The United States Declaration of Independence was printed in by Mason John Dunlap in Philadelphia , Pennsylvanian on this day in 1776.

John Dunlap American printer and patriot who first printed the Declaration of Independence. He was born in Strabane, Ireland and when a boy went to live with an uncle, William Dunlap, a printer and publisher in Philadelphia. In 1771 he began the publication of the Pennsylvania Packet. This paper was changed into a daily in 1784, the first in the United States. It afterwards became the North American and United States Gazette. He was appointed printer to congress and in this capacity first printed the Declaration of Independence. He was an officer in the first troop of Philadelphia cavalry which became the bodyguard of Washington at Trenton and Princeton. In 1780 he gave 4,000 pounds to supply provisions to the Revolutionary Army. He was a member of Lodge No. 2, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He entered the Celestial Lodge on November 27, 1812.

Mason & Admiral David Faragut was born on this day in 1801 at Campbell Station, Farragut, Knoxville, Tennessee. He was famous for the words spoken during his naval battle in Mobile Bay in Alabama. "Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead!"

David G. Farragut (1801-1870) First Admiral of the U.S. Navy. He was born on July 5, 1801 at Campbell's Station, near Knoxville, Tenn., son of George Farragut, naval and army officer of the American Revolution. He was adopted in 1808 by Commander Porter who educated him at Washington, D.C. and Chester, Pa. He was a midshipman at 91/2 years of age and was placed in command of a prize ship when only 12. He was on routine naval duty from 1810-1847 and commanded the ship Saratoga during the Mexican War. He was on duty on the ship that carried Ambassador Joel Poinsett, to Mexico, and also in the convoy that escorted Lafayette, back to France in 1825. He was detailed to establish the Mare Island Naval Base in San Francisco Bay. He was the outstanding naval officer of the Civil War. He was in command of the West Gulf blockading squadron with orders to take New Orleans, which he did in 1862 without bloodshed, bombarding Fort Jackson and running his ships past Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip. In 1863 he ran his flagship, Hartford, and one other vessel past Port Hudson and thereby controlled the Mississippi between Port Hudson and Bernard G. Farrar Vicksburg. Back into the Gulf, he silenced Fort Morgan, ran a blockade of mines, dispersed the Confederate fleet and captured Forts Morgan and Gaines. In December, 1864, Congress created the rank of vice admiral for him and in 1866 created the rank of admiral. He is a member of the American Hall of Fame. His lodge is not known, but he is thought to have been made a Mason on the island of Malta in 1818, when he was 17 years of age, serving in the Mediterranean under Bainbridge. He entered the Celestial Lodge on August 14, 1870, and was buried with Masonic honors by the Grand Master of New Hampshire and St. Johns Lodge No. 1 of Portsmouth. Admiral George W. Baird, wrote the following of him: "While Farragut's Masonic connection is beyond doubt, the writer has been unable to identify his lodge. Naval Lodge No. 87 was instituted at Vallejo, opposite the Navy Yard at Mare Island, and there are members of that lodge still living (1920) who greeted the admiral when he visited there. Surgeon General John Mills Brown, of the Navy, who was Grand Master of California as well as master of Naval Lodge and also an active 33rd, was intimate with the admiral in California and remembered him as a Mason and a promotor of Masonry. He did not, however, remember the name of his lodge." Admiral Baird wrote another interesting incident in connection with Farragut: "After the unveiling of the statue (of Farragut in Washington, D.C., Bartholomew Dig-gins, a member of Brightwood Lodge No. 24 in the District of Columbia, who had been in Farragut's gig crew all during the war, asked for his old flag and offered a new one for it. The secretary of the Navy granted his request. Many years afterwards, when Dewey returned from the Philippines, Diggins asked the writer, who was about to go to New York to make arrangements for Dewey's reception, to present the flag to Dewey. The flag was duly presented and it was the only admiral's pennant ever flown by Farragut or Dewey.”