When I volunteered to write an article on the Fourth of July, I was thrilled. I am a big history buff and immediately thought that this was going to be a great opportunity to write a short story on one of our nation’s biggest and most celebrated holidays. So, when I started writing, the historical facts were flowing and it was going great but something was missing. I decided that I would ask my friends and neighbors why they thought we celebrated the Fourth of July. So, I went down to my local grocery store and went into reporter mode. I didn’t
The United States actually declared independence from England on July 2, 1776. The Declaration was published in newspapers on July 4. Only two men, Charles Thompson, and John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The other 54 signed it throughout the next month. The average age of the signers of the Declaration was 45.
Americans will eat 150,000,000 hot dogs on the 4th of July. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence on a laptop. It was a wooden writing desk that fit over his lap. In 1778, George Washington helped his soldiers celebrate Independence Day by giving them a double ration of rum. The tradition of celebrating the Fourth with fireworks dates back to 1777. Americans spend over $1B on fireworks each 4th of July.
On the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson died at the age of 82. His friend, John Adams died at the age of 90. His last words were “Thomas Jefferson still survives.” He was mistaken. Jefferson died five hours earlier.
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Aging Times Magazine | July 2021
want to be creepy but I needed some true opinions for the story so I began approaching people that looked familiar with my rehearsed “Excuse me. I don’t mean to bother you but I’m writing an article on the Fourth of July. Why do you think we celebrate this holiday?” What I found out was amazing, alarming, and entertaining. Many people were pretty close and said it was a celebration of America winning the Revolutionary War. Others got into the deep history of the holiday. Some said it was to celebrate the day George Washington beat the redcoats. Others said it was a day to get together with friends, bar-b-que, and light off fireworks. Someone even thought it was a “made up” day so the stores could sell food and fireworks. But thankfully, most people said that it was to celebrate the birth of the United States. I picked up some groceries and headed home with a clear mission in my head. I decided that I was going to try to explain why we really celebrated the Fourth of July. We all know the story of the Mayflower and the Pilgrims and why the early settlers of the New World back in the 1600s and early 1700s came here. Some came for religious freedom. Some came for adventure. Some came for a new and better life. We also know that the countries where many of these people came from wanted to colonize the land and expand their empires. Two of these countries were England and France. Throughout the early, to mid-1700s England and France were in a race to become the most powerful country in the world and particularly in North America. So much so, that they went to war. After England won the French and Indian War in 1763, they became the dominant European power in the New World. Unfortunately for the people that helped them win, their colonists, this victory came at a hefty price. From 1763 to 1775, England tightened its’ grip on their colonists by imposing unfair taxes and laws on them without allowing them to be represented in Parliament. Tensions rose and by 1775, some but not all of the colonists wanted to be free from England’s rule. Hostilities soon broke out.
