Quoteable

"Thus may the 4th of July, that glorious and ever memorable day, be celebrated through America, by the sons of freedom, from age to age till time shall be no more. Amen and Amen."

-Virginia Gazette on July 18th, 1776

Why July 4th?

The First Continental Congress convened in 1774, and the Second Continental Congress in 1775. During the Second Congress, Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution to declare the 13 colonies free from British rule. The colonies were being forced to pay taxes without having representation in the British Parliament. This was known as "Taxation without Representation." On June 11, 1776, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. The Congress formed a committee whose purpose was to draft a document that would officially dissolve ties with Great Britain.

The final draft of the Declaration of Independence was officially adopted on July 4, 1776 and the first public readings of it were held in Philadelphia's Independence Square on July 8, 1776. On July 4, 1777, also in Philadelphia, Congress was adjourned and Independence Day was celebrated with bells, bonfires and fireworks. In 1826, Thomas Jefferson was invited to participate in the 50th anniversary celebration of the Declaration of Independence. Due to illness, Jefferson had to decline, but he wrote this of the document:

May it be to the world, what I believe it will be ... the signal of arousing men to burst the chains ... and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form, which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. ... For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.

Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, fifty years after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Congress officially declared the Fourth of July a national holiday in 1941.

Fun Facts

56.........................the number of people who signed the Declaration of Independence

1781....................the year Thomas McKean was the last person to sign it

2.5 million...........number of people living in the colonies in 1776

296.5 million......number of people now living in America

50 %....is the chance that if you have a potato at your July 4th barbeque, it came from Idaho or Washington

50%...........the percentage of the nation's spuds are produced in Idaho and Washington

1890..........the year Idaho officially became a state, on July 3rd