Today in American History…Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 at the family’s Shadwell Plantation in Virginia (in 1743, Virginia was known as the British Colony of Virginia)

In 1761, at the age of sixteen, he entered the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia and studied mathematics, metaphysics, and philosophy. He later wrote of his time at William & Mary that he “heard more common good sense, more rational & philosophical conversations than in all the rest of my life.”

Thomas Jefferson was an avid reader and treasured books. He actually amassed three libraries in his lifetime. He organized his wide variety of books into three broad categories corresponding with elements of the human mind: memory, reason, and imagination. After the British burned the Library of Congress, he sold this second library to the U.S. government to help starry the Library of Congress collection. Never one to stop collecting books, he soon resumed collecting for his own personal library. He once wrote to John Adams, “I cannot live without books.”

By the time of his death on July 4, 1826, his personal collection of books amassed to about 2000 volumes – many still available to see at his Monticello home.

Thomas Jefferson was famous for many things and some of the highlights of his life were:

• Credited with being the author of the Declaration of Independence.

• Member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, May 11, 1769 – June 1, 1775

• Delegate from Virginia to the Continental Congress, June 20, 1775 – September 26, 1776

• Second Governor of Virginia, June 1, 1779 – June 3, 1781

• Delegate from Virginia to the Congress of the Confederation, November 3, 1783 – May 7, 1784

• Minister Plenipotentiary for Negotiating Treaties of Amity and Commerce, May 12, 1784 – May 11, 1786

• Second United States Minister to France, May 17, 1785 – September 26, 1789

• First United States Secretary of State, March 22, 1790 – December 31, 1793

• Second Vice President of the United States, March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801

• Third President of the United States, March 4, 1801 – March 4, 1809

In 1819, Thomas Jefferson founded The University of Virginia which was one of his own personal greatest accomplishments.

On his epitaph that he personally wrote, where he rests eternally at Monticello, it is written:

HERE WAS BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON, AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.