INDEPENDENCE DAY — Declaration of Independence; 4th of July celebrations
4TH OF JULY
Here are some things you may or may not know about the Declaration of Independence, courtesy of constitutionalfacts.com One of the most w widely independence is that it was signed on July 4, 1776. In fact, independence was formally declared on July 2, 1776.
On July 4, 1776, Congress approved the final text of the Declaration. It wasn’t signed until August 2, 1776. When writing the first draft of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson primarily drew upon two sources: his own draft of a preamble to the Virginia Constitution and George Mason’s draft of Virginia’s Declaration of Rights.
Jefferson changed the working from The Pursuit of Property to the Pursuit of happiness. The only men who signed it on July 4th were John Hancock and Charles Thompson. Nine of the signers of the Declaration died before the American Revolution ended in 1783.
The first public reading of the Declaration took place on July 8, 1776, in Philadelphia. A fictional story written in the 1840s suggested that the bell now known as Liberty Bell was run that day to bring the people together. However, historians doubt that this happened. The steeple that housed the bell was in very bad condition at the time and the bell was probably unusable.
The only signer of the Declaration of Independence to survive beyond the 50th anniversary of the signing was Charles Carroll of Maryland. Carroll died in 1832 when he was 95 years old. The youngest signer was South Carolina’s Edward Rutledge, 26 years old and the oldest was Benjamin Franklin at 70 years old.
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died exactly fifty years later on July 4, 1826, within hours of each other.
Several countries have used the Declaration of Independence as a beacon in their own struggles for freedom. These count cries include France, Greece, Poland, Russia and many countries in South America. Like a boss!
The song Yankee Doodle was originally sung prior to the Revolution by British military officers in mockery of the unorganized and buckskin-wearing Yankees. The Star Spangled Banner, written of course by Francis Scott Key, was originally a poem stemming from his observations in 1814 concerning the British attack on Baltimore’s Ft. McHenry during the War of 1812. It was later put to music, though not decreed the official national anthem until 1931.
Happy birthday, Clavin College, I’ll try and get to that tomorrow. In 1776, there were about 2.5 million people, versus America’s current population of 330 million. .
I could go on and on, but we’re going to run out of time. Happy 4th of July7 everyone.
Macy’s 4th of July fireworks, more than 40,000 shells are launched. 12,000 pounds of black powder are used to launch the shells, as many as 1,000 shells are launched per second, and shells range in size from 1 inch to 10 inches in diameter and weigh up to 35 lbs. each.
Elsewhere for the 4th of July, 63% attend a fireworks display, 66% display American flags, Americans will eat 150 million hot dogs, 76% get together with family. 80% attend a bbq picnic or cookout, 26% set off their own fireworks, which is illegal in 4 states. 1/3 of all hot dogs produced in the US come3 from Iowa.