Fact of the Day: Fourth of July
The U.S. commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress in 1776 and celebrates this day as the nation's birthday. The marking of the first days of independence during the summer of 1776 actually took the form in many towns of a mock funeral for the king, whose "death" symbolized the end of monarchy and tyranny and the rebirth of liberty. Three of the first five presidents died on the Fourth of July: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson (who both died on July 4, 1846) and James Monroe who died on July 4, 1831.
Events
1776 - The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.
1802 - The United States Military Academy officially opened at West Point, NewYork.
1817 - Construction began on the Erie Canal, to connect Lake Erie and the Hudson River.
1832 - "America", written by Dr Samuel Francis Smith, was sung in public for the first time, at the Park Street Church in Boston.
1845 - Henry David Thoreau began his two-year simple living experiment at Walden Pond, near Concord, MA.
1848 - The Communist Manifesto was published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
1894 - After seizing power, Judge Stanford B. Dole declared Hawaii a republic.
1946 - The United States granted the Philippine Islands their independence.
1955 - "The Soupy Sales Show" premiered on TV.
1959 - America's 49-star flag, honoring Alaskan statehood, was officially unfurled.
1960 - The 50-star flag, to include Hawaii, makes its debut, in Philadelphia.
1966 - President Lyndon Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act.
1970 - Casey Kasem hosted radio's "American Top 40" for the first time.
1997 - NASA's Mars Pathfinder became the first US spacecraft to land on Mars in more than two decades.
Births
1804 - Nathaniel Hawthorne, US author.
1826 - Stephen Foster, songwriter.
1872 - Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the US (1923-1929.
1883 - Rube (Reuben Lucius) Goldberg, cartoonist.
1900 - Louis Armstrong, US jazz trumpeter and singer.
1911 - Mitch Miller, musician, record company executive, producer, arranger.
1918 - Ann Landers (Esther Pauline Friedman) and Abigail Van Buren (Pauline Esther Friedman), advice columnists.
1927 - Neil (Marvin) Simon, award-winning playwright.