On This Day. 1803: President Jefferson announced that the U.S. had purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. The deal with Napoleon - who needed the money for a war w/Britain - doubled the size of the United States, encompassing what today are 15 states /1
Jefferson saw the Louisiana Purchase in national security terms, saying it would protect America's western flank - where Russia, Britain and Spain had commercial interests. Yet a decade later during the War of 1812, British invaders would attack from the East, by sea
On This Day. 1826: On the 50th anniversary of American independence, two of its principal architects—the only presidents who signed the Declaration of Independence itself—died: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson /1
Adams, the second president, served between 1797-1801; Jefferson, the third President, served between 1801-1809. On his tombstone, Jefferson listed his numerous accomplishments, but deliberately omitted the fact that he was ever president of the United States
A third president - and founding father - also died on this day: James Monroe in 1831. A protege of George Washington, who crossed the Delaware with him on Christmas night 1776, he was the fifth president, serving between 1817-25. Helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase in 1803
