On July 4th …

• 1776, in , while the Continental Congress is debating whether to accept the Declaration of Independence, its author, Thomas Jefferson, slips out of the proceedings to do some shopping. • 1777, in Philadelphia, all ships of the little United States Navy now in Philadelphia line up in the . As President John Hancock and several other members of the Continental Congress board the warship Delaware, they are saluted with 13 guns. Later, all members of Congress convene for a one-year-old’s birthday party featuring entertainment by a Hessian army band, which was captured at Trenton. • 1778, members of the Continental Congress gather to celebrate in Philadelphia’s City Tavern—13 toasts and music are featured. Over at Brunswick Landing in New Jersey, the Continental Army is served double rations of rum and told by General Washington to ‘adorn your hats with green-bough and to make the best appearance possible.’ The Continental Army fires three rounds and gives three cheers, each time shouting, ‘Perpetual and Undisturbed Independence to the United States of America’—a big step up from the traditional ‘hip, hip, hurrah!’ • 1783, during commencement ceremonies at the University of , is given the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. Meanwhile, Charleston, South Carolina is unable to join the rest of the nation’s communities in ringing bells, because the British took all of the town’s bells during the Revolution. And for the first time, Boston celebrates July Fourth, with ‘the joy of the day’ announced by ‘the ringing of bells and the discharge of cannon.’ • 1788, at sunrise in Philadelphia, its windy streets and wharves are alive with hundreds of flags and pennants, and residents are greeted by the pealing of bells and the boom of cannon from the ship Rising Sun. Then, just several hours later, a parade of 5,000 heads down Third Street. It features 12 axmen in white frocks (representing pioneers), a company of dragoons, and John Nixon, the patriot who gave the Declaration of Independence its first public reading at the State House in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776. • 1800, Daniel Webster, an 18-year-old Dartmouth College student, gives his first Fourth of July oration. • 1802, West Point opens. • 1804, Joseph Fields, who is accompanying explorers William Clark and Meriwether Lewis up the Missouri River, is suddenly bit by a snake. Later in the day, Lewis and Clark name a stream near Atchison, Kansas, ‘Independence Creek,’ a name it still bears. • 1817, Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York turns the first sod to launch the digging of the Erie Canal. • 1818, Charles Carroll, ‘the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence,’ turns the first sod for construction of the nation’s first railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. ‘I consider this among the most important acts of my life, second only to that of signing the Declaration of Independence, if, indeed, second to that.’ • 1820, the annual celebrations in Baltimore feature Charles Carroll, still ‘the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence.’ • 1824, in New Haven, Connecticut, the Reverend Leonard Bacon of Center Church, delivers a sermon on African colonization—the first in what was to be a long series of Fourth of July colonization sermons supporting the effort to establish a home for free blacks in Liberia, Africa.

© 2000 – 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved. • 1825, the ladies of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in celebration of Independence Day, invite the town’s gentlemen to an evening tea party in a bower near the village. • 1829, members of the Springfield, Massachusetts Colonization Society meet at Dr. Osgood’s to hear an address on colonization and to pray, sing some hymns, and collect $81 to assist the Liberian colonists. • 1830, it’s Sunday, so this year’s annual celebration—which features 60 Revolutionary War veterans riding in a special 36-foot-long carriage drawn by 8 horses—is moved to the next day, July 5. • 1831, President James Monroe dies in New York City, making him the third of the nation’s first five Presidents to die on July 4th (the others being George Washington and John Adams). Bells toll across the country as the nation mourns one of its last Revolutionary War heroes. Although Monroe was impoverished due to the burdens of public service, plans for his funeral procession promise that it will be the grandest ever seen in the city of New York. • 1833, in Elyria, Ohio, 400 citizens gather to hear a debate between Immediate Abolitionists and advocates of the American Colonization Society. • 1834, members of the New York Anti-Slavery Society meet in the morning to hold integrated July Fourth exercises in the Chatham Street Chapel, but are disrupted by hecklers. When they meet again on July 7, their efforts are interrupted by a white mob. A week of rioting follows—New York City’s worst riots up to that time. • 1835, the USS Constitution, ‘Old Ironsides,’ the pride of the United States Navy, stops by New York harbor and fires a salute from its many mighty cannon. • 1837, in Troy, Wisconsin, an early settler reports in on their July Fourth celebration: ‘There are only three of us in town and one gun, but we fired the gun.’ • 1839, in Newburgh, New York, this year’s bash boasts eight Revolutionary War veterans, the youngest, now age 74, fought at age 15 in the Battle of Yorktown. The others are in or near their 90s. • 1847, in Indianapolis, Indiana, a Revolutionary War soldier is introduced and the holiday crowd is told to look carefully, for this might be ‘the last hero of the struggle for Independence you will ever see.’ • 1850, the cornerstone of the Washington Monument is laid in the nation’s capital, after which President Zachary Taylor rushes back to the White House, drinks some milk, eats a bowl of ripe cherries, gets stomach cramps, and dies five days later from food poisoning. • 1851, Daniel Webster, then secretary of state, gives his last Fourth of July oration at the cornerstone- laying ceremonies for the expansion of the Capitol building. • 1855, Walt Whitman publishes, at his own expense, the volume of poems Leaves of Grass. • 1858, Cleveland, Ohio includes a 98-year-old Revolutionary War veteran in the day’s festivities. • 1860, New Yorkers enjoy the day at the sideshow exhibits over at Barnum’s American Museum, or stop by Adam’s California Menagerie (featuring ‘The great living sea lion, singing bears, climbing bears, dancing bears, vaulting bears, bears that turn summersets!’). Other New Yorkers watch a parade of 7,000 soldiers march past City Hall. • 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi—the South’s last major post on the Mississippi River—surrenders to the Union forces. President Lincoln notes, ‘The father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea.’ On this same day, a battle in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania comes to devastating closure for the South. Most Northerners believe that these two great victories on one day are a clear indication of divine favor, and jump to the conclusion that the war will be over by this time next year. • 1864, at ten a.m., a party of freedmen take over Jefferson Davis’s empty plantation home in Mississippi for the day, enjoying songs, food, and 13 toasts! (As President of the Confederacy, Davis is living in Richmond with his family.)

© 2000 – 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved. • 1865, just months after General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, the North celebrates the Fourth with more enthusiasm than ever before. General Grant himself presents New York’s governor with the battle flags of 200 New York regiments, the cornerstone is being laid for the Soldier’s Monument in Gettysburg, and every village and city is filled with bands, floats, dances, marches, and more! • 1866, in a great conflagration ignited by the careless use of fireworks, Portland, Maine is burning to the ground. • 1875, the mayor of Cincinnati bans the shooting of firecrackers and pistols in the street, but his instructions are ignored—even by the police! • 1876, at the country’s Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Alexander Graham Bell introduces the telephone. • 1884, France presents the Statue of Liberty to the United States. • 1895, ‘America the Beautiful,’ a poem by Katherine Lee Bates, a Wellesley College professor, is published in the Congregationalist. • 1888, on the battlefield at Gettysburg, a great meeting of former soldiers from both the Union and Confederate Armies is held. • 1898, in the midst of the Spanish-American War, Admiral Sampson cables from Cuba, where his troops have destroyed the Spanish squadron without the loss of a single ship. Admiral Sampson notes, ‘The fleet under my command offers the nation as a Fourth of July present the whole of Cervera’s fleet.’ • 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt inaugurates the new Pacific cable via Hawaii by sending a message to the Philippines. In Pecos, Texas the first rodeo with prizes is held. • 1909, as part of the annual Bristol, Rhode Island celebration, Professor Felix Porter’s announced balloon ascension and parachute drop come to an embarrassing conclusion when his balloon leaves the ground without him. • 1918, with so many American soldiers stationed on British soil, or fighting side by side with English forces on the European continent, July Fourth is celebrated for the first time in England. • 1919, the greatest parade ever to march down New York’s Fifth Avenue is mounted to celebrate the nation’s victorious efforts in World War I. • 1935, for just five dollars, kids are ordering the ‘Children’s Assortment,’ from the American Fireworks Distributing Company. Included are 4 boxes of sparklers, 12 Python Black Snakes, 12 pounds of various- sized firecrackers, a Catherine wheel, firepots, and Roman candles—a total of 56 really dangerous things! • 1939, in New York City, baseball great Lou Gehrig retires. Diagnosed with a fatal neurological disorder, the ‘Iron Horse’ bids farewell to his fans at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939. To the adoring crowd he declares, ‘I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.’ • 1944, General Omar Bradley, in celebration of July Fourth, has every artillery piece along the entire European front fixed on a target…and then he orders them fired at precisely noon. • 1945, Vicksburg, Mississippi celebrates July Fourth for the first time in over 80 years, so angry have Vicksburgers been about what happened in 1863 (see). The healing powers of World War II patriotism have worked their magic. • 1951, Philadelphia celebrates the 175th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Oak seedlings, which were planted in soil brought in from Revolutionary battlegrounds and mixed with that of the city’s Independence Square, are sent to the governors of all 48 states as ‘symbols of new life springing from earth consecrated by the patriots of 1776.’ • 1954, in Addis Ababa, Africa, hundreds of Americans sing national songs, enjoy fireworks, and eat lots of hot dogs.

© 2000 – 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved. • 1959, the 49-star flag is raised for the first time for the new state of Alaska—the first change in the nation’s ensign since 1912. There are so many requests for flags flown over the Capitol on this day, that ‘from midnight, through the dawn’s early light, eight arm-weary Capitol guards raise and lower 1,072 new 49-star flags.’ • 1960, the 50th star added to the American flag as a symbol of Hawaii’s statehood. In the Batterseas Pleasure Garden of London, 80,000 American service men and their families enjoy the Fourth of July with a picnic of hot dogs and doughnuts, and a day-long beauty contest. • 1970, the ‘silent majority’ turns out for a massive ‘Honor America Day’ celebration at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., featuring the Reverend Billy Graham. • 1986, hundreds of Elvis Presley imitators perform in an official, sanctioned celebration of the nation’s unveiling of the refurbished Statue of Liberty.

© 2000 – 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.