4th of July

A taste of independence

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

The first public recognition of American independence was in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776, just a few days after Congress declared the nation’s independence from Great Britain. The Liberty Bell sounded from the tower of Independence Hall, summoning people to the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence by Colonel John Nixon. Even though Congress had adopted the Declaration on July 4, it was not publicly announced until July 8, after the document came back from the printer.

First celebration

The first annual commemoration of American independence occurred on July 4, 1777, in Philadelphia while Americans were still at war with the British, fighting to hold onto the liberty they had declared for themselves a year earlier.

More firsts on the Fourth

The first public Fourth of July event at the White House occurred in 1804, when Thomas Jefferson was president.
The first Independence Day celebration west of the Mississippi also occurred during Jefferson’s presidency; it took place at Independence Creek and was celebrated by Lewis and Clark in 1805 while they were exploring the territory Jefferson had acquired from France with the Louisiana Purchase.
In 1778, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin went to Paris in an effort to gain French support for the United States in its war of independence against Great Britain. On July 4, they hosted the first American Independence Day celebration in Europe, with a dinner for “the American Gentlemen and ladies, in and about Paris,” according to an excerpt from the “Diary and Autobiography of John Adams.”

It’s a sign

The 56 patriots who signed the Declaration of Independence did not place their names on the document on July 4, 1776, nor did they all sign at the same time. The official signing event was on August 2, 1776, when 50 of the men signed it. The others signed at various times over the next few months.

Patriotism or treason?

The names of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence were not made public right away in an effort to protect the signers in case things went badly for the new nation. If the cause of independence had failed, their signatures on the Declaration would have marked them as traitors to Great Britain. According to British law at the time, that act of treason would have cost them their lives.

Nation building

On July 4, 1848, President James Madison, accompanied by First Lady Dolly Madison and a number of other VIPs, oversaw the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument. Three years later, on July 4, 1851, President Millard Fillmore took part in laying the cornerstone of the new Capitol Building.

Red, white and green?

Red, white and blue have not always been the colors traditionally associated with Independence Day celebrations. In 1778, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where the army was camped, General George Washington directed his soldiers to place “green boughs” in their hats to celebrate the day.
 He also issued the troops a double allowance of rum and ordered an artillery salute.

Grand old flag

On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the design for an American flag.

 “Resolved: that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; 

that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

More stars were added to the flag as new states joined the union. Arizona became the 

48th star in 1912, and the 48-star flag would continue to wave for 47 years, 

until Alaska and Hawaii became states in 1959. 

The new flag, with 50 stars, was flown for the first time on July 4 of that year.

Independent states

In 1781, Massachusetts became the first state to make July 4 an official state holiday.
This occurred several months before the decisive American victory at Yorktown, Massachusetts,
where British General Lord Cornwallis surrendered his army, which effectively brought a triumphant conclusion to the American Revolution.

Independence Day

Americans began celebrating the Fourth of July as the anniversary of their national independence right away, but the term “Independence Day” was not used to describe the holiday until 1791.

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