Oak Crest Heritage

On July 1, 1898, in the assault on the Spanish defenses outside Santiago de Cuba, Theodore Roosevelt led the 1st Volunteer Cavalry up Kettle Hill, the smaller rise dubbed for the old sugar-refining cauldrons along its slope. The famous charge associated with the Rough Riders was on Kettle Hill, not the larger San Juan Heights to the south. Roosevelt then crossed the ravine on foot to support the second wave going up San Juan Hill itself. He called the action his "crowded hour" for the rest of his life.

@surlydave_40 @discover_och WW2 museum. And it's honestly an amazing place. You can actually book a ride on a Higgins boat on Lake Ponchatrain.

The landing craft that put Americans ashore at Normandy, Sicily, North Africa, and every Pacific island assault was designed by Andrew Jackson Higgins of New Orleans, who had no engineering degree. His Higgins Industries built more than 23,000 LCVPs during the war from yellow pine, oak, and steel. Eisenhower said after the war, "Andrew Higgins is the man who won the war for us. If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, the whole strategy of the war would have been different." There is a historical marker for him in Columbus, Nebraska where he was born. The marker can be found at the Andrew Jackson Higgins National Memorial

Daniel Joseph Daly of Long Island, New York was a first sergeant in the 6th Marines at Belleau Wood on June 6, 1918. He had already received the Medal of Honor twice, once at the Battle of Peking during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 and again in Haiti in 1915. When his company was pinned down under artillery fire at the edge of the wheat field outside the wood, Daly stood up and led the counter-attack that broke the German position. His command recommended him for a third Medal of Honor, but by the regulations of the time the medal could not be awarded a third time. He was given the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, and France's Médaille militaire instead.

Seth Warner was a leader of the Green Mountain Boys alongside his cousin Ethan Allen. He helped capture Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775. He went on to lead at the Battles of Hubbardton and Bennington in 1777. The marker stands next to his statue at the Bennington Battle Monument in Vermont.

You need to be plaquemaxxing.

On March 15, 1781, at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina, a twenty-one-year-old Virginia dragoon named Peter Francisco cut down eleven British soldiers with a broadsword. Francisco was six feet six inches tall and weighed 260 pounds. Washington had ordered the six-foot broadsword made for him after Francisco complained that a regulation sword was too small in his hand. A British guardsman ran a bayonet through Francisco's leg during the fight and pinned him to his horse. He stayed in the saddle and rode off the field alive.

Two years ago today, Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at the Butler Farm Show Grounds. The bullet grazed his ear. He got back up with his fist in the air and told the crowd "fight, fight, fight." He won the presidency four months later. Part of our Presidential Heritage collection.

Not really sure why there is a content warning on here, x is apparently not a fan of Hannah Duston…

Swim out past the breakers

On July 31, 1809, an 81-year-old John Stark was too sick to travel to a reunion of Battle of Bennington veterans and sent the toast he would have given by letter. It read: "Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils." Stark lived thirteen more years and died in 1822. New Hampshire adopted the line as the state motto in 1945, one hundred and thirty-six years after he wrote it.