August 10th...This Day in History (Now with links to other events)

Smithsonian Institution created 1846

 

After a decade of debate about how best to spend a bequest left to America from an obscure English scientist, President James K. Polk signs the Smithsonian Institution Act into law.

In 1829, James Smithson died in Italy, leaving behind a will with a peculiar footnote. In the event that his only nephew died without any heirs, Smithson decreed that the whole of his estate would go to “the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” Smithson’s curious bequest to a country that he had never visited aroused significant attention on both sides of the Atlantic.

Smithson had been a fellow of the venerable Royal Society of London from the age of 22, publishing numerous scientific papers on mineral composition, geology, and chemistry. In 1802, he overturned popular scientific opinion by proving that zinc carbonates were true carbonate minerals, and one type of zinc carbonate was later named smithsonite in his honor.

Six years after his death, his nephew, Henry James Hungerford, indeed died without children, and on July 1, 1836, the U.S. Congress authorized acceptance of Smithson’s gift. President Andrew Jackson sent diplomat Richard Rush to England to negotiate for transfer of the funds, and two years later Rush set sail for home with 11 boxes containing a total of 104,960 gold sovereigns, 8 shillings, and 7 pence, as well as Smithson’s mineral collection, library, scientific notes, and personal effects. After the gold was melted down, it amounted to a fortune worth well over $500,000. After considering a series of recommendations, including the creation of a national university, a public library, or an astronomical observatory, Congress agreed that the bequest would support the creation of a museum, a library, and a program of research, publication, and collection in the sciences, arts, and history. On August 10, 1846, the act establishing the Smithsonian Institution was signed into law by President James K. Polk.

Today, the Smithsonian is composed of 19 museums and galleries including the recently announced National Museum of African American History and Culture,nine research facilities throughout the United States and the world, and the national zoo. Besides the original Smithsonian Institution Building, popularly known as the “Castle,” visitors to Washington, D.C., tour the National Museum of Natural History, which houses the natural science collections, the National Zoological Park, and the National Portrait Gallery. The National Museum of American History houses the original Star-Spangled Banner and other artifacts of U.S. history. The National Air and Space Museum has the distinction of being the most visited museum in the world, exhibiting such marvels of aviation and space history as the Wright brothers’ plane and Freedom 7, the space capsule that took the first American into space. John Smithson, the Smithsonian Institution’s great benefactor, is interred in a tomb in the Smithsonian Building.

 (More Events on This Day in History)

• American Revolution

• 1776 London learns of American independence

• Automotive

• 1978 Fatal Ford Pinto crash in Indiana

• Civil War

• 1861 Rebels defeat Union force at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek

• Cold War

• 1949 Truman signs National Security Bill

• Crime

• 1981 Child found decapitated

• Disaster

• 1993 Three-ship collision causes oil spill

• General Interest

• 1793 Louvre Museum opens
• 1821 New state west of the Mississippi
• 1977 Son of Sam arrested
• 2003 Temperatures in UK top 100 F for first time during European heat wave

• Hollywood

• 1984 Red Dawn, first PG-13 movie, is released

• Literary

• 1912 Virginia and Leonard Woolf marry

• Music

• 1937 First-ever electric guitar patent awarded to the Electro String Corporation

• Old West

• 1877 Amanda McFarland begins Alaskan mission

• Presidential

• 1874 Herbert Hoover is born

• Sports

• 1981 Pete Rose sets National League hits record

• Vietnam War

• 1955 Diem refuses to negotiate with Communists
• 1966 Marines fight bitter battle in Quang Tin Province
• 1972 North Vietnamese forces attempt to cut off Saigon

• World War I

• 1914 German ships Goeben and Breslau reach Constantinople

• World War II

• 1945 Japan accepts Potsdam terms, agrees to unconditional surrender