The Squid Calendar

Abraham Lincoln was born 201 years ago, on February 12, 1809.

Abraham Lincoln Birthday Celebration by seegreen

Quiz: Howe Well do You Know Honest Abe? by ebsouth

While many like to argue what exactly he did, and why exactly he did it (Abraham Lincoln: Liar, Racist, Tyrant), no one can argue the fact that he put into action a series of events that have changed America profoundly.

Sixty years ago today, on February 9, 1950, Senator Joe McCarthy began his anti-red campaign which led to thousands of people being labeled as anti-American Communist traitors through a series of finger pointing.

This modern day witch-hunt inspired Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible.

The Crucible Study Guide – Essay, Characters, Quotes & Novel Analysis by SammySpam

Also, did you know that mukunda22’s mother was labeled a Communist during this era? 25 Things About Kate

Today is Religious Freedom Day.  Today we celebrate the American right to freedom of religion and freedom of speech in respect to our beliefs.

Freedom of religion in public schools is often an issue of confusion.  Can students pray in school? Read the Bible? Wear religious t-shirts? Can they leave class to pray?  They they write school papers on faith related issues?

In short: Yes.  Learn more at Religious Freedom in Schools by PastorKay

On December 7, 1941, The United States of America was attacked, on its own soil by the Japanese. Hawaii was attacked by 353 airplanes by surprise in the early morning. 2,402 were killed and another 1,282 wounded. It marked USA’s entrance into WWII.

Sadly, I could not find a squidoo lens worthy of the day. If you have one, please submit it in the comments.

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Today we honor our military veterans for the sacrifices they have made for our country.  We thank each and every soldier for the contributions they have made toward our society.
Veterans of War by Tipi
American Veterans Traveling Wall by Lori_Lee-Ray

(photo by chinaice90)

The United States Marine Corps was created on November 10, 1775 by a resolution of the Second Continental Congress. There are currently just over 203,000 United States Marine Corps active duty Marines, and just under 40,000 reserve Marines.

Check out this great lens by Susan52 for some amazing movies featuring US Marines:

U.S. Marines in the Movies and Marine Corps DVDs by Susan52

(Photo By Sister72)

Today is Navy Day…we’ll maybe it is…at least it used to be.  It’s a long story.  Basically Navy Day was October 27th until they discovered that the Navy’s birthday is actually is October 13th.  So they changed it, but October 27th had already stuck.

Anyway….since we missed October 13th (because this blog hadn’t been born yet), we’ll celebrate today as Navy Day with this lens from clouda9:

US Navy Seabees

(photo by Randy Son of Robert)