Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of America, wrote the Declaration of Independence. During his Presidency, Jefferson helped defeat the Northwest African Berber Muslim states during the First Barbary War from 1801-1805.

Jefferson secretly fathered six children with Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman of his at Monticello, his primary plantation.

Monticello and its gardens, watercolor by Jane Braddick Peticolas, 1825

The legend of George Washington has only grown over the years, because the dude was a badass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbRom1Rz8OA

Jacqueline Kennedy’s was a fashion icon, and her famous pink Chanel suit became a symbol of her husband’s assassination.

Five years after her husband’s death, she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis; they remained married until his death in 1975.

By invoking these words from Kennedy’s inaugural, Hannan lets those in the audience and at home know that the vision set forth by the former President remains unfulfilled, and will require hard work and commitment for it to be realized.

On July 15, 1960, Kennedy accepted the Democratic Nomination for the Presidency in front of eighty thousand people in the Los Angeles Coliseum while 35 million Americans watched on their television sets at home, according to historian Theodore H. White in his book The Making of the Presidency 1960

http://youtu.be/ccL62Z045Ks?t=2m

In the midst of the Cold War, JFK delivered a speech before the 18th General Assembly of the United Nations on September 20, 1963.

In the speech, Kennedy called attention to the progress made towards peace by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United States through a treaty to ban nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space, and under water. Though this treaty represented significant international cooperation and progress, Kennedy cautioned that the event was a “milestone, but it is not the millennium” and that much work was still to be done in order to “move the world to a just and lasting peace.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhmamM5Kt68

This verse is the most famous passage of Ecclesiastes, most likely composed in the last part of the 3rd century B.C.

On first glance the passage appears to be depressing and fatalistic–things are going to happen when they’re going to happen, and we can’t do a thing about it.

Yet, a more nuanced interpretation of the passage shows that the Bible writer was speaking of God’s purpose and how it would affect mankind. We know this because of the context of the passage; after mentioning all the things that appear to have “an appointed time,” the write of the passage wrote: “I have seen the occupation that God has given to the sons of mankind in which to be occupied. Everything he has made pretty in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:10,11)

At the time of JFK’s inauguration on January 20, 1961, America had suffered approximately 1,250,000 military casualties.

Kennedy brings to mind a quotation from Winston Churchill:

“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”