National Patriot Day (9/11)

You may not have known that Uncle Sam was a real person! In case you’re unfamiliar, “Uncle Sam” is the famous patriotic character we had seen on posters: “I want you for U.S. Army.” 

Samuel Wilson was born in 1766 and is the real-life Uncle Sam and worked as a meat packer in New York. During the War of 1812, he supplied troops with meat shipped in barrels. The barrels contained the branding “U.S.”, short for “United States,” but people joked that it actually stood for “Uncle Sam.” 

The story eventually spread and the rest is history (literally). 

This photo of Wilson was taken in the 1850s, and is the only known photograph of him.