4th Of July History

Reporter:Larry West is a freelance writer in the Pacific Northwest and a frequent contributor to MSN.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who had been leaders in the American Revolution and U.S. presidents as well as personal friends and political adversaries throughout much of their long lives, died on the same day, July 4, 1826. Their deaths came exactly 50 years after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, which Jefferson had drafted and both men signed.

As Adams was near death on the evening of July 4, 1826, his last words were reported to be, “Thomas Jefferson still survives.” Sadly, Adams was mistaken. Jefferson had died approximately five hours earlier.

The death of James Monroe

Like Adams and Jefferson before him, James Monroe died on Independence Day. Monroe died on July 4, 1831, just five years after Adams and Jefferson, the third U.S. president to die on the nation’s birthday.

Monroe was the fifth president of the United States and was the last U.S. president who was considered one of the nation’s Founding Fathers, because of his service as an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.

Population explosion

In July 1776, there were approximately 2.5 million people living in the newly independent United States of America, roughly the same number of people who currently live in Brooklyn, New York.