France presented the people of the United States with the Statue of Liberty on this day in 1886. Called Lady Liberty for short, her full name is La Liberté éclairant le monde, or Liberty Enlightens the World. She is Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom. The crown she wears on her head has seven rays; symbolic of Earth’s seven continents. In her left arm is a tablet inscribed with the date July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet, and her right hand holds aloft a flaming torch. On her pedestal is a plaque with the poem, The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
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