4th of July 2018 Thread.

me just sayin

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the fourth is not just a holiday for those who served in the military, it is a holiday for all Americans. America is here today because of businesses, farmers, immigrants, military and all others who came together and became united in order to forge this great nation. On this day, we all should give ourselves a pat on the back and celebrate.
 
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pc747

pc747

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Enjoy some BBQ, family, and fireworks. Be safe and drive safe.

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LoudRam

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The Story of the Fourth of July

The Declaration of Independence

We celebrate American Independence Day on the Fourth of July every year. We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation.

But July 4, 1776 wasn't the day that the Continental Congress decided to declare independence (they did that on July 2, 1776).

It wasn’t the day we started the American Revolution either (that had happened back in April 1775).

And it wasn't the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence (that was in June 1776). Or the date on which the Declaration was delivered to Great Britain (that didn't happen until November 1776). Or the date it was signed (that was August 2, 1776).


So what did happen on July 4, 1776?
The Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. They'd been working on it for a couple of days after the draft was submitted on July 2nd and finally agreed on all of the edits and changes.

July 4, 1776, became the date that was included on the Declaration of Independence, and the fancy handwritten copy that was signed in August (the copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) It’s also the date that was printed on the Dunlap Broadsides, the original printed copies of the Declaration that were circulated throughout the new nation. So when people thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was the date they remembered.

In contrast, we celebrate Constitution Day on September 17th of each year, the anniversary of the date the Constitution was signed, not the anniversary of the date it was approved. If we’d followed this same approach for the Declaration of Independence we’d being celebrating Independence Day on August 2nd of each year, the day the Declaration of Independence was signed!


How did the Fourth of July become a national holiday?
For the first 15 or 20 years after the Declaration was written, people didn’t celebrate it much on any date. It was too new and too much else was happening in the young nation. By the 1790s, a time of bitter partisan conflicts, the Declaration had become controversial. One party, the Democratic-Republicans, admired Jefferson and the Declaration. But the other party, the Federalists, thought the Declaration was too French and too anti-British, which went against their current policies.

By 1817, John Adams complained in a letter that America seemed uninterested in its past. But that would soon change.

After the War of 1812, the Federalist party began to come apart and the new parties of the 1820s and 1830s all considered themselves inheritors of Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans. Printed copies of the Declaration began to circulate again, all with the date July 4, 1776, listed at the top. The deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on July 4, 1826, may even have helped to promote the idea of July 4 as an important date to be celebrated.

Celebrations of the Fourth of July became more common as the years went on and in 1870, almost a hundred years after the Declaration was written, Congress first declared July 4 to be a national holiday as part of a bill to officially recognize several holidays, including Christmas. Further legislation about national holidays, including July 4, was passed in 1939 and 1941.

www.constitutionfacts.com/us-declaration-of-independence/fourth-of-july/
 

JandN2639

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Thanks! Very interesting!

Our actual independence didn't come until after the War of 1812. Only then did Great Britain finally recognize we weren't a colony anymore.


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me just sayin

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Thanks! Very interesting!

Our actual independence didn't come until after the War of 1812. Only then did Great Britain finally recognize we weren't a colony anymore.


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that was only in the minds of the British :) it is sometimes hard to give ideas up.
 

liftedplane

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that was only in the minds of the British :) it is sometimes hard to give ideas up.

My sisters husband jokingly called me an ungrateful colonist... I can't remember my response but it was still really amusing. There are still brits that are salty about the entire situation :p
 

Sajo

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I just learned about this at work this morning. Our company helps sponsor the Home Of The Brave program. I never heard of it before today. If you want to help homeless Vets you can buy a blanket for $10, an honor pack for $25, or both. They are then shipped to a VA facility to be handed out to Vets in need. You can specify which State you would like it shipped to, or let them decide which facility. I figured I would share here.

Home of the Brave
 
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