This Is Worth Remembering...

I don’t mark a lot of anniversaries. The only one that I am sure to mark is my birthday (June 21 if you have your calendar handy). I plan something special every year for the RTA team as a reward for the team more than as a celebration of my birthday.

Before we end 2024, there are some anniversaries that should be noted. January 15 marks fifty years since Happy Days debuted on ABC. April 4 is the fiftieth anniversary of Hank Aaron tying Babe Ruth’s record of 714 home runs. October 21 is the twentieth anniversary of the Boston Red Sox completing the most improbable comeback in sports. Down three games to none and trailing in the ninth inning of game four, they came back to not only win game four but the American League Championship Series and the World Series.

A tragic anniversary in 2024 is the ten-year anniversary, on March 8, of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Today, there is still no certainty as to what happened.

One that I certainly won’t celebrate is the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the PRC (People’s Republic of China) on October 1, 1949. Mao and his totalitarian government went on to cause the deaths of between 40 and 80 million people through starvation, persecution, forced prison labor, and mass executions.

But of all the anniversaries in 2024, the most important one, and the one that led directly to the start of the American Revolution, is the two Hundred Fiftieth anniversary of the First Continental Congress in 1774. Prior to 1773, there was relative calm in the American colonies as most colonists were content as subjects of King George III.

That calm dissipated quickly with the passing of the Tea Act in 1773. The Tea Act gave the British East India Company a monopoly on Tea sales in the colonies. Being dictated to by the British legislature outraged the colonists. That discontent led to the Boston Tea Party on December 16 where tea worth $1,000,000 in today’s dollars was destroyed.

The British responded with a series of Acts known as “The Intolerable Acts” in the American colonies. These acts included a blockade of Boston Harbor, a dissolution of the Massachusetts governing council, the loss of rights to a trial on colonial soil and a charge to homeowners for quartering British soldiers on their property. The Intolerable Acts further shifted American public opinion against the British.

When petitions to the crown went unanswered, representatives of 12 colonies (except Georgia) assembled in Philadelphia’s Carpenters Hall. Some of the most notable names in American history attended including George Washington, Patrick Henry, John Adams and many others who would go on to sign the Declaration of Independence. Meeting from September 5 to October 26, there was a dramatic mix of opinions ranging from reconciling with Britain to breaking ties immediately.

The assembly decided to restrict the importation of English goods, establish mechanisms to regulate resistance to Great Britain and continue the dialog between the colonies. The nonimportation ban was to become effective December 1, 1774, unless parliament rescinded the Intolerable Acts. They didn’t and the result is the independent nation we have today.

I may not be much for marking anniversaries, but two hundred and fifty years ago, our forefathers took these, first, halting steps toward liberty. That’s worth remembering in 2024.

Note: This is from the Best Darn Automation Newsletter. Learn more at https://www.rtautomation.com/newsletter-new/.