This day in history - October 18

[seamusTX]

1767 - The Mason-Dixon line was established as the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania. It eventually also became the official border dividing those states from Delaware and the part of Virginia that later became the state of West Virginia.



Named for the surveyors who staked it out, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, the Mason-Dixon line has, of course, come to refer to the division between North and South. However, it is less than 400 miles long and is well north of what I generally consider the South today.

1867 - The purchase of Alaska from Russia was completed.

The purchase, costing $7,200,000, was negotiated by Secretary of State William Seward and was widely ridiculed at the time as "Seward's Folly." In retrospect, it was one of the most brilliant transactions of all time. The United States peacefully acquired a rich territory (though they didn't know about the gold or oil at the time), and most likely avoided an eventual war with Russia.

- Jim

[longtooth]

Very true about where the South starts. I knew it did not go to the Mighty Mississippi as many think, but I thought it extended through the Kentucky area. Sure did not think it only 400 miles long.

Good job.

[seamusTX]

I've had people tell me that the Mason-Dixon line is the mostly straight-line border between Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina. Aside from being wrong, that's completely daft, because it would put Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy, in the North.

A possibly interesting factoid associated with the Mason-Dixon line is the semicircular border between Delaware and Pennsylvania, which intersects the eastern end of the Mason-Dixon line. It's the only semicircular border in the United States.

- Jim

[KaiserB]

I've had people tell me that the Mason-Dixon line is the mostly straight-line border between Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina. Aside from being wrong, that's completely daft, because it would put Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy, in the North.

A possibly interesting factoid associated with the Mason-Dixon line is the semicircular border between Delaware and Pennsylvania, which intersects the eastern end of the Mason-Dixon line. It's the only semicircular border in the United States.

- Jim

Along this subject line... I heard an interview with the author of "How the States Got Their Shapes" Mark Stein. It was quite interesting to find many of the survey lines, water boundaries and arbitrary decisions (such as, to make states 3 degrees of attitude tall, or 4 degrees of attitude tall) were all factors in determining state size.

[bryang]

That was very interesting. I enjoy studying history, there is always something more to learn. I, also, did not know it was only 400mi long.

Thank you!
-geo

[KBCraig]

Other than military courses (Kansas, Oklahoma, and Georgia), and being stationed overseas in Germany, I've live my whole life in Arkansas and Texas.

I've never seen more rebel flags in my whole life, than I saw in northern Maryland and southern Pennsylvania. They take that distinction seriously up there!

[apostate]

Maryland and West Virginia were/are Yankee states, despite being South of the Mason-Dixon line.

[jimlongley]

I was born in DC, and an unreconstructed Southern relative sent a (joke) card to my mother stating that the birth of a child north of the Mason-Dixon line would not be recognized as legitimate in the family.

This card resided in the scrapbook my mother kept, and when I was old enough to know the truth I sent Aunt Ruth a letter reeducating her.

I got to Texas as soon as I could.