This Date In History

This article was featured in our weekly newsletter, the Liberator Online. To receive it in your inbox, sign up here. Well, not THIS date in history. Something we’ve added to the Liberator Online to help inspire libertarian activists is a list of important historical dates in the week ahead. These include holidays, significant laws enacted, and birthdays of historical figures with a major impact on the libertarian community. This calendar is by no means a finished product, but we have the beginning of what we think will be a terrific tool for libertarians. I would be remiss if I did not thank the Chairman of the Board for The Advocates for Self-Government, Dr. James Lark III, who compiled this information for our use. His efforts brought us our first iteration, and we welcome your additions. How great would it be for each of us to utilize (and amend) this calendar to help guide our libertarian outreach? For some of the events listed or holidays observed, a simple post to Facebook could suffice. It may remind or inspire a fellow libertarian activist about that great idea they have to point out the birthday of an influential figure for libertarians, like Adam Smith’s, whose birthday is just 4 days from today. For more significant historical events, like the signing of the Magna Carta 800 years ago, you may be moved, as our friend and President of the Foundation for Economic Education Lawrence Reed was, to share a terrific lesson about the history, motivations, and effects of such a ground-breaking document. There may even be an opportunity to promote and host an event locally to draw attention to something that holds significance to libertarians for the public at large, like Constitution Day in September. In addition to pointing to the upcoming week’s events, we prepared a full listing on our website for your use. There, you’ll also find a .pdf for your reference and future planning, an option I hope you’ll take advantage of to have a more successful (and less rushed) outreach activity. Will you commit to one activity each week? Even something as small as noting these events on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or your favorite other social media outlet will have an impact to grow the libertarian movement. If you do, please share it with us to feature in an upcoming issue, by e-mailing me directly with a photo, link, or description of what you did.