Tidbits of History, February 10

February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.

(The United States Congress has passed about 200-600 laws during each of its 115 biennial sessions; the total number of statutes that have been passed by Congress since 1789 is greater than 30,000.)
 

National Cream Cheese Brownie Day

National “Have a Brownie” Day

The February 10, 1763 Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War and France ceded Quebec to Great Britain. In the terms of the treaty, France gave up all its territories in mainland North America, effectively ending any foreign military threat to the British colonies there. Twenty years later another Treaty of Paris of 1783 formally ended the American Revolutionary War.

Birthday of Charles Lamb (February 10, 1775), English essayist. E.V. Lucas, his principal biographer, said Lamb was “the most lovable figure in English literature”. In one of his essays, Lamb wrote “Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.”

On this day in 1957, Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the best-selling “Little House” series of children’s novels based on her childhood on the American frontier, died at age 90 in Mansfield, Missouri. She wrote “Remember me with smiles and laughter, for that is how I will remember you all. If you can only remember me with tears, then don’t remember me at all.”

1967 – The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. It deals with presidential disability and succession. Section 4 may become important in the near future.

Section 1.

In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Section 2.
Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Section 3.
Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4.
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.