by 3 inches. In 1968, the record stood at 27’ 4 ¾. In a span of 32 years, the record had progressed less than a foot. But on this day, Bob Beamon jumped 29’ 2 ½”, eclipsing the record by nearly two feet—21 ¾ inches! Here’s how Track and Field News described it:
He was obviously fired up, his step was exactly right, his form bordered perfection, his speed (09.5–100y) came as a great asset, the runway was consistent and fast, the assisting wind read a maximum of 4.473 mph, the high altitude (7350 feet) provided reduced air resistance, and he put together perhaps the ultimate technical effort that all field event performers dream about but rarely realize.
After hearing how far he had jumped, Beamon became so excited and emotionally drained that doctors claim he suffered a “cataplectic seizure.” Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, the co-world record holder, remarked, “Compared to this jump, we are as children.” The leap was caught by a cameraman on his first film assignment and is today one of the greatest sports photographs ever shot. The record leap brought an end to Beamon’s career. While he continued to compete, he never got close to that almost magical jump ever again. His longest jump after Mexico City was 26’ 11 1/2”. On August 31, 1991, Mike Powell of the United States finally broke Beamon’s record when he landed 29’ 4 ½” in Tokyo.
August 8, 2008 – Jefferson's Secretary
When President Thomas Jefferson needed a private secretary who could be trusted completely, he chose Captain Meriwether Lewis. Jefferson did not choose Lewis for his secretarial skills. The president had a dream of exploring the land that lay beyond the Mississippi River. Nine years earlier, he had attempted an exploration, and Meriwether Lewis had begged to join. Jefferson refused, thinking Lewis was too young. That expedition was abandoned. Now that he was president, Jefferson was determined to send explorers west, and he hinted to Lewis of his plan. Lewis was prepared to ask a friend, Lieutenant William Clark to join him if the president’s dream became a reality. The Lewis and Clark Expedition would cover 3,700 miles and include lands that would eventually become eleven states.
August 7, 2008 – The Second Josiah
 During the reign of Henry III’s young son, Edward VI (1547–1553), England made long strides toward Protestantism. Protestant tutors were put in charge of Edward’s education, and at an early age Edward became familiar with the works of John Calvin and those of the Strasbourg Reformer Martin Bucer. At Edward’s coronation, Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556) referred to him as the second Josiah, as a king who would restore England to the true religion. (It was under Josiah’s reign in Judah that the “book of the law” was found in the temple—2 Kings 22). Under Edward’s leadership, a number of important changes took place: religious services were conducted in English; the Catholic Mass was abolished; clergy were permitted to marry; and English Bibles were freely printed. Not everyone was happy with these changes, however. Henry’s brand of Catholicism was still very popular, as future Reformers soon discovered. Edward, sickly and frail from birth with chronic tuberculosis, reigned for only six years. On July 6, 1553, the young king died, praying, “My Lord and God, save this realm from popery, and maintain it in true religion.” He was sixteen.
August 6, 2008 – Little Goody Twoshoes
No one wants to be called a “goody two-shoes”—someone who is prudish and self-righteous. But years ago American colonists considered the term “goody two-shoes” a compliment. The colonists believed that good literature had two purposes: to delight and to instruct. By the early eighteenth century interest in children's literature (and a rise in literacy) led to new markets and a flourishing of new publishers, particularly in England. Innovations in typography and printing allowed greater freedom in reproducing art through engraving, woodcut, etching, and aquatint, although illustrators were still largely anonymous and illustrations confined to frontispieces. One of the most  popular fictional books in the colonies was The History of Little Goody Twoshoes, published by one of the most important early publishers, John Newberry. Goody (or Mrs.) Twoshoes was an industrious and godly woman who went through many trials but was eventually rewarded for her virtues.
Thomas Boreman was one of the first entrepreneurs to respond to the market with his miniature books entitled Gigantick Histories (1740–1743) as well as other illustrated books on subjects such as natural history. The most important of the early publishers was John Newbery (1713–1767). Newbery published vast quantities of children’s literature of all types as well as a wide range of books on reading, philosophy, and science, most covered in flowered and gilt Dutch paper and enlivened by simple woodcut illustrations. His first children’s book was A Little Pretty Pocket Book (1744), and one of the most popular was his 1765 History of Little Goody Two Shoes, regarded as the first novel written specifically for children (it is said to have been written for Newbery by Oliver Goldsmith).
August 5, 2008 – Hoover's Dam
 Hoover Dam was named after President Herbert Hoover who was instrumental in its construction. This marvel of engineering began in 1931 and was completed two years ahead of schedule in 1936. Hardhats made of two baseball caps dipped in tar and allowed to harden were used for the first time. A surveyor was one of the first people to die in the dam’s construction. The son of the surveyor was the last person to die thirteen years to the day of his father’s death. When Franklin Roosevelt defeated Hoover in the 1932 presidential election, his Secretary of the Interior removed Hoover’s name from the project and unofficially renamed it Boulder Dam. After Roosevelt’s death, Congress restored the name Hoover Dam. Amazingly, the concrete used in construction of the National Historical Landmark is still curing and gaining strength every day.
August 4, 2008 – Washington's Vanishing Chef
 George Washington faced a personal dilemma with political overtones when the nation’s capital moved from New York to Philadelphia. Disappointed with the food served in the new capital, Washington brought Hercules, his Mount Vernon chef. Hercules was accomplished in the culinary art, and he managed Washington’s kitchen with style and discipline. But the black chef posed a problem. Pennsylvania required that slaves be freed after six months of residency. Washington tried to get around this law by returning his household slaves to Virginia just short of the deadline. After several weeks, the slaves would be returned to Philadelphia. The president had vowed never to purchase another slave, but he nearly faced going back on those words when Hercules disappeared. Eventually a white housekeeper, who could also cook, took the place of the runaway chef. The flamboyant Hercules was never heard from again.
August 1, 2008 – The Admiral of the Ocean Sea
 Columbus might have remained a footnote in history if Washington Irving, the author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” had not published a three-volume biography about him. Although Irving established Columbus’ rightful place in history, he also told a few fibs, the most egregious being that Columbus wanted to prove the Earth was round. Actually, all the scientists and cartographers in the fifteenth century believed the Earth was round. The dispute was how big around the Earth was. On this point, Columbus was wrong and his critics were right. Columbus charted his way to the Indies partly using an ancient map of the world drawn by a Greek astronomer, Claudius Ptolemy from the second century. Although Ptolemy accounted for the world being round, he made the major mistake of leaving out a huge landmass that he did not know was there: North and South America.
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