Discover the seafood, sights and serenity of Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, with online information about this gateway to the Eastern Shore. The web site includes a Calendar of Events which offers the upcoming Centreville Christmas Parade scheduled for Friday, December 5th, at 6:30 PM. Queen Anne’s County is rich with historic sites and museums along with outlet stores and one-of-a-kind shops.

I ran across this video on YouTube. It is a short film promoting Wicomico County as the enchanting hub of the Delmarva Peninsula, which offers a unique blend of history, recreation, relaxation and fascination.

The Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society maintains a web site offering history, information and locations of over 30 lighthouses and lightships in the Chesapeake Bay region. The society also offers an annual challenge on a September weekend to visit a dozen of these local attractions in just two days. The chapter meets monthly from March through September with visits to lighthouses on land and sea. The society often offers opportunities to access to lighthouses not normally open to the general public. Individual and family memberships are offered by the society, and volunteer opportunities are available to help preserve our Chesapeake heritage.

The Chesapeake Chapter of the US Lighthouse Society will present the 5th Annual Maryland Lighthouse Challenge on September 15th and 16th. The challenge is to visit nine lighthouses and one lightship in two days. From the society’s web site:

Explore Maryland’s historic lighthouses during this two-day lighthouse adventure! From Point Lookout - Maryland’s haunted lighthouse, to Piney Point - the “Lighthouse of Presidents”. From Turkey Point - home to the last civilian lighthouse keeper, to Fort Washington Light - an unassuming bell tower convert strategically located at the entrance to our nation’s capital… and all the others in between! Each of the Challenge lights has a personality of its own and a story to tell. Enjoy them all, and some of the most beautiful Bay scenery the state has to offer during the 5th Anniversary Celebration of the Maryland Lighthouse Challenge!

The lighthouses included in the challenge tour are Turkey Point, Concord Point, the Lightship Chesapeake, Seven Foot Knoll, Hooper Strait, Drum Point, Cove Point, Point Lookout, Piney Point and Fort Washington.

August 4 is celebrated as Coast Guard Day to honor the establishment on that day in 1790 of the Revenue Cutter Service, forebear of today’s Coast Guard, by the Treasury Department. On that date, Congress, guided by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, authorized the building of a fleet of ten cutters, whose responsibility would be enforcement of the first tariff laws enacted by Congress under the Constitution. Read more…

The Liberty Bell was rung on July 8, 1776, to call citizens for the reading of the Declaration of Indepence. According to Wikipedia, the Liberty Bell was actually called the State House Bell at that time as it hung in the tower of the Pennsylvania State House now known as Independence Hall. The name Liberty Bell was attached to the bell in the 1830’s as a symbol of the anti-slavery movement. The inscription on the bell reads…

PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND UNTO ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREOF

There is an interesting history to the bell which was actually recast three times in the 1700’s due to cracks. The bell cracked again in the mid 1800’s.

In 1777, eleven bells including the Liberty Bell were removed from the city of Philadelphia to protect them from being melted down by the British for cannons. The Liberty Bell was buried under the floor boards of an Allentown church until its placement was restored in 1778.

On July 4, 1939, Lou Gehrig said, “I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.” He made his luckiest man speech two weeks after being diagnosed with a disease that would later bear his name. Gehrig’s illness was the only thing that could end his Iron Horse streak of 2,130 consecutive games, a record that would be broken 56 years later by Cal Ripken. You can read the full text of his speech on the official Lou Gehrig web site.

It seems appropriate as we reach the day on which we celebrate our nation’s independence to ponder how lucky we are and who is responsible for making us feel that way.

On June 18, 1812, the United States declared war on the United Kingdom to mark the official beginning of the War of 1812. The origins of the war were quite complex. The British were already in a war with France and felt that Americans were aiding the French in their effort by continuing to trade goods. The British were also determined to maintain the dominance of their naval forces. There were many additional incidents between the UK and the colonies that preceded the June 18th date including an attack by a British warship on the USS Chesapeake. The War of 1812 was fought on many fronts, both land and sea. In 1814, the defense of Fort McHenry in the Battle of Baltimore resulted in the inspiration of the poem by Francis Scott Key that would eventually become The Star Spangled Banner.