By the end of 1777, France had smuggled roughly two million pounds of gunpowder and 60,000 French arms into the Colonies—roughly one for every soldier in the Continental Army.

On June 15, 1777, France’s Marquis de Lafayette arrived in South Carolina to help the colonists in their battle for independence. In 1805 William Butler Ogden, who would be the first mayor of ...

THIS DATE IN HISTORY:DEC. 17In 1777, France recognized American independence.In 1892 — the dress rehearsal for “The Nutcracker Suite” by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was staged in St. Petersburg ...