The July Fourth is celebrated as the American Independence Day. This year it will be the 247th Independence Day for Americans. The day would be celebrated with parades, cookouts, cold beer, and of course, fireworks
On July 4, Americans gather to commemorate the country’s birthday and Independence Day. The majority of Americans barbeque in their backyards, on beaches, or in parks on this day. Some people participate in marches or parades and watch the fireworks, which are frequently set off around dusk. With information, facts, and everything else you need to know about Independence Day, we begin the celebrations. Happy Fourth of July!
American Independence Day History
Even though the majority of us had already learned about this historical period at school, as the time for a break or the end of the day drew near, we probably weren’t paying close attention. But if we don’t understand how we obtained our freedoms—and, more significantly, how perilously close we came to losing them—we can’t truly appreciate them. There are far more historical twists and turns in the annals of America’s freedom than we can possibly cover here. But at least we can start you off with the fundamentals.
America wasn’t actually a country of “united states” in the 1700s. There were thirteen different colonies in its place. King George III of Great Britain and the British Parliament imposed a series of harsh levies and restrictions on the colonies between 1763 and 1773, which increased the pressure on them. The British crown intended to profit from excessive tariffs on luxury items like tea and sugar, with no consideration for the struggles of the colonists. By 1764, the cry of outrage “Taxation without representation is tyranny” had spread throughout the colonies.
King George increased his use of force as the colonists rebelled more and more. Imagine if hostile intruders could not only access your home but also demand that you provide them with food and shelter. This was made possible by the Quartering Act of 1765 for British soldiers.
But the colonists’ backs were finally broken by the Stamp Act of 1765. This statute, which was approved by Parliament in March, levied a fee on all printed materials, including playing cards, legal documents, and even newspapers and ship papers. British ships arrived in Boston Harbour as a show of power in the fall of 1768 as colonial complaints grew louder and brasher. Because of the British Empire’s extensive influence, keep in mind that the British Navy once ruled the world’s oceans.
On March 5, 1770, a street brawl between a group of colonists and British soldiers in Boston Harbour brought tensions to a head. Crispus Attucks, 47, was shot by the troops, becoming the first American and Black victim of the Boston Massacre together with three other colonists.
The Boston Tea Party, which gave rise to the Tea Party Republicans of today, started in 1773 when colonists posing as Mohican Indians hijacked a British ship and dumped all the tea overboard to avoid paying taxes. The Revolutionary War began on April 19, 1775, in the towns of Lexington and Concord when a militia of patriots engaged British forces after years of pressure. America’s independence came at a perfect time.
Only a small number of colonists, who were viewed as fanatics, desired complete independence from Great Britain when the Revolutionary War’s initial clashes broke out in April 1775.
However, by the middle of the next year, a large number of colonists had begun to lean more in favor of independence due to growing antipathy towards Britain and the propagation of revolutionary ideas like those expressed in Thomas Paine’s best-selling treatise “Common Sense,” which was first published in early 1776.
Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, introduced a motion calling for the independence of the colonies during a meeting of the Continental Congress on June 7, 1776, at the Pennsylvania State House (later known as Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. A five-person committee, consisting of Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and Robert R. Livingston of New York, was appointed by Congress to draught a formal statement justifying the departure from Great Britain despite the fact that the vote on Lee’s resolution was postponed due to the contentious discussion.
The Continental Congress approved Lee’s proposal for independence on July 2, 1776, with a vote that was essentially unanimous. On July 4, 1776, it formally adopted the Declaration of Independence, which was mostly authored by Thomas Jefferson. The process of writing the Declaration of Independence was, in the end, acrimonious. Thomas Jefferson, who was tasked with putting the document together after considerable discussion about what to include and what to omit, envisioned a country where “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” crystallized the fundamental idea of being an American. The manifesto proclaimed the 13 American colonies’ freedom from Britain and asserted their rights as free men, stating that they were now a single, free, and independent state and no longer subject (and submissive) to King George III of Britain.
The second of July “will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival,” John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail. The event should involve “Pomp and Parade…Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent.”
The only two signatories of the Declaration of Independence who went on to become president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both passed away on the same day, July 4, 1826, which happened to be the 50th anniversary of the Declaration. James Monroe, another elected Founding Father who was not a signer of the Declaration of Independence, passed away on July 4, 1831, making him the third President to pass away on the anniversary of Independence. Calvin Coolidge was the only president of the United States to have been born on July 4th.
