March 4 Birthday
March 4 was Inauguration Day for every US president from 1789 until 1937, when the Twentieth Amendment moved it to January 20. The date was chosen to allow enough time for vote counting and travel. In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt took the oath on a platform outside the Capitol. The nation was in the depths of the Great Depression — banks were closing, unemployment was at 25%, and there were bread lines in every city. Roosevelt's address delivered the line that defined his presidency: "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." It was not original — the phrase had appeared in print as early as 1888 — but Roosevelt delivered it at the moment when the country needed to hear it. Within a week, he had closed every bank in the country and called Congress into emergency session. The United States Constitution took effect on March 4, 1789, when the first Congress convened at Federal Hall in New York City. Only nine of thirteen states had ratified — Rhode Island and North Carolina had not yet joined. The first order of business was counting the electoral votes for president. George Washington was unanimously elected. The Constitution had been signed on September 17, 1787, but it did not become operational until this day, eighteen months later. The delay was caused by the ratification process, which required conventions in each state. The Federalist Papers, written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, were the propaganda campaign that won the debate. Chicago was incorporated as a city on March 4, 1837, with a population of 4,170. The name comes from "shikaakwa," a Miami-Illinois word for wild garlic that grew along the river. Within fifty years, Chicago would be the second-largest city in America, the railroad hub of the continent, and the site of the Haymarket Riot, the Pullman Strike, and the World's Columbian Exposition. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed three square miles and left 100,000 homeless. The city rebuilt itself in steel and stone, and its architects — Sullivan, Burnham, Root, Adler — invented the skyscraper. Antonio Vivaldi, born this day in 1678 in Venice, was a priest who was excused from saying Mass because of chest pains — possibly asthma. He taught music at the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for abandoned children, and composed over 500 concertos. The Four Seasons (1725) is among the most popular pieces of classical music ever written. Vivaldi died in poverty in Vienna in 1741 and was buried in a pauper's grave. His music was largely forgotten until the 1950s. People born on March 4 fall under the zodiac sign of Pisces. The birthstone is Aquamarine and the birth flower is Daffodil. Historical events on March 4 include 1789: US Constitution takes effect as first Congress convenes in New York, 1837: Chicago incorporated as a city, 1933: FDR gives first inaugural address ("nothing to fear but fear itself"). Famous people born on March 4 include Antonio Vivaldi (1678), Knute Rockne (1888), Catherine O'Hara (1954).