On March 31, 1917, the U.S. took formal possession of the Danish West Indies. Continue reading.

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The Pilgrims Landing on Plymouth Rock, 1620, by Charles Lucy. The Pilgrims and Puritans who founded Christian civilization in America aimed for nothing less than building a "city set on a hill," spiritually speaking and based on the Holy Scriptures, that would bless its own inhabitants and all the nations of the world.  Despite all their enemies, their legacy endures.

  Were the individual bearers of that message faultless in their embodiment of their religion and their treatment of the Indians or Africans-or the Mexicans, Chinese, Irish, or Italians-and their descendants? No, and much wrong, bloodshed, and woeful consequence ensued and continues today. Yet does the Christian Bible claim that God has ever used sinless vessels to accomplish His work? Not as evidenced either by His chosen people of old, Israel, or the greatest individual heroes of the Christian faith, whether they were Moses, David, Peter or Paul. But the history of the world evidences that those who oppose the cross of Christ—including those who defy the laws of God while claiming to defend them are themselves opposed by God, with potentially catastrophic consequences for themselves and those in their charge.

Among the many attributes of God identified by the Bible is impartiality, a refusal to show favoritism to one person or group over another. Thus, persons of any race and ethnicity are imperiled when they ignore and defy God. Those, meanwhile, who claim and abide in Him with humble hearts, whatever their people group, are promised matchless blessing - though often in manners other than mankind would expect - in both this world and the next. Though the Natives, including those who came to present-day Oklahoma, sadly suffered at the hands of many of the “Christ-bearers” whom they encountered, many of them received the wondrous gift of spiritual forgiveness; God's earthly protection, provision, and blessing; and eternal life and joy in His presence by following in the same Christian way as those flawed messengers of life.

On March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward agreed to purchase Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million dollars. Continue reading.

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The Adams-Onís Treaty showing area claimed by the US before the treaty, and results of the new agreement

The 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty delivered Spanish Florida to the United States, while recognizing Spain's rule over present-day southwest United States, other than Oklahoma and most of Red River. Only the present-day Panhandle of the state fell outside of the Louisiana Purchase/Missouri Territory and under Spanish rule. Adams-Onís proved pivotal to the subsequent southeastern Indian removals and settling of Indian Territory.

For the southeastern Indians, Adams-Onis meant the United States could move toward removing the tribes from the westward tide of American settlement.

Secretary of State and future sixth President John Quincy Adams. He spearheaded the Adams-Onís Treaty, pivotal to the subsequent Indian removals and settling of Indian Territory.

An enormous ice dam formed at the source of the Niagara River on the eastern shore of Lake Erie on March 29, 1848. Continue reading.

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The Adams-Onís Treaty

This 1819 agreement, labored over for four years by the United States and Spain, defused serious tensions on several geographic fronts between the expanding new North American country and its European counterpart, whose imperial power was fading. Spain ceded Florida to the U.S., partly to keep it out of French hands, and the U.S. recognized Spanish claims to the land comprising its Texas province and west to California and the Pacific Ocean.
More significant to Oklahoma history, Adams-Onís codified the Sabine River as the eastern boundary of Texas with America's new Louisiana Territory, and Red River as the northern one with Indian Territory drawn from Louisiana. These mandates cleared the way for Americans, whether explorers, military expeditions, scientists, or otherwise, to travel, explore, and even settle in these environs without any threat from Spanish soldiers. They also initiated the official designation in 1820 of “Indian Territory," a large reserve to relocate the Native tribes from back east that Americans grew increasingly determined to have out of their way.
Adams-Onís, deriving its name from U.S. Secretary of State and future President John Quincy Adams and the Spanish Minister to the United States Don Luis de Onís, achieved another important American objective. It gave the U.S. ownership of the Sabine, Red, and Arkansas Rivers in their entirety where they separated American- and Spanish claimed territory, rather than splitting the rivers as treated boundaries normally did. American eagerness for this stemmed from earlier problems with Spain concerning the previously split Mississippi River. American ownership of Red River would figure in future disputes over oil between not-always-friendly Red River neighbors Oklahoma and Texas.
For the southeastern Indians, Adams-Onís held a different set of portents. Not least, it meant the United States could now proceed unfettered by interference from European powers toward removing the tribes from the westward tide of American settlement.

Stephen Long's map of the Great Plains, clearly including his famed "Great American Desert," otherwise known as present-day western Oklahoma. (Courtesy Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art)

Brewing magnate August Anheuser Busch Jr. was born March 28, 1899, in St. Louis, Missouri. Continue reading.

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A bit of March 28th history…

1885 - US Salvation Army officially organized

1930 - Turkish cities Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara

1979 - A partial meltdown at Three Mile Island nuclear plant in the US results in release of radioactive gas and iodine into the atmosphere, but no deaths

2017 - World’s largest dinosaur footprint at 1.7 meters found in Western Australia (pictured)

2017 - US President Trump signs Energy Independence executive order undoing Obama Climate Control measures 

On March 27, 1912, First Lady Helen Herron Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted two Yoshino cherry trees on the northern bank of the Potomac River Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. Continue reading.

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