30 th January

1781 The Articles of Confederation were adopted by Maryland. (See November 15th entry.)

1835 Richard Lawrence tried to assassinate President Andrew Jackson.

1882 Franklin D. Roosevelt was born.

1889 Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and Baroness Marie Vetsera committed suicide at Mayerling, Austria.

1933 Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.

1948 Mohandas K. Gandhi was assassinated.

1972 British soldiers shot and killed thirteen civil rights marchers.

Turn on the evening news or pick up a newspaper, and the leading stories are, more often than not, bad news. Why? Because violence and tragedy grab our attention in a way that good news just can’t. This, you might say, was an attention grabbing day in history. In 1835, a demented painter named Richard Lawrence tried to assassinate President Andrew Jackson. In 1889, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, and Baroness Marie Vetsera committed suicide at Mayerling, Austria, triggering a major revolution in eastern Europe. In 1972, British soldiers shot and killed thirteen Roman Catholic civil rights marchers in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in an incident that is still referred to as “Bloody Sunday” in the Emerald Isle. In 1933, Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany. That election launched his nation and the world into a full-scale war. But today also commemorates an ironic anniversary that reminds us that life is not always what we make it; sometimes life is what other people make for us. In 1948, the modem world’s greatest symbol of peaceful resistance, Mahatma Gandhi, was assassinated in New Delhi, India.

One of history’s true giants is a man who though stricken with polio, in tremendous pain, and unable to walk unaided, never appeared in public in a wheelchair. He knew that the people would not understand that he was more than capable. He brought a nation together; guided its people out of dark economic times; and proved that even in

The light of a great physical handicap, any individual can conquer any obstacle. On this day in 1882, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York.

Americans everywhere should revere the number thirteen: It represents the number of colonies that fought to be a united nation of states; it marks the number of states that ratified the Articles of Confederation that united them; and the American flag’s original thirteen stars symbolized the courage and commitment that established our nation. Thirteen is an important number today because it was on this day in 1781, the Articles of Confederation were adopted by Maryland. It was the last of the original thirteen states to do so.