Celebrations Today – January 12
Holidays and observances
- Christian feast day:
- Earliest day on which Lee–Jackson Day can fall while January 18 is the latest, celebrated on the Friday before Martin Luther King Day. (Commonwealth of Virginia)
- Memorial Day (Turkmenistan)
- National Youth Day (India)
- Prosecutor General’s Day (Russia)
- Zanzibar Revolution Day (Tanzania)
Celebrations Today – USA: January 12
Kiss a Ginger Day
National Curried Chicken Day
National Marzipan Day
National Pharmacist Day
National Curried Chicken Day
National Feast of Fabulous Wild Men Day
International Kiss a Ginger Day
National Stick To Your New Year’s Resolution Day
National Work Harder Day
Today in US History: January 12
The Missions of Old California
Mission Santa Clara de Asís,
Photocopy of painting by Oriana Day
1861-1865.
[in de Young Museum, San Francisco]
Built in America: Historic Building and Engineering, 1933-Present
On January 12, 1777 Padre Thomas Peña, under the direction of Padre Junípero Serra, officially founded Mission Santa Clara de Asís, the eighth of California’s twenty-one missions. Located along El Camino Real, the Royal Road, these missions stretched up the California coast from San Diego to Sonoma, a distance of about seven hundred miles. When the chain was completed each mission lay about one day’s journey by horse apart from the next.
Each of the twenty-one missions, founded between 1769 and 1823, was similarly constructed in a quadrangular shape and consisted of a patio, chapel, convento (living quarters for the priests), kitchen, and dormitório. The mission also had craft rooms, storehouses, irrigated fields, orchards, and grazing land. In the fields the missionaries frequently worked side-by-side with their converts who were expected to live apart from unconverted members of their tribe and abide by strict rules or face reprimand, in some cases the lash. Over the years, Native Americans displayed a wide range of reactions to the mission way of life: some embraced it wholeheartedly, some rejected it violently, others endured it for the various material and cultural benefits it bestowed.
Father Serra, a native of Mallorca, Spain, inaugurated the first of the missions, San Diego de Alcala, in 1769, having accompanied Gaspar de Portolá from Mexico during the latter’s occupation of Alta California. Before his death in 1784, Serra oversaw the development of the first nine missions in the chain, including Mission San Carlos Borroméo de Carmelo (1770), San Antonio de Padua (1771), San Gabriel Arcángel (1771), San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (1772), San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores) (1776), San Juan Capistrano (1776), and San Buenaventura (1782).
San Juan Bautista Mission, Outer Wall,
San Juan Bautista, California,
founded 1797.
American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920: A Study Collection from the Harvard Graduate School of Design
With one exception, the rest of the missions were established while Mexico was part of the Spanish empire. They include the Missions Santa Barbara (1786), La Purisíma Concepcion (1787), Santa Cruz (1791), Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (1791), San José (1797), San Juan Bautista (1797), San Miguel de Arcángel (1797), San Fernando Rey de España (1797), San Luis Rey de Francia (1798), Santa Ynéz (1804), San Rafael Arcángel (1817).
The last in the chain, Mission San Francisco de Solano, was founded in 1823, shortly after Mexico declared its independence from Spain. It was launched by a young Basque priest, Padre José Altimira, without the knowledge of his superiors but with support from the civil governor, who wished to halt Russian settlement in Northern California by staking a Mexican land claim via the mission. Just as the priests had always conceived of the missions as a means to convert the Indians and inculcate Spanish culture, the military and civil authorities used them as territorial outposts and aids to trade and colonization.
Many factors contributed to the decline of the California missions. Mexico halted stipends sent to the missions, and forced Spaniards, including the Franciscan padres, from Mexican territory. Soon after independence Mexico’s Congress also passed a law of secularization to speed the transfer of mission lands from the Catholic church to the Indians. In actuality, however, most mission assets were quickly confiscated by corrupt local officials and squatters, and by mid-century the California mission system lay in ruin.
In 1851, during the height of the Gold Rush era, the Mission Santa Clara was given to the Jesuits who incorporated it into the University of Santa Clara. Rebuilt in 1779 and 1781, and restored after a flood in 1784, an earthquake in 1818, and a fire in 1926, the tower of Santa Clara still contains an original bell brought to that mission from Spain.
Meeting of Frontiers is a bilingual English-Russian presentation concerning the meeting of the Russian-American frontier in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Among its many items is Relacion historica de la vida y apostolicas tareas del venerable padre fray Junipero Serra, y de las misiones que fundó en la California Septentrional, y nuevos establecimientos de Monterey, the 1787 Spanish-language biography of Junipero Serra written by Serra’s friend and fellow Franciscan, Francisco Palóu.
U.S. Highway 101
Dorothea Lange, photographer.
near King City, California,
February 1936.
America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA/OWI, 1935-1945
Not only the twenty-one missions but four presidios and two Spanish pueblos (today’s cities of Los Angeles and San Jose) lay along El Camino Real. Over time the old road was replaced by modern streets and highways, mainly by US 101 (above), but also by I-5, Route 72, Route 82, and I-280.
Search the following collections on the term California mission for more information:
- California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties
- American Environmental Photographs, 1891-1936: From the University of Chicago Library
- American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920: A Study Collection from the Harvard Graduate School of Design
- Built in America: Historic Building and Engineering, 1933-Present
- Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920
- Parallel Histories: Spain, the United States, and the American Frontier, a bilingual, multi-format English-Spanish digital library site that explores the history, geography, and culture of Spain and the interactions between Spain and the United States from the 15th century to the present.
The California missions were noted for their fine music, a passion shared by both the Spanish padres and the natives. Missionaries introduced European plainsong, polyphonic and even operatic pieces to their converts who sang at religious services and secular entertainments. Search on the term mission music in California Gold: Folk Music from the Thirties to hear samples of Spanish mission music. These include an old mission chant, Alabado (a song of praise). Recorded in 1938 at the Mission Santa Barbara, this piece was transmitted by Fernandito, an Indian associated with Mission Santa Ynéz [Ines].
Search the black and white photographs of the FSA/OWI Photographs, 1935-1945 on terms such as San Diego, Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, and San Francisco to see how these missions and pueblos looked about two hundred years after the missions were active. Also search the FSA/OWI color photographs on the term Los Angeles.
A search on the term California in the Cities and Towns section of Map Collections (1500-Present), or in Panoramic Maps, 1847-1929, will reveal items such as The Unique Map of California, and an 1877 Bird’s Eye View of Santa Barbara, California.
To learn more about the legacy of Spain in the present day United States and in Puerto Rico explore the collections:
- Puerto Rico at the Dawn of the Modern Age: Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century Perspectives
- Hispano Music & Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection
- Parallel Histories: Spain, the United States, and the American Frontier
To compare what was happening on the East Coast of the present day United States during the era in which many of the California missions were developed, examine the Time Line – America During the Age of Revolution, 1764-1775 in the collection Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789.
John Hancock
John Hancock,
portrait by John Singleton Copley (1738-1815),
photograph of painting at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,
circa 1900-1912.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920
January 12 marks the birth of John Hancock (1737-93), often remembered for his bold signature to the Declaration of Independence. President of the Second Continental Congress, Hancock was the first to sign the document.
A Boston selectman and representative to the Massachusetts General Court, Hancock financed much of his region’s resistance to British authority. In addition, he presided over insurgent groups including the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts (1774) and its Committee of Safety. On June 19, 1775, President of the Continental Congress Hancock commissioned George Washington commander-in-chief of the Army of the United Colonies.
A year later, Hancock sent Washington a copy of the July 4, 1776 congressional resolution calling for independence as well as a copy of the Declaration of Independence. He requested Washington have the Declaration read to the Continental Army. Hancock was also active in creating a navy for the new nation.
Hancock’s skills as orator and moderator were much admired, but during the Revolution he was most often sought out for his ability to raise funds and supplies for American troops. Yet, while governor of Massachusetts even Hancock had trouble meeting the Continental Congress’s demand’s for beef cattle to feed the hungry army. On January 19, 1781, General Washington warned Hancock:
I should not trouble your Excellency, with such reiterated applications on the score of supplies, if any objects less than the safety of these Posts on this River, and indeed the existance of the Army, were at stake. By the enclosed Extracts of a Letter, of Yesterday, from Major Genl. Heath, you will see our present situation, and future prospects. If therefore the supply of Beef Cattle demanded by the requisitions of Congress from Your State, is not regularly forwarded to the Army, I cannot consider myself as responsible for the maintenance of the Garrisons below [West Point, New York], or the continuance of a single Regiment in the Field.George Washington to John Hancock, January 19, 1781.
George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799
After the war, Hancock represented his state under the Articles of Confederation (1785-86). He resumed the governorship of Massachusetts (1780-85 and 1787-93), and led his state toward ratification of the federal Constitution. He died in 1793 while serving his ninth term as Massachusetts’ governor.
Declaration of Independence,
July 4th, 1776 [detail],
engraving by W.J. Ormsby, 1876,
of a painting by J. Trumbull.
By Popular Demand: Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies, 1789-Present.
[Hancock is seated on right.]
- Search on John Hancock in the George Washington Papers at the Library, 1741-1799 to read 15 years of correspondence between the two men.
- Examine documents signed by Hancock during his tenure as president of the Continental Congress. Search the collection Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789 on John Hancock. Or, search the collection A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation, 1774-1875 on his name to read entries from the Journals of the Continental Congress.
- To find additional images and documents associated with John Hancock, search across the American Memory collections on his name.
- Learn more about events and people related to the history of Massachusetts by searching on that state in the Today in History Archive, or perform the same search across the American Memory collections. Read, for example, about the preeminent early American printer, Isaiah Thomas in Today in History, or see the former Congressman, Senator and Massachusetts Governor John Davis (1787-1854) in the American Memory collection America’s First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotype Portraits and Views, 1839-1864.
- The original Declaration of Independence is on display in the Exhibition Hall under the Rotunda of the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The image below of Hancock’s signature on the Declaration is taken from the 1823 engraving made by printer William J. Stone and available through the National Archives Web site.
Today in History – January 12-External Links
Today’s Weather in History
Today in Earthquake History
This Day in Naval History
Today’s Document from the National Archives
Today’s Events, Births & Deaths –Wikipedia
Today in History by AP
On this Day -1950 to 2005 – Today’s Story–BBC
On This Day: The New York Times
This Day in History –History.com
Today in Canadian History – Canada Channel
History of Britain that took place On This Day
Russia in History –Russiapedia