Happy Birthday America! Fun facts about July 4th.

America’s 237th Independence Day is almost here and even though this is by no means my first time in the States on this glorious day it does bring me a lot of excitement since this time I will be seeing someone special for me, my Marine.  

While preparing to see my Marine I wondered:  how much do I really know about what we are celebrating?

With the Declaration of Independence the 13 colonies embarked on the road to freedom as a sovereign nation.   Here I share with you some if not fun, unusual facts about this important date:

• The major objection to being ruled by Britain was taxation without representation. The colonists had no say in the decisions of English Parliament.

• The Liberty Bell was rung not on July 4, 1776, but on July 8, 1776, from the tower of Independence Hall summoning citizens to gather for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence by Colonel John Nixon. When it was rung in honor of George Washington’s birthday in 1846, it cracked irreparably. 
• Fireworks are believed to have developed out of military rockets. In the European Middle Ages, the military pressed fireworks experts into service to conduct celebrations of victory and peace.
• The 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence did not sign at the same time, nor did they sign on July 4, 1776. The official event occurred on August 2, 1776, when 50 men signed it.  The last signature on the Declaration of Independence, by Thomas McKean of Delaware, wasn’t placed on the document until long after the original Declaration of Independence was signed, in January, 1777. 
• The names of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were withheld from the public for more than six months to protect the signers. If independence had not been achieved, the treasonable act of the signers would have, by law, resulted in their deaths.
•  The melody for "The Star-Spangled Banner" was taken from “To Anacreon in Heaven,” a drinking song of a London society. Click here to listen to the anthem played by the US Army Bands.
• The English word "barbecue" came from the Arawak Indians of the Caribbean. The barbacoa was a grating of green wood upon which strips of meat were placed to cook or to dry over a slow fire.

• Upon her husband’s death in 1776, Betsy Ross took over the family upholstering business. It was there where George Washington asked Ross to design and make a flag for the new nation.
• The first unofficial flag of the United States was hoisted at Prospect Hill in Charlestown in Massachusetts on January 1, 1776, and was called the Continental Colours or, incorrectly, as the Grand Union Flag.
• June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress, looking to promote national pride and unity, adopted the national flag. “Resolved: that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
• The tablet held by in the Statue of Liberty's left hand bears the date July 4, 1776, but the statue itself was presented to the U.S. by France on July 4, 1884. It was dedicated two years later, on October 28, 1886, by President Grover Cleveland.
• The origin of Uncle Sam probably began in 1812, when Samuel Wilson was a meat packer who provided meat to the US Army. The meat shipments were stamped with the initials U.S. Someone joked that the initials stood for “Uncle Sam”. This joke eventually led to the idea of Uncle Sam symbolizing the United States government.
•  In 1941, Congress declared 4th of July a federal legal holiday. It is one of the few federal holidays that have not been moved to the nearest Friday or Monday.

A twist  for me is that this time I will be able to celebrate it the American way! so I'm making sure I pack my sun lotion and get ready for barbecues and beverages with my boyfriend to commemorate the birth of America and the approval of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776!