Need some buzzkill? The Continental Congress declared independence on July 2nd and most of them signed the declaration on August 2nd. If anyone rang the Liberty Bell, no one noted it at the time, and there is no proof that Betsy Ross ever lived in the Betsy Ross house, nor that she had anything to do with sewing the first American flag. And if you believe that story about George Washington and the cherry tree, I’ve got a story for you about George W. Bush and WMD.
In other news, fireworks injure a lot more people than they kill.
CPSC staff received reports of four fireworks-related deaths during 2011. In the first incident, a 31-year-old male died of substantial head and chest trauma caused by an illegal 1.3G aerial firework device.1 In the second incident, a 47-year-old male perished when a 1.3G illegal 3-inch display firework device exploded in his face. In the third incident, a 41-year-old male was decapitated by an illegal firework device. A 51-year-old male died of severe head and face injuries caused by a homemade firework device in the fourth incident. CPSC staff has reports of four fireworks-related deaths in 2010. Reporting is not complete for either year, and the number of deaths for each year should be considered a minimum.
Fireworks were involved in an estimated 9,600 injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments during calendar year 2011 (95 percent confidence interval 7,600–11,600). CPSC staff estimated that there were 8,600 fireworks-related injuries during 2010. The difference is not statistically significant.
Of course, in 2009, four people died in a fireworks explosion on Ocracoke Island in North Carolina. They don’t have fireworks on the Fourth of July anymore.
Have a happy day.
There you go attacking that great patriotic American, Parson Weems.
By the way:
Restore the Fourth Amendment
Well, as long as we’re doing the Scrooge thread, here’s a classic view of the 4th from one of America’s greatest men:
Full speech here.
Thank you, Oscar!!!
A slight updating of these deathless paragraphs is in order.
Bet on it.
As accurate now as it was in 1852.
Bet on it.
Surveillance enslaves.
Bet on it.
AG
Yaaaay!!! Happy Surveillance Day!!!
Think on it.
AG
Maybe you can help me – is it the 4th of July, St. Patrick’s Day, or New Years Eve, that should be declared “Darwin Awards Day?”
It has been celebrated since 1777, yet wasn’t recognized as a holiday (unpaid) until 1870, and not a federally paid holiday until 1938. Good job, Congress!
The best and most accurate version of the Star Spangled Banner of course belongs to Jimi Hendrix. Sorry, Lady Gaga:
Here is a funny irony on this July 4th. In the 2012 General Election, our county went overwhelmingly for Mitt Romney, with the Romney/Ryan ticket getting 69% of the vote. Pretty heavy GOP territory around here. And who would you guess won first place this year for best float in the Independence Day parade?
It was our county Democratic Party.
Never saw THAT ONE coming!
The richest country on earth is celebrating ^_^ http://linkapp.me/ezA3n
I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free..
To have my Fourth Amendment rights violated on a daily basis…
To have cops kick in my door without a warrant…
To have weakened Miranda rights…
To provide ID to vote…
To have the president put me on a secret assasination list…
And of course to eat hot dogs and burgers washed down with cheap beer while the fireworks go boom
Yes, it’s the last days of the American Republic.
I hate American pseudo-beer and I can’t take the salt in hot dogs any more so, in the spirit of “live well until chained cpi forces you onto cat food”, I’m grilling bison burgers (farm raised ground Bison from Whole Foods) and washing it down with an excellent organic sangria made with Cabernet Sauvignon, mango juice and blueberry juice, also from Whole Foods. Too bad it’s a little too soon to have green peppers and tomatoes from my garden on the burger. To celebrate ethnic diversity along with the Fourth, I’m having the burgers on Telera rolls from the local Jewel. Ah! I just thought of pulling up a few Egyptian onions from the yard to put on the burgers for an international organic meal.
According to David Hackett Fischer, Betsy Ross did probably sew a flag for George Washington, but not the starts and stripes. Washington’s flag was just a blue field with a circle of thirteen stars, without the stripes. You can see it in Charles Wilson Peale’s painting of Washington after the battle of Princeton.
But the 4th of July specifically has a lot to do with Thomas Jefferson, I think. We might ask, for instance why everyone knows who wrote these words:
But practically nobody knows who wrote these words:
One reason is that Thomas Jefferson was the most influential man in the country in the first part of the 19th century and Gouverneur Morris wasn’t. So Jefferson had a lot of say in how the history of the early Republic was told, and he was intensely interested in “setting the record straight”–i.e., in ensuring that his preferred version was what got remembered.
And then you look at the three accomplishments on Jefferson’s gravestone–the Declaration of Independence, the Virginia statute for religious freedom, and the founding of the University of Virginia–and you get a good sense of how he wanted to be remembered.
Gouverneur Morris, meanwhile, was one of Jefferson’s political enemies, and Jefferson did what he could to write his enemies out of the history books.
At least ten injured at Simi Valley fireworks display mishap.