The vote that would create the United States was deadlocked, and the man who could break the tie was eighty miles away, dying of cancer, on the wrong side of a thunderstorm.
His name was Caesar Rodney. On the first of July 1776, while Congress argued itself toward independence in Philadelphia, he was stuck back in Delaware. He was tamping down Loyalist trouble, in constant pain from the cancer eating at his face and fighting for breath due to his asthma.
Then the letter came. Delaware's two delegates in Congress were split. One for independence, one against. Without a tiebreaker, the colonies would not stand united. And a divided front was exactly what the Crown was counting on.
He did not hesitate. He climbed onto his horse near midnight and rode straight into the storm. Lightning split the sky. The roads turned to sludge. A journey that normally took two days but he made it in eighteen hours. He stopped only to change horses, soaked with every mile.
He reached Independence Hall on the morning of July 2 just as the vote was called, still in his boots and spurs. Caked in mud. Thomas McKean never forgot the sight of him standing in the doorway.
Rodney walked in and cast his vote for independence. It broke Delaware's tie, and with that, not a single colony stood against the break from Britain.
On this day, 250 years ago, a dying man rode all night through a storm so America could be born.
America 250 🇺🇸
“So you paid for a subscription to watch Reds baseball this year?”
“That’s right.”
“And the team has been terrible your entire life?”
“That’s correct Dave”
“And you thought that this year would be different?”
“Yes”
“Are the games at least fun to watch?”
“No”
“Is the broadcast at least enjoyable?”
“No Dave”
If you wear a pinstripe top…you have to wear pinstripe pants.
If you wear pinstripe pants, you can wear a solid top…but it cannot be white.
These are the baseball uniform rules set forth by the Baseball Gods. I do not make them.
I can't afford to go to a World Cup game. Yet all these fans from 3rd world countries are flying over, staying in jacked up overpriced hotels, and then spending $5k per ticket. Are we all being told lies? Is America poor or is it just me?
United States really should’ve put all of the knockout round games in SEC towns.
“Oh you wanna beat America in the round of sixteen? Great. You’ll do it in Tuscaloosa.”
Hockey’s trophy presentation is just better than most other pro leagues because the players who actually win get to hold it first instead of some old guy.
USMNT has so much motion the prime minister of Canada skipped his own country’s match so he could get jacked off under a table by Katy Perry while the USA steamrolled Paraguay.
Checkmate, world.