Bored With Summer? Get With It!

Do you find yourself already bored with summer or worse yet, have you  heard those two dreaded words “I’m bored!” from young ones?  Summer may be a great time to relax or putter around the house, get some reading in, or take up a hobby.  However, many history changing events have occurred during the summer months.  So hey, get up off of the couch and let’s get with it!

During colonial times, summer months were prime time for history changing events.  On June 10, 1775, John Adams proposed to the congress meeting in the city of Philadelphia, that the men fighting the British in Boston  be considered a Continental Army led by a general.

The men who had been fighting the British in the Battles of Lexington and Concord were from many different New England States.  Adams thought it would be a very important if the British got the idea that all of the colonies were united as a single army (as opposed to various militias), led by a single general.  Adams nominated George Washington as the commander- in- chief of the continental army, and Washington accepted the post the next day.

The summer of 1787 was chock full of history on the move.  Beginning in May of 1787, and continuing until September, the Constitutional Convention convened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, debated the document which, to this very day, is the law of the land. 

Now fast forward to July 17, 1945.  While not what you’d consider a summer garden party, the Potsdam Conference convened the Allied victors of the European theater at Potsdam, outside of Berlin. In attendance were the “Big Three” : Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Harry S. Truman,  Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and their staffs.   The main issues on the table were the postwar borders of Poland, the Soviet Union’s place in Eastern Europe, war reparations, the occupation of Austria, and the continuing war in the Pacific. [photo credit]

Also established was a council comprised of representatives of the four great powers that were to determine the fate of Germany and Austria as nations. The council was to pursue the Five D's: demilitarization, denazification, decentralization, deindustrialization, and democratization. The council also agreed that unconditional surrender would be demanded of Japan.

Potsdam did not fare as well as other Allied conferences. Participants were suspicious of ,  and on the defensive with each other.  Winston Churchill was very suspicious of Stalin’s agenda for the Soviet Union's role in Eastern Europe.  In turn, Stalin refused to negotiate the future of the Eastern European nations now occupied by Soviet forces.

Before the completion of the final negotiations of the conference, Churchill received  news from back home of his Conservative Party’s loss in elections to Labor’s Clement Atlee, making Atlee Britain’s new Prime Minister.   Winston Churchill returned home to London.  The absence of Churchill from the final negotiations contributed to the descending of an “Iron Curtain” over Eastern Europe.

Some history makers know how to escape the summer heat! On August 3, 1958, the first undersea voyage to the North Pole was accomplished by the U.S. nuclear submarine, the Nautilus.  Under the direction of the Russian born U.S. Navy Captain Hyman G. Rickover; the vessel traveled nearly 1000 miles from Point Barrow Alaska under the arctic ice to reach the pole.  It then traveled to Iceland, to establish a new and shorter route from the Pacific to the Atlantic and Europe. [photo credit]

Well, I don’t know about you, but I feel as if I should shut off my computer and run around the block or build something!  Summer time is the best time to make some history of your own. It doesn't have to be earth shattering, either.   Volunteer at a food pantry or form a group to read to kids or teach crafts.  Go green and clean up the environment.  Decide to work for real change, and volunteer to work for your favorite candidate.  History happens when you least expect it, so get with it!