On this day in 1775, in a speech to the Virginia Provincial Convention, Patrick Henry makes his famous plea for American independence from Britain, saying, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" going on to say, "or if not liberty, at least a decent position in the British government."

On this day in 1792, Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 94 in G Major, also known as the Surprise Symphony, is performed in public for the first time, in London, to a startled group of bystanders.


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