I like history and I couldn’t think of any interesting hobbies that people would like to read about so I decided to do my blogs on historical events that occur on the day I write the blog.

On this day, the fourth of February 1865, Robert E. Lee is named general-in-chief  Confederate forces. This blog will only focus on his military accomplishments so please don’t crucify me for writing about a Confederate general. Robert E. Lee was a talented military leader and first served the United States before serving the Confederacy due to his home state of Virginia joining the Southern cause.

Robert E. Lee was born on January 19, 1807, and died on October 12th, 1870. Robert E. Lee graduated from West Point and served in the Mexican-American War as a Captain and conducted important reconnaissance missions. Interestingly enough Lee would go on to marry George Washington’s step-great-granddaughter. Robert E. Lee was initially not a large plantation owner but would acquire large amounts of slaves and land after inheriting it from his father in law.

All of that aside, Lee was a very prominent figure in the American Civil War and led Confederate forces to victory and defeat. Lee has a reputation among many for being a very capable general and had even received an offer to lead Union forces. Despite this and his desire to preserve the union, Lee would lead the forces of his home state. Lee would lead forces to Antietam, achieve victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and would lose decisively at the battle of Gettysburg.

Gettysburg would also sign the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House to General Grant on April 9th, 1865.

Another important event occurred on February 4th but in 2004. On this date, Mark Zuckerberg would launch Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room. Everyone knows about Facebook nowadays, but not many realize just how big of a company Facebook is. Facebook is not only its own social media platform, but Facebook also owns Instagram Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp, four of the most downloaded apps of the last decade. Facebook is currently valued at $527 billion making it one of the largest companies and platforms in the entire world.

Facebook was initially for Harvard students only but was expanded to other prestigious universities before in 2006 it was expanded to anyone older than thirteen. Zuckerberg and the other founders of Facebook had legal issues with ownership and the like that ended up with a lawsuit that would inspire the movie The Social Network. Zuckerberg and Facebook have gotten into a lot of trouble recently over user privacy and information collection. Zuckerberg has sat through congressional hearings and has suffered legal issues due to what many claim is unethical practices towards user privacy.

 

Cites

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50838013#:~:text=The%20four%20most%20downloaded%20apps%20of%20the%20decade%20are%20all,which%20was%20published%20on%20Monday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Lee

https://www.onthisday.com/

https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-side-project-facebook-2019-9