Four Great Days
4-weeks (first 4) | Registration opens 2/14/2026 9:00 AM EST
This course will explore four dramatic days in American history: the day in 1869 when the two halves of the Transcontinental Railroad were joined; the day in 1886 when the Statue of Liberty opened; the Allied invasion of Europe on D-Day in 1944; and the March on Washington in 1963. We will discuss the efforts of the many people it took to plan and carry out each of these days, as well as the legacy they left behind.
Sandra Opdycke
Sandra Opdycke Ph.D., has published books about the women’s suffrage movement, the fluepidemic of 1918, the WPA of the 1930s, Bellevue Hospital and Jane Addams, and has co-
authored several books on social policy. She worked for a number of years at Hudson River
Psychiatric Center, and later taught American History and Urban History at Bard, Vassar and
Marist Colleges. She now teaches frequently at the Marist Center for Lifetime Studies and the
Vassar Lifelong Learning Institute.