A Monumental Monday Fact

One of the curious coincidences in this country is that our best-known writer William Shakespeare died on April 23rd the same day we celebrate our Patron Saint – St George. Though, I should add the rider before anyone points it out that when Shakespeare was alive our dates were according to the Julian Calendar and not the Gregorian Calendar we have used since the latter part of the eighteenth century.

However, all this pales into insignificance when it comes to the United States of America. Three of their Founding Fathers; John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Munroe all died on 4th July – American Independence Day. In fact, two of them, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died in 1826, Adam’s dying hours after Jefferson the man who had been his deputy and succeeded him as 3rd US President. John Adam’s son, John Quincy Adams became Sixth President.

James Munroe who was the fifth President and in his time was also the US Ambassador to both Britain and France. He died 5 years after the others in 1831, if you were wondering who the President was between Thomas Jefferson and James Munroe it was James Madison Jnr. The picture above is of course Mt Rushmore which features the heads of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. It is at Keystone in the Black Hills of Dakota – cue for a song?