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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;inhymn, post: 337933, member: 12626&quot;]Sorry...that phrase should have read when they &quot;recognized&quot;&nbsp; (not got) &quot;our&quot; independence.&nbsp; (not theirs)&nbsp; sorry.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>(Typing is not my first language!!)&nbsp; :goof:</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I thought that was really cool.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>And now we have a&nbsp;&nbsp; Dutch-American Heritage Day!!</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&quot;We are here today to honor another defining moment in the relationship between the United States and The Netherlands.&nbsp; Only four months after our newly minted nation declared its independence, a brigantine – a small two-masted vessel – called the <i>Andrew Doria</i> that had recently been converted from a merchant ship to one of the first four ships in the Continental navy, sailed into the Dutch port of St. Eustatius.&nbsp; When the <i>Andrew Doria</i> fired the ritual salute of 11 guns upon entering the harbor, the Governor of St. Eustatius Johannes de Graaff ordered the guns of Fort Orange to return the salute.&nbsp; That day, November 16, 1776, marks the first instance in which a foreign power recognized the American colonies as a sovereign nation.&nbsp; And this event has found its place in the annals of both Dutch and American history as the first salute by any foreign power to an American flag.&quot;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://amsterdam.usconsulate.gov/dutchamerican_heritage.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://amsterdam.usconsulate.gov/dutchamerican_heritage.html" rel="nofollow">http://amsterdam.usconsulate.gov/dutchamerican_heritage.html</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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