Celebrations Today – November 19
Holidays and observances
- Day of Discovery of Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico)
- Day of Missile Forces and Artillery (Russia, Belarus)
- Flag Day (Brazil)
- Garifuna Settlement Day (Belize)
- International Men’s Day
- Liberation Day (Mali)
- Martyrs’ Day (Uttar Pradesh, India)
- Prince Rainier Day (Monaco)
- Women’s Entrepreneurship Day
- World Toilet Day
Celebrations Today – USA: November 19
National Carbonated Beverage With Caffeine Day
National Play Monopoly Day
National Equal Opportunity Day
International Men’s Day
National Blow Bagpipes Day
National Have a Bad Day Day
National Women’s Entrepreneurship Day
World Toilet Day
Today in US History: November 19
Gettysburg Address
…we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.
On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered a short speech at the close of ceremonies dedicating the battlefield cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Honoring a request to offer a few remarks, Lincoln memorialized the Union dead and highlighted the redemptive power of their sacrifice. Placing the common soldier at the center of the struggle for equality, Lincoln reminded his listeners of the higher purpose for which blood was shed.
In composing the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln must have been reminded of the words of David Wills, a prominent citizen of Gettysburg charged with cleaning up after the grisly battle of July 1-3, 1863. Wills asked the president to attend the ceremony and make a “few appropriate remarks,” stating in his letter of invitation that Lincoln’s presence would
…kindle anew in the breasts of the Comrades of those brave dead, who are now in the tented field or nobly meeting the foe in the field, a confidence that they who sleep in death on the Battle Field are not forgotten by those highest in Authority; and they will feel that, should their fate be the same, their remains will not be uncared for.Letter, David Wills to President Lincoln,
Invitation to speak at the consecration of a Civil War cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa.,
November 2, 1863.
The Gettysburg Address
Gettysburg, Pa. Crowds at the Dedication of the Battlefield Cemetery,
November 19, 1863.
Selected Civil War Photographs
Edward Everett, perhaps the most popular orator of the day, spoke for two hours at the ceremony. Yet, Everett admitted to Lincoln, “I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.” In spite of Lincoln’s disclaimer that “the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,” his brief speech continues to resonate in the American memory.
National Cemetery,
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,
c1913.
Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991
For more information on Lincoln and Gettysburg:
- View the online exhibition The Gettysburg Address that features two of five known drafts of the Address. The exhibition includes a digitized version of the only known photograph of Lincoln at Gettysburg.
- See the entry for the Gettysburg Address in the Library’s Primary Documents in American History Web guide.
- Search the American Memory pictorial collections on Gettysburg to find more images of the town, battlefield, and memorials.
- Search the Today in History Archive on Gettysburg to read more about the battle waged there. Search on President Lincoln to read more about the Lincoln administration.
- Search on the term Gettysburg in First-Person Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920 to learn more about the battle. For example, The Heart of a Soldier, the wartime letters of General George E. Pickett, reveals the anguish of James Longstreet at the outset of the engagement:
For several minutes after I had saluted him he looked at me without speaking. Then in an agonized voice, the reserve all gone, he said: ‘Pickett, I am being crucified at the thought of the sacrifice of life which this attack will make.’General George E. Pickett, Letter to Sally Pickett from Gettysburg, July 4, 1863
The Heart of a Soldier.
First-Person Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920
Today in History – November 19-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