Andy Young: Celebrating the 3rd 83rd

By Andy Young

Historians have an inexplicable love for round numbers. That’s why next year (MMXXVI for Roman numeral users), Americans can expect a bombardment of pomp and ceremony when the United States marks its semiquincentennial, sestercentennial, bisesquicentennial, or, for people who struggle with pronouncing words containing more than five syllables, its 250th anniversary.

Harriet Lane was the niece of U.S President
James Buchanan and because he was not 
married, she served as First Lady for
the president in 1859. COURTESY PHOTO

Far be it from me to rain on next year’s extravagant parade(s), but what’s wrong with celebrating every July 4th equally? Just because this year’s Independence Day is the country’s 249th doesn’t make the occasion any less meaningful. In fact, I think this year’s July 4 is even more significant than next year’s will be, since it marks America’s third 83rd birthday.

And what was so special about the first two 83rd anniversaries of the founding of the United States? In a word, plenty.

Four score and three years after the Declaration of Independence marked the penultimate (an easily pronounced four-syllable word) year of James Buchanan’s one-term presidency. And while his indecisiveness likely led to the Civil War, the lifelong bachelor should also be remembered as the only president to ever have his niece (Harriet Lane, for those keeping score at home) serve as America’s First Lady.

Plenty of American history was being made outside Washington, D.C. in 1859 as well. Indian Head pennies were minted for the first time. Oregon was admitted as the nation’s 33rd state, and the city of Olympia was incorporated in the territory of Washington. A lot of Americans seemed to be in a hurry that year, since MDCCCLIX was the year of the Colorado Gold Rush, the Comstock Lode Silver Rush, and the Pennsylvania Oil Rush.

On June 30, Charles Blondin became the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope. The first-ever intercollegiate baseball game was played the next day, with Amherst besting Williams (and their notoriously weak bullpen) 73-32. Cass Gilbert, the architect who designed the Supreme Court building, the Woolworth building, and three different state capitals, was born in 1859. So were educator John Dewey and outlaw William H. “Billy the Kid” Bonney.

America’s second 83rd birthday occurred in 1942 (MCMXLII), when the country was embroiled in World War II. Food, sugar, and gasoline were just three items that Americans had to ration, and the conflict was coming uncomfortably close to United States shores. On May 12, a Nazi U-boat sunk an American cargo ship near the Mississippi River delta, and a month later a Japanese submarine fired on Fort Stevens, Oregon, at the mouth of the Columbia River. On June 27, the FBI nabbed eight Nazi saboteurs off the coast of Long Island, New York, so it wasn’t surprising that the nation’s minimum draft age was lowered from 21 to 18 in November.

However, in June the war’s tide began turning the allies’ way when the Battle of Midway marked the first decisive defeat of the Japanese in the Pacific theater.

Not all of American History in 1942 involved war, though. Bing Crosby recorded “White Christmas” and “Silent Night” that year. Glenn Miller and his orchestra were awarded the first-ever Gold Record after a million copies of their rendition of “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” were sold, and Walt Disney’s animated version of Bambi was released in late August. The St. Louis Cardinals won a five-game World Series over the New York Yankees, and the Heisman Trophy went to Georgia halfback Frank Sinkwich.

There’s still half of 2025 remaining, so there’s no telling what significant history will be made this year.

That established, it goes without saying there’s no way to accurately forecast where America will be on its next 83rd birthday, in MMCVIII. <