Celebrations Today – October 17
Holidays and observances
- Christian feast day:
- Dessalines Day (Haiti)
- Digital Society Day (India)
- Edge Day (International observance, Straight Edge Movement)
- International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
- Loyalty Day (Argentina)
Celebrations Today – USA: October 17
National Edge Day
National Mulligan Day
National Pasta Day
Black Poetry Day
Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity – Third Tuesday in October
National Pharmacy Technician Day – Third Tuesday in October
National Four Prunes Day
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
National Edge Day
National Spreadsheet Day
National Wear Something Gaudy Day
World Trauma Day
Today in US History: October 17
Monroe Doctrine
Shall we entangle ourselves at all, in European politicks, & wars, on the side of any power, against other…?Letter James Monroe to Thomas Jefferson Seeking Foreign Policy Advice,
October 17, 1823.
Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division’s First 100 Years
James Monroe, Half-Length Portrait, Seated at Desk…
Pendleton’s Lithography,
circa 1828 [?].
By Popular Demand: Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies, 1789-Present
On October 17, 1823, President James Monroe wrote a letter to his friend and Virginia neighbor Thomas Jefferson seeking advice on foreign policy. The issue at hand was whether to accept an offer from Great Britain to issue a joint declaration warning other powers such as Spain and France not to intervene in the affairs of Central and South America.
Both Jefferson and former president James Madison, whom Monroe also had consulted, recommended cooperation with Britain. However, Monroe’s Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, was more cautious, arguing instead for an independent denunciation of any further European colonization in the Western Hemisphere. In addition to the potential threat from Spain and France, Adams was also concerned about Russian encroachments on the west coast of North America. “It would be more candid,” Adams warned Monroe at a November 7, 1823, cabinet meeting, “as well as more dignified, to avow our principles explicitly to Russia and France, than to come in as a cockboat in the wake of the British man-of-war.”
J. Q. Adams,
Engraving, from an original painting by J.P.A. (I.e., G. P. A.)Healy,
c1898.
By Popular Demand: Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies, 1789-Present
Heeding Adams’s advice, Monroe chose to pursue a course independent of Great Britain. He outlined his policy, later known as the Monroe Doctrine, in an address to Congress on December 2, 1823. “We should consider any attempt [on the part of European nations],” Monroe declared, “to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.” Monroe also stated, “that the American continents…Although the United States initially lacked the power or influence to uphold the Monroe Doctrine, it remained in force largely because it was consistent with Great Britain’s interest in maintaining access to Latin American markets.
As the United States gained military and economic strength, American leaders began to interpret the Monroe Doctrine as justification for U.S. involvement in Latin America. In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt, who had been an enthusiastic supporter of the Spanish-American War, added the “Roosevelt Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine. In order to prevent European nations from involving themselves in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere, the Roosevelt Corollary proclaimed that if a Latin American country failed to maintain internal order or pay its international debts, the United States had the exclusive right to intervene with military force to rectify the situation.
Law Office of James Monroe
Fredericksburg, Virginia,
Theodor Horydczak, photographer,
circa 1920-1950.
Washington as It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923-1959
- Search for letters written to and from James Monroe in the papers of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.
- A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875 contains legislative and executive documents concerning foreign policy from the time of the Monroe administration in the American State Papers.
- Theodore Roosevelt was the first U.S. president to have his career and life chronicled on a large scale by motion picture companies. Theodore Roosevelt: His Life and Times on Film features 104 films that record events in Roosevelt’s life from the Spanish-American War in 1898 to his death in 1919.
- Search the Today in History Archive on Spanish-American War or Latin America to learn more about how the Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary influenced U.S. foreign policy. Read about U.S. Marines landing at Guantánamo Bay and U.S. troops pulling out of the Dominican Republic.
- Search the Today in History Archive for features on various United States presidents. Read more, for example, about Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Theodore Roosevelt.
Today in History – October 17-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