September 13 is celebrated in America Uncle Sam’s Day, which is one of the personifications of the United States. This holiday was introduced in 1989. The date was chosen in honor of the birthday of the “prototype” of this symbol – Sam Wilson, who was born in 1776.

Samuel Wilson was a rich cattle farmer, quietly earned his fortune and had no idea that one day he would become a symbol of America. And it happened in 1813, during the second war between the American states and England. Wilson was delivering supplies to a military base in his hometown of Troy, New York. On the barrels of meat, he marked US, referring to the United States. According to one of the versions, it was the soldiers who jokingly interpreted this marking as “Uncle Sam”. According to the second version, the letters US as the name of the supplier “Uncle Sam” were interpreted by an Irish guard who accepted the goods at the same base. Every day he fiercely argued with the soldiers, who, knowing the meaning of this abbreviation, made fun of the Irishman. The stubbornness of the watchman became known to journalists, and so began the story of Uncle Sam, which spread throughout the country.

The visual image of Uncle Sam was created by cartoonists. He first appeared in 1852 in the newspaper “Lichtar”, a caricature was drawn by the artist Frank Henry Bell. He depicted Uncle Sam as a tall, thin, elderly man with an old-fashioned beard, wearing a top hat in the colors of the national flag, striped trousers and a blue jacket. The picture did not look like the real Wilson, because he was short and fat.

• Nowadays, when Americans use the phrase “Uncle Sam”, they mean state units and the country’s government.