White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. It has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800.

The house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia Creek sandstone in the Neoclassical style. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he (with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe) expanded the building outward, creating two colonnades that were meant to conceal stables and storage. However, in 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed Executive Residence in October 1817. Construction continued with the addition of the South Portico in 1824 and the North in 1829.

Rachel

Rachel (Hebrew: רָחֵל, Modern Rakhél, Tiberian Rāḥēl) (Arabic: راحيل‎) was the favorite of Biblical patriarch Jacob's two wives as well as the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. The name "Rachel" is from an unused root meaning: "to journey as a ewe that is a good traveller." Rachel was the daughter of Laban and the younger sister of Leah, Jacob's first wife. Rachel was a niece of Rebekah (Jacob's mother), Laban being Rebekah's brother, making Jacob her first cousin.

Marriage to Jacob

Rachel is first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 29 when Jacob happens upon her as she is about to water her father's flock. She was the second daughter of Laban, Rebekah’s brother. Jacob had traveled a great distance to find Laban. Rebekah had sent him there to be safe from his furious twin brother, Esau.

During Jacob's stay, Jacob fell in love with Rachel and agreed to work seven years for Laban in return for her hand in marriage. On the night of the wedding, the bride was veiled and Jacob did not notice that Leah, Rachel's older sister, had been substituted for Rachel. Whereas "Rachel was lovely in form and beautiful," "Leah had tender eyes". Later Jacob confronted Laban, who excused his own deception by insisting that the older sister should marry first. He assured Jacob that after his wedding week was finished, he could take Rachel as a wife as well, and work another seven years as payment for her. When God “saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb”, (Gen 29:31) and she gave birth to four sons.

Hedd Wyn

Hedd Wyn (born Ellis Humphrey Evans, 13 January 1887 – 31 July 1917) was a Welsh language poet who was killed during the Battle of Passchendaele in World War I. He was posthumously awarded the bard's chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod. Evans, who had been awarded several chairs for his poetry, was inspired to take the bardic name Hedd Wyn (Welsh: blessed peace).

His style, which was influenced by romantic poetry, was dominated by themes of nature and religion. He also wrote several war poems following the outbreak of war on the Western Front.

Early life

Ellis Humphrey Evans was born on 13 January 1887 in Pen Lan, a house in the middle of Trawsfynydd, Meirionydd, Wales. He was the eldest of fourteen children born to Evan and Mary Evans. In the spring of 1887, the family moved to the fathers family 168 acre hill-farm of Yr Ysgwrn, a few miles from Trawsfynydd in Cwm Prysor.

Ellis Evans received a basic education from the age of six at the local primary school and Sunday school. He left school around fourteen years of age and worked as a shepherd on his father’s farm. Despite his brief attendance in formal schooling (6-14) he had a talent for poetry and had already composed his first poem by the age of eleven, "Y Das Fawn" (the peat stack). Although it was typical for many in much of rural Wales to only be able to speak Welsh, with 48% of the population of Meirionydd not speaking English at the 1911 census, Ellis's interests included both Welsh and English poetry. Hedd Wyn's main influence was the Romantic poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley and themes of nature and religion dominated his work. He spent his life there, apart from a short stint in South Wales.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Jacqueline Lee "Jackie" Kennedy Onassis (née Bouvier, pronounced /ˌˈdʒækliːn ˈliː ˈbuːvieɪ/; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and First Lady of the United States during his presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Five years later, she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis; they remained married until his death in 1975.

Jacqueline was the elder daughter of Wall Street stockbroker John Vernou Bouvier III and socialite Janet Lee Bouvier, who divorced in 1940. In 1951, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French literature at George Washington University and went on to work for the Washington Times-Herald as an Inquiring Photographer.

In 1952, Jacqueline met Congressman John F. Kennedy at a dinner party. Shortly after, he was elected to the United States Senate and the couple married the following year. They had four children, two of whom died in infancy. As First Lady, she aided her husband's administration with her presence in social events and with her highly publicized restoration of the White House. On November 22, 1963, she was riding with her husband in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, when he was assassinated. She and her children withdrew from public view after his funeral, and she remarried in 1968 after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

First Lady

First Lady is an unofficial title used for the wife or hostess of a non-monarchical head of state or chief executive. The term is also used to describe a woman seen to be at the top of her profession or art. Collectively, the President of the United States and his spouse are known as the First Couple and, if they have a family, they are usually referred to as the First Family.

The term is sometimes used, particularly in the US, to refer to the spouse of other non-monarchical heads of state, even if they do not have that style in their own country. Some other countries have a title, formal or informal, that is or can be translated as first lady. The title is not normally used for the wife of a head of government who is not also head of state. It is sometimes employed for the wife of a prime minister; an incorrect usage, as prime ministers do not precede the head of state.

The term in the United States is also used to refer to wives of governors and, less formally, to wives of college and university presidents. It has even been used in reference to female spouses of men who were chairmen of major corporations. There has not yet been a female US president, but the term "First Gentleman" is used in the United States for the husband of a governor.