Happy Independence Day

"Fireworks" Woodstown, NJ (53 seconds)
Video Copyright July 5, 2008 by Vanessa V. Kilmer

Independence was actually approved on July 2nd, 1776.

Most historians believe the Declaration of Independence was actually signed on August 2, 1776, not on July 4, 1776.

Three presidents died on July 4: John Adams (2) and Thomas Jefferson (3) both in 1826 and James Monroe (5) in 1831. Adams and Jefferson were the only signers of the Declaration of Independence to become presidents. They died on the same day.

July 4th became an unpaid Federal holiday in 1870.

It became a paid Federal holiday in 1938.

The English word picnic first appeared in print in 1748.

The Chinese invented fireworks. They were first documented in the 7th century.

The word barbecue comes from the Taino people of the Caribbean and means "sacred fire pit."

The earliest baseball like games were mentioned in a French manuscript in 1344. "Base-ball" is first mentioned in Britain in 1744.