Celebrate the birthday of the father of the American dictionary, Noah Webster. Noah Webster was born on October 16, 1758, in Connecticut. Believing that American students should not have to use British textbooks, he wrote A Grammatical Institute of English Language, which became the main source for spelling and grammar in the United States. He then began work on the first American dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language, which contained nearly 70,000 words by the time it was completed in 1828. He began his work on the project at the age of 43 and it took him more than 25 years to complete the first edition. Each month, the award-winning websites, apps, and social media channels of Merriam-Webster offer guidance to tens of millions of visitors. (https://ncte.org/blog/2021/10/get-ready-national-dictionary-day/)