October 13 · This Day in America
There is barely a city here yet — surveyor's stakes, mud, a few buildings rising out of Potomac lowland. On this day workmen lay the cornerstone of a house no president has ever seen, designed by an Irish immigrant named James Hoban, to be built by enslaved and free Black laborers and European craftsmen side by side. It is meant for whoever the people choose, this term and the next and the one after that, forever. John Adams will move in eight years from now, into rooms still wet with plaster. Every president since has lived in this house, been argued with in it, mourned in it, sworn in near it. And here is the strange part: the cornerstone they set down today was never found again. Renovations, inspections, even a search ordered by Truman — gone. The republic's most famous house rests on a stone no one can locate. It holds anyway.
Source: www.history.com
Also on this day · 1775
A landlocked Congress, a coastline blockaded by the most powerful fleet on Earth, and almost no money — and the Continental Congress votes anyway to arm vessels and intercept the king's supply ships. It is two ships to start. John Adams is on the committee. From this audacious, nearly absurd vote the United States Navy counts its birthday. The fleet that would one day span every ocean began as a dare.
Source: www.history.navy.mil