HAPPY 4TH OF JULY
July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved and signed and symbolizes our independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. It has been declared a federal holiday and is largely celebrated with barbeques, parades, baseball, and fireworks.
However, did you know….
- In July 1776, there were only 2.5 million people living in the newly independent nation; today there are 316.2 million people.
- There were 56 signers to the Declaration of Independence; average age of the signers was 45; Presidents John Adams & Thomas Jefferson (both signers of the Declaration) also died on the fourth within hours of each other in 1826.
- A salute of one gun for each state in the United States is fired on Independence Day at noon by any capable military base and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia is ‘tapped’, not rung, 13 times in honor of the original thirteen colonies
- 97% of our fireworks & 87.5% of our U.S. flags are imported from China
- 31 towns nationwide have the word ‘Liberty’ in their names; 11 places have ‘Independence’; 5 towns use the name ‘Freedom’; 1 place is named ‘Patriot’; AND 5 towns have ‘America’ in their names.
- The 4th of July was not declared an official holiday until 1941.
- Benjamin Franklin proposed the ‘turkey’ as the national bird but was overruled by John Adams & Thomas Jefferson, who both wanted the ‘bald eagle’. Ben Franklin felt the bald eagle represented bad moral character and did not get his living honestly so he was quite displeased with that choice.
- In 2003, there were 33.5 million foreign born residents in the United States, accounting for 11.7% of the nation’s total population; with 1 in 3 naturalized U.S. citizens.
Now go on and enjoy your day eating a few of the 150 million hot dogs consumed on this day!
